"One of the members of the 1st Kansas Reg't died in the Hospital yesterday after a very short illness. After death the somewhat startling discovery was made by those preparing the body for burial, that their companion, beside whom they had marched and fought for nearly two years was a woman. You can imagine their astonishment. The Reg't is camped near us and I went to the Hospital and saw her. She was of pretty good size for a woman with rather masculine features. She must have been very shrewd to keep her secret for so long when she was surrounded by several hundred men. The 1st Kansas was one of the first Regiments that entered the service two years ago. This girl enlisted when they went to Missouri, so they knew nothing of her early history. She doubtless served under an assumed name. Poor girl! Who knows what trouble, grief, or persecution drove her to embrace the hardships of a soldier's life. She had always sustained an excellent reputation in the Regiment. She was brave as a Lion in battle and never flinched from the severest fatigues or the hardest duties. She had been in more than a dozen battles and skirmishes. She was a Sergeant when she died. The men in the company all speak of her in terms of respect and affection She would have been promoted to a Lieutenancy in a few days if she had lived."
You can read a typescript version of the letter by clicking (HERE). It is lengthy. The part where he mentions the woman soldier can be found on pages 11 and 12. Newspapers such as the Nashville Dispatch picked up the story and printed part of it.
Who was this soldier? Haywood didn't provide her real name or male alias under which she served. However, historians examined the roster of the 1st Kansas and identified her as Alfred J. Luther .
Let's take a closer look.
Military Portrait of Sgt. Luther:
According to the Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Kansas, 24-year-old Luther enlisted in Co. A of the 1st Kansas Infantry. The Massachusetts native was living in Elwood, Kansas upon enlistment on May 30th, 1861. The soldier was appointed corporal. Less than three months later, Luther was wounded at Wilson's Creek but recovered.
After serving in Missouri during the early part of the war, the 1st Kansas was eventually ordered to Columbus, Kentucky where the unit was detailed to guard the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. During this time, Luther was promoted to sergeant on May 1st, 1862.
The 1st Kansas was next ordered to Tennessee and then marched to the relief of Corinth, Mississippi in October 1862. While they arrived too late to take part in the battle, they did participate in the pursuit of the Confederates to Ripley. Next, the regiment participated in Grant's Central Mississippi Campaign. Then, in February 1863, the 1st Kansas was ordered to Lake Providence, Louisiana where Sgt. Luther fell ill of varioloid, a form of small pox. The soldier did not recover and died there on March 22nd, 1863.
Burial:
Alfred J. Luther was originally buried at Lake Providence and eventually reinterred in Vicksburg National Cemetery, section K, grave 5971.
 |
| From ancestry.com |
 |
| Photo by Mark Hidlebaugh |
The grave is in the shadow of the remains of the Cairo that you see in the background.
 |
| Photo by Mark Hidlebaugh |
Click the link below to see Alfred's cenotaph memorial in Naskatucket Cemetery, located in Fairhaven, Bristol County Massachusetts:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=150951921
Two of Alfred's brothers served: William in the 3rd Massachusetts Infantry and Leonard in the 18th Massachusetts Infantry and the 5th Massachusetts Light Artillery.
Alfred Luther Before the War:
Examining census records provided interesting results. When researching the 1840 census, you will notice that there are no names other than the patriarch's listed. Additional household members are just enumerated and sorted by gender and age. As for the Luther household, only one female appears. Due to her age, this woman must be the mother, Thankful, due to the age. (Yes, that was her name.) All others are males in the Luther household. Alfred would have been approximately three years old at that time. By the 1850 census, Alfred Luther was living with the Jenneys in Bristol, Massachusetts. Next door was another Jenney family with Charles F. and Susan Luther living with them. Based on family trees on Ancestry, Jenney was the maiden name of the Luther children's mother, Thankful. She died in 1846, when the youngest child, Susan, was approximately a year old. After her death, the father, James Miller Luther, dumped the children off on other families. Alfred, Charles, Susan, and Edward went to live with their mother's extended family. William, George, and Leonard were taken in by other families. The father, James, remarried in 1857.
 |
| Ancestry.com |
By 1855, Alfred had moved on to live with the Snow family in North Bridgewater, Plymouth County, Massachusetts. According to the state census, Luther, age 18, was a carpenter.
While the other siblings remained behind in Massachusetts, Charles and A.J. (Alfred) moved west, eventually ending up in Kansas at the time of the war. According to the 1860 census, Charles was living in Elwood. Alfred was there, too, based on the residence listed upon enlistment in the 1st Kansas. Furthermore, both Luthers show up as registered voters in Elwood in 1859. But as of yet, I haven't been able to locate Alfred in the 1860 census in Kansas or Missouri.
