2nd East Tennessee Cavalry

The South wasn't as solidly pro-Confederate as one might be led to believe.  Every state in the Confederacy, except South Carolina, had units in Federal service.  Over 50 of these were raised in Tennessee, an especially divided state.  One of these regiments was the 2nd East Tennessee Cavalry, which was also referred to as the 2nd Tennessee Cavalry.   The following photograph at the Tennessee State Library and Archives shows soldiers of Co. D.  Click to enlarge.

It is an amazing picture overall with a nice glimpse of equipment in particular.  Those poor guys with the Colts!  I'm digging the hats.  But I was drawn to several individual soldiers for their appearance.  I cropped them out for a closer view.  Are these women soldiers?

I tend to think this is a young boy as opposed to a woman mainly due to the larger hands, but we can't be sure.  Rosetta Wakeman, the New York farm girl, had pretty big hands.  There is definitely an air about this soldier, and what's the deal with the oddly shaped uniform?   The overly-large coat looks like one of those puffy jackets and the trousers a pair of Hammer pants.  And where are the weapons?  There are none visible that I can see.  But the image is blurry after it was enlarged.

These could be just youths.  This particular company had its share of them as seen from the service records on Fold3.  The following is a breakdown of teenagers in its ranks:

19 year olds-7

18 year olds-29

17 year olds-2

16 year olds-1

The problem is that this picture is not dated, so it is impossible to know which of these kids were with the unit when the photograph was taken.

Without solid evidence to connect the dots, it would be easy to dismiss these soldiers as young boys.  But one shouldn't rule out the possibility that they may be women in disguise.  The fact that there were so many beardless youths in every regiment was one reason why women were able to hide in the ranks.  They blended in.

On the other hand, one must be cautious not to automatically conclude a young-looking soldier is a female in disguise. 

There was a woman soldier in this unit.  The Louisville Democrat (3/11/1863), the Louisville Daily Journal (4/29/1863), and, more importantly, the memoirs of Philip Sheridan (p. 253-256) confirm her service.  The former newspaper article actually mentions there were two women in this regiment, but based on my research, I feel this was an error and that the second girl was part of another unit.  The one who did serve in the 2nd East Tennessee Cavalry in the capacity of a teamster went by the alias, "Frank Martin." She may or may not have been a member of Company D in the picture.  Sheridan said she was hired by the quartermaster department, implying she was a civilian hired by the government.  Therefore, there are no service records for her, so we don't know what company she was with.  And again, we have to contend with the lack of time frame of the photograph.  So we are dealing with a lot of unknowns in this situation.  

Is one of the soldiers in this picture "Frank Martin"?  Yes, she was a teamster and, therefore, with the wagons, but she may have only served in that capacity for part of her time with this unit.  And again, we don't know when this picture was taken.  We will probably never know if she is there.  But it is interesting to ponder.

"Frank Martin" made quite a few appearances in newspapers during the Civil War.  But her true name was never revealed in any of the articles.  Historians have claimed that she was Frances Hook.  However, this is incorrect.  See my book for more details.

As a side note, the 2nd East Tennessee Cavalry had 8 soldiers 50 years of age or over, one of whom was 63!  On the other hand, the youngest soldier I found was 15.

Until next formation.....rest.