AAR From the Gardendale and Jasper, Alabama Talks

Back in March, I gave two talks in Alabama (click HERE for a recap) where I met a couple of nice folks who invited me to speak for their respective organizations, which I did so this past weekend.  


I visited with the Gardendale Historical Society on Saturday and was impressed with all of the edible goodies they had nicely displayed:  cupcakes, fruit, doughnut holes, lemonade, and sweet tea were a few items available and consumed with relish by approximately 25 people who attended my presentation.  One person

Kermit Dooley, JD Weeks, and me

present was Mr. Kermit Dooley who was the one who had invited me to speak back in March.  Unfortunately, not too long ago, he had an accident, which resulted in brain surgery.  He is doing much better and insisted on coming to my presentation.  It was so nice to be able to visit with him.

I also met Mr. JD Weeks who was kind enough to share his pictures with me that he took of the event since Mark was unable to attend. Mr. Weeks has written several books on a variety of topics, and I warned him that I would be seeking his advice on mine!  Click HERE for his page on Amazon.

The crowd was lively and asked a lot of good questions.  Ms. Josephine Govan, founder of the oldest African-American genealogical organization in Alabama, has done work on buffalo soldiers and wanted to know more about the black women soldiers.   I shared some information with her concerning Cathay Williams, alias William Cathay, who was a female buffalo soldier.  (This is a whole other blog post!)  Ms. Govan sent me a very kind email yesterday about my talk and asked me to share more information with her since I didn't have much time during my talk to get into a whole lot of detail.

Photo courtesy JD Weeks

After my presentation, I was very pleased to see a large group examining my gear.  Even though I encourage everybody to pick it up, etc., most folks in the past have still been a bit hesitant to do so.  But not these folks!  They even rooted through my knapsack and pulled out some poke sacks and a testament I had in there, which is good!  I want them to see what soldiers carried and how they carried it.  I think this is the first time, though, that nobody asked about my heel plates and hobnails on my brogans.

After leaving Gardendale, I headed to Jasper, Alabama where I gave a talk the following day to the James C. Hutto SCV Camp.  I met the commander, James Blackston, back in March, and I was delighted to be able to put together a double header to speak to his camp.  This was a smaller group, but they were very interested in women soldiers.  One gentleman brought his young daughter, which I was delighted to see.  She even participated!  Perhaps one day she will carry on the research.


Another gentleman commented that An Uncommon Soldier was required reading for a Civil War class he took at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) back in the '90's.  The professor was a lady, and the book had just come out.  It contains the letters of Sarah Rosetta Wakeman of the 153rd New York Infantry, a farm girl, who was motivated financially to enlist in order to better help support her indebted family.  It eventually cost her her life as she succumbed to dysentery while serving in Louisiana.  She was one of only a few women soldiers known to have written letters during their service.

Afterwards, I chatted with a gentleman who is a fellow reenactor.  It seems we were at several events but always on opposite sides!  Small world.  We had a good conversation about reenacting, and he expressed his regret that some women in his unit weren't present to hear my talk.  He says they are adamantly opposed to women in the ranks.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from this event to share at this time.

It was another great weekend of talking about women soldiers!  Just wish Mark had been there because I missed him.

Until next formation.....rest.