"The Lady Lieutenant" and "Castine": Two Wartime Novels Featuring Women Soldiers

The female warrior motif in literature was nothing new by the outbreak of the Civil War.  By that time, writers had been included them in their works for hundreds of years, their stories including tales of daring young ladies who boldly stepped outside the domestic sphere to experience adventure denied their gender.  Two novels published during the war exemplified this genre.


Published by E.E. Barclay in Philadelphia in1862, The Lady Lieutenant claimed to be a "wonderful, startling
and thrilling narrative of the adventures of Miss Madeline Moore."  Even though the author states that "The reader may rely upon this narrative as being strictly authentic," the work is fiction.  However, the story does parallel the lives of some of the real women soldiers.

Born in Frankfurt, Kentucky, Madeline Moore became orphaned at an early age and chose to leave home in male disguise after growing weary of a crotchety aunt as well as out a desire to remain with her sweetheart, Frank Ashton, who had enlisted in a Federal regiment.  As "Albert Harville," the "young, ardent, and rather romantic" Moore rises to the rank of lieutenant in Ashton's company, the captain unaware of her true identity.  Throughout her adventures, Moore finds herself a prisoner and sustains wounds.  To read more, click HERE where you can download the 40-page novel for free.

Edward Edgeville's 1865 novel, Castine, featured another woman soldier whose bravery was rewarded with promotion.  "Sergeant Walter Larksly," described as "...a youth of about nineteen summers, delicate in frame and effeminate in features...," was really Castine from Tennessee who had enlisted in order to avenge the death of her sister, Jennie, the victim of Captain Richard Lester, a rejected and jealous suitor.

After hunting Lester for five years, Castine finally encounters him during the battle of Second Manassas and threatens to extract her revenge while admitting her true identity to the captain.  He tells her that not only has he not murdered her sister, but that he married her and that she was living in New York.   From here, the story begins a series of twists and turns worthy of modern soap operas.    Like The Lady Lieutenant, the novel is about 40 pages and can be downloaded for free HERE.