Serving Their Country: Women Soldiers As Orderlies

During my research, I have increasingly noticed more and more women soldiers who served as orderlies on both sides.  Acting in such capacity means that they would have been tasked with such chores as making coffee for the officers, caring for their uniforms and horses, helping with their meals, and other similar responsibilities.  In short, they were servants.  Because orderlies were considered noncombatants, they would have remained in the rear with the wagons and out of the direct line of fire.  The post was not devoid of risk, however.  Orderlies would have been exposed to overshot artillery rounds during battles and diseases.  And, in some instances, may have risked life an limb upon the battlefield.  There is evidence of this at Spanish Fort in March 1865.  Confederate Brigadier General Randall Gibson wrote in his original after action report, "all Negro servants of the officers participated in the defense of the works - one or two of them were wounded."


There were two types of orderlies:

1)  Formally-enlisted soldiers who were detailed from the ranks.  

2)  Civilians who were hired by officers, either a single officer or a group of officers who went in together to employ a servant.  These orderlies were not, by the strictest of definitions, soldiers.  They were not subject to the medical exam.  Nor were they mustered in.  As a result, they did not have service records, which explains why some women "soldiers" are lacking this documentation.  Because they were employees of the officer(s) and not the government, the officer or officers were obligated to provide the servant with wages, food, and clothing.

The picture below is a reproduction of a form Mark has that shows where an officer can deduct funds from his pay for his civilian servant's wages and clothing.

Speaking of clothing, both Federal and Confederate military regulations forbade servants from wearing uniforms.

Federal regulations.  The Confederate version was exactly the same.

But pictorial evidence reveals that they wore uniforms anyway:

Black Federal servant wearing a frock coat.
November 1862 in Warrenton, VA
Alexander Gardner photo, LOC

Closeup of servant in above photo

And Confederate servants wore uniforms, too:

Of course, these servants were slaves that accompanied their master, or their master's son, to war and were not paid. Some did, however, receive pensions after the war for their service to the Confederacy.  Meanwhile, the black servants with the Union army were often runaways looking for a job.  Federal officers paid them whatever was agreed upon, which sometimes could be upwards of $10 a month, the amount that a Confederate private made. 

Recently, Mark and a young man named Jervon displayed this impression of Federal officer and servant at a reenactment in Galesburg, Illinois.  Mark was portraying a lieutenant colonel of the 103rd Illinois (and overall Federal commander) while Jervon, who went by John, was Mark's servant.  By the way, Jervon is in the national guard and attending law school in Chicago.  This was his first reenactment.

Photo by Tom George Davison

Photo by Tom George Davison

Until next formation.....rest.