Known but to God....
One of the things that has always fascinated me was the ability of women to masquarade as men during the Civil War. The prevailing victorian attitudes on personal privacy and the number of beardless teenage boys in ranks allowed women to serve and fight with many combat units on both sides. Usually they were only discovered when wounded or killed. Hundreds of cases are documented, and there may be thousands who served bravely.Two Confederate female casualties (one dead, one seriously wounded) were discovered after the Battle of Gettysburg, July 2-3, 1863. As confirmed in the Army Official Records of the war, the body of an unidentified female Confederate soldier was discovered by a burial detail near the stone wall at the angle on Cemetery Ridge. She had been a participant in Pickett's famous charge. An author reporting on Pickett's charge at Gettysburg noted, "The fact that her body was found in such an advanced spot is testimony to her bravery. However, except for an unverified story that the woman had enlisted in a Virginia regiment with her husband and was killed carrying the colors during the charge, Hays' notation [in the Official Records] is the extent of acknowledgment she received for having given her life for her country."
I've known of this woman since I was a boy. Her story is one of the great unknowables from those terrible times.Additional Resources: Known but to God: Women in the Civil War Uncommon Soldiers: Women During the Civil War Women and the Civil War
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