Cedar Creek and the Bell Cousins

Yesterday, October 19th, 2014, marked the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Cedar Creek. There was at least one woman who fought in the original battle:  Mary Bell.  There would have been two except Molly Bell had been sent off on duty.  Some accounts claim the Bells were sisters supposedly from Pulaski County, Virginia.  Others say they were cousins.  Regardless, they enlisted together in an unidentified cavalry unit for three months as "Tom Parker" (Mary) and "Bob Morgan" (Molly).  The girls were captured with their unit but rescued by John Hunt Morgan.  They then enlisted in the 36th Virginia Infantry and confided their true identities to their commanding officer who kept their secret. But the beginning of the end of the girls' service came when the officer was allegedly captured at Cedar Creek. Thinking their new commanding officer would be as receptive as their previous one, the Bells informed him of their ruse. However he was not as accommodating as his predecessor and ended up turning the girls over to Jubal Early who promptly sent them to Richmond where they were incarcerated at Castle Thunder for several weeks before being sent home still wearing their uniforms.  At the time of their arrest, Mary was 24 and Molly 17.

While in the service, Molly is reported to have killed three Yankees while on picket and was promoted to corporal as a result.  She was also slightly wounded in the arm by a shell at some point in the war.  The girls' sacrifice and devotion to duty made an impression on their male comrades who referred to them as "valiant soldiers." a view that was not held by Jubal Early, however, who referred to them as mere "camp followers." The Richmond Examiner from October 31st, 1864, echoed the general's derogatory label for the girls, referring to them as "whores of Babylon" and the source of the Early's failure in the Shenandoah Valley.

As a parting shot during their interview with General Early, the Bells informed him there were six other women serving as soldiers in his command but refused to identify them.  


 (Other source: Richmond Dispatch, October 31st, 1864)