Conundrums and Inconsistencies:
Was Alfred J. Luther the woman soldier Haywood wrote about? One problem I noticed was the timing. Haywood composed his missive on April 6th, 1863, and noted that Luther died "yesterday," which would have been April 5th. Yet, records indicate that Luther died on March 22nd, 1863. Was Haywood's sense of time that off? He did not write the letter over a period of two weeks. It is continuous. Besides, he begins the letter by reminiscing about the Battle of Shiloh, which was April 6th-7th, 1862. So he was writing on the anniversary. Was the wrong date of death recorded? But again, there is a two-week difference between Luther's death and Haywood's letter. That's a long time. It's not as if the body was laid out for that long before burial.
Did Haywood misidentify the regiment? Or perhaps historians misidentified this woman soldier? I searched the roster of the 1st Kansas Infantry but could not find a soldier of any rank who died on April 5th. The closest one I saw was March 31st. And, unfortunately, I haven't been able to locate any other letters or diaries that mention this account (SEE BELOW FOR NEW INFORMATION). Was this a different woman soldier altogether whose records were purged after her identity was discovered prior to burial?
The census records provide a further source of questions. In all of the reports I've been able to find dating back to 1840, Alfred was listed as a male.
And then there's the whole date of the letter/date of death issue. There just seem to be too many variables involved for A.J. Luther to be the woman soldier who died while serving in the 1st Kansas Infantry.
Unanswered Questions:
Wrong date? Wrong regiment? Wrong soldier? Or was Haywood the victim of a prank rendering his story just flat-out wrong?
Not the Only One:
Interestingly, this woman soldier was not the only one at Lake Providence during the spring of 1863. Jennie Hodgers, alias "Albert Cashier," was also there with the 95th Illinois Infantry. But unlike her female counterpart, Hodgers survived her stay in Louisiana.
Until next formation......rest.
UPDATE: 8/18/17
So last month, I visited the State Historical Society of Iowa looking for something particular in the unpublished memoirs of a soldier. His writings proved to be absolutely fascinating and I wish I could have spent more time reading the whole thing. It really needs to be published one day. Anyway, I found the information I sought....not what I thought it would be....but I found it. It was very interesting. In the process, I came across something else quite unexpectedly. And it was a pleasant surprise.
Up until my visit to the historical society, the only source regarding the woman of the 1st Kansas Infantry who I wrote about above, was the Fred Haywood letter, part of which appeared in newspapers across the country. Well, guess what I stumbled upon in the memoirs I was perusing. Yup...
He said that on March 23rd, 1863, that a division of his corps departed Lake Providence for Vicksburg. And then, "A day or two afterwards a squad of us visited the grave of a woman who had recently been buried, and concerning whom much interest was felt in the army. She had been a soldier in a Kansas regiment...." He went on to say that he lost the notes he made on her (*BIG EYEROLL!!!*) but that there must have been "scores" of men who knew about her.
He also commented that "Many women served in the Civil War."
So he didn't name her regiment, but the 1st Kansas was the only unit from that state in
his corps and stationed at Lake Providence. Therefore, this woman is the same individual Haywood
mentioned in his letter. And like Haywood, this soldier didn't mention her name. Of course not. He freaking lost his notes! *sigh*
What does this new information tell us? Well, it's always a good thing to have corroborative evidence. And I'm glad to have come across another soldier who mentioned this woman. But beyond that, this find seems to muddy the water even more.
1) This guy and Haywood are both talking about the same woman. Yet, his date of death for her would be around the middle or end of March because he says one of the divisions in his corps left on March 23rd, and they saw her grave a couple of days later. Meanwhile, Haywood's letter is dated April 6th, and he said he saw the woman lying dead at the hospital "yesterday." So is "yesterday" just a relative term, and Haywood really meant two weeks ago?
2) This new find seems to corroborate the Alfred J. Luther theory because Luther's service records list the date of death as March 22nd, which is really close to the time when the soldier saw the grave of the woman.
BUT....
This still doesn't explain the fact that Federal and state census records dating back to 1840 when Luther was three years old list him as a male.
Nor does it explain the discrepancies in the locations involved with this account. Luther's service records say he enlisted at Elwood, Kansas and mustered in at Fort Leavenworth. Meanwhile, Haywood mentioned in his letter that this woman joined the unit in Missouri.
Were the records of this woman expunged? Did this woman and Luther die around the same time? Research indicates that there were a number of soldiers who died of disease at Lake Providence during this time frame. Were the bodies laid side by side and confused? Perhaps she was a private lying next to the sergeant (Luther). Perhaps she wasn't even with the 1st Kansas but a different regiment. Perhaps a soldier, when telling another person about the woman, pointed to the wrong body. And thus the wrong information began to spread.
It seems that the more I find, the more questions arise. But I am quite certain that the woman soldier was NOT Sergeant Alfred J. Luther.
As a side note, the soldier whose writings I shared above also mentioned that a vote was taken concerning the Emancipation Proclamation while they were on dress parade one day. They voted against it to a man. Another vote was taken to ensure that everybody understood the question. And again, they voted against it to a man. He also said they opposed arming black soldiers because "We considered it a degradation to ourselves-thought it was placing us on the level with the negro slave."
No comments:
Post a Comment