Florena Budwin

 Today, marks the 150th anniversary of the death of Florena Budwin. Residents of Philadelphia, she and her husband, John, enlisted in an unknown unit. One account says he was killed in an engagement in South Carolina. Another says that they were both captured in South Carolina and sent to Andersonville where her alleged husband, a captain, was said to have been killed by a guard. She remained at Andersonville until September 1864, when she was sent with a group of other prisoners to Florence, South Carolina, in the wake of Sherman's operations in close proximity to Andersonville. While at Florence, she contracted pneumonia and died January 25th, 1865, at the age of 21. She lies in a mass grave in section D and is believed to be the first woman buried in a national cemetery.  However, this not entirely correct. She is the first woman to be buried under her entire feminine name in a national cemetery, and it is more than likely an alias. See below. However, Chalmette National Cemetery was established a year before Florence and serves as the resting place of Rosetta Wakeman who was buried over six months before Budwin. But Wakeman is buried under her male alias, “Lyons Wakeman,” whereas Budwin’s feminine name appears on her headstone. Other female soldiers died before Budwin and removed to national cemeteries established after Florence.

Florena is the only one in section D with a marked grave. 
There are over 2000 unknown soldiers buried around her.
Someone had placed artificial flowers at her grave.
Photo by Mark Hidlebaugh

Click [HERE] to view an album from my visit to Florence National Cemetery.

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Ancestry.com

Researchers have yet to find Florena Budwin in other records.  My exhaustive attempts at trying to locate her and her alleged  husband, John, in census records, specifically, have failed.  Therefore, we must theorize that the name she gave to the Confederates at Florence before she died is not correct.  It was not uncommon for women soldiers to give false information in order to protect themselves and their family from shame and humiliation should their plight reach the newspapers.  Assuming an alias, Budwin may have taken her first name from the name of the prison, Florence.  Furthermore, her last name and the first name of her husband may not have even been correct.  Her husband may not have even existed at all.  I found other cases where women soldiers lied about serving with a male loved one in order to garner support from a highly-critical Victorian society who would have been more understanding of women fighting for romantic reasons.  This always presents a frustrating challenge for researchers.  Some doubt that she even existed or that she was a prostitute outside the stockade.  Yet, there was at least one soldier who claimed to have seen Budwin at Andersonville.
  
The Helena Independent ran a story on Budwin in their June 24, 1890 edition.  Included was an interview by Samuel Elliott of the 7th Pennsylvania Reserves.

I knew the female prisoner at Andersonville, having seen her frequently pass our detachment on her way to the swamp for water.  I remember her as a woman rather above medium height, sunburnt, with long unkempt hair.  Her clothing consisted of a rough gray shirt, a pair of worn-out army trousers, and what was once a military cap, but scarcely enough of it was left to afford protection from the burning sun.  Her husband was also in the prison, but what became of him I am unable to say. 

When the prisoners were removed from Andersonville to Florence, between September 6 to 12, 1864, she was among the number, and shortly after our arrival there her sex was discovered by the rebel authorities and she was taken, as rumor had it, to be a nurse in the hospital.  This is the last I ever saw or heard of her. 

As to her husband, I never knew what became of him.  I never heard of his being killed.  I heard her spoken of by the older prisoners as being a married woman.  Our detachment at Andersonville was stationed on the north of the prison's old stockade, about 500 yards from the main entrance.  She must have been in the detachment, there being 100 to each detachment, adjoining ours.   The camp here was not laid off in streets, or were the brush huts laid off in any order.  There were winding paths leading to the swamp near the entrance, where the prisoners obtained water.   Her hut was never invaded, and she was cared for by two men who guarded and looked after her, ready to protect her from insult, should any be offered, and they always treated her with great respect themselves.

Elliott further stated that there was another woman soldier at Andersonville.  However, the Confederates sent her north after she revealed her true identity to them.  Elliott theorized that Budwin did not do the same for fear of the treatment she would receive at the hands of her captors.

There were other women at Andersonville, some civilians and one, maybe a few other soldiers.  But I have not come across any accounts of this particular unnamed female soldier mentioned by Elliott.  

The article does include statements from other men who claim they remember hearing about Florena Budwin but admit to having no personal knowledge of her case.

As an aside, I am aware of an alleged diary Florena supposedly kept while in prison at Andersonville.  The author who used excerpts from it did not cite the source in the blog post.  So, it is unknown as to who owns the diary or where it is housed.  I have not found it.  Nor has anybody else.  I must conclude that the author used creative license by inventing the diary entries in order to give the blog post color.  In other words, it does not exist.  It is a shame that this is getting passed off as "history."   And, unfortunately, I am seeing it shared on other sites.

As always, research continues.  Perhaps one day new discoveries will be made and we will know more about this mysterious woman soldier buried at Florence National Cemetery.

I do provide new information about women imprisoned at Andersonville along with my new theories about Florena in my book, Behind the Rifle.

Until next formation....rest.