The following women did not meet their fates on a battlefield as others did. As a matter of fact, only one of them may have encountered the enemy at all. Instead, the foe these women faced was within themselves, and they either perished by their own hand - or nearly did. Their stories are tragic and should be told. We should remember them not completely out of pity, but because they provide us with a connection to our own flawed, mortal, and often wounded psyche.
In 1863, readers from all across the country - and even across the pond in Britain - learned about the sad tale of the woman known only as "Charley." One spring day in April started out as just an ordinary day for her. She probably didn't know when she sat down in the theater in Cairo, Illinois that she had only one day to live. She probably gazed upon her male comrades with whom she enjoyed the show and wondered if any of them knew that she was actually a woman in disguise. She was about nineteen years old and arrived wearing a soldier's uniform at Cairo with the 14th Iowa Infantry. She was serving as Captain Leroy Crane's orderly in Company H.
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| Leroy Crane is the taller man standing. Photo ca. 1880. From Ancestry |
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| Leroy Crane From Ancestry |
Since I could not find anybody on the roster to match the criteria related to this account, I can assume that either military officials expunged her records, or she was a civilian who Captain Crane hired as his personal servant. You can read more about servants by clicking [HERE].
After mustering in at Davenport, Iowa, the men of the 14th regiment proceeded by steamboat to St. Louis and then to Cairo, Illinois before heading to Tennessee where they participated in the Battle of Fort Donelson. Next, they headed east to Pittsburgh Landing and engaged the Confederates. During the ensuing Battle of Shiloh, they found themselves surrounded in the Hornet's Nest, leaving Colonel William Shaw no option other than to surrender the entire regiment.
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| 14th Iowa Monument at the Hornet's Nest, Shiloh Photo by Mark Hidlebaugh |
After being exchanged in November 1862, the Hawkeyes made their way back to St. Louis and then to Cairo, arriving in April 1863. And it was during this time when turmoil suddenly entered Charley's life.
It is unknown when exactly Captain Leroy Crane hired her. Some newspapers said that she had followed him to war. Others did not. If she did, that implies that she was with the regiment through all its trials up until the incident at Cairo, including experiencing time as a POW with her male comrades after Shiloh. But she was certainly with the regiment before its arrival at Cairo because newspapers reported that she entered the city with the regiment.
At any rate, it was the provost marshal there who saw through her ruse and arrested her. However, Captain Crane saved her from a trip to the guard house by promising that she would change into apparel befitting her sex. At that point, word began to spread, and the men gathered about Crane's quarters to get a look at her. News reached Colonel Shaw, and he sent his adjutant on a fact-finding mission to learn what was going on. Charley knew what was going on, and that "her presence in such a garb was the theme of a thousand tongues." Unable to face the rumors and gossip, she took Captain Crane's revolver, stepped from his room out onto the parade ground, and shot herself in the chest. According to the surgeon performing the autopsy, the ball tore between her fourth and fifth ribs, passed through her body and lodged under the skin on the right side of her back. She died instantly.
Who was she? The coroner's inquest yielded no answers. Did Captain Crane truly not know anything about her? It is interesting that he intervened on her behalf to try to keep her from imprisonment. Was it merely out of kindness and perhaps pity? Or did Crane know more than he let on? If she did follow him to war, did he know she was a woman? Or was she his lover? It is not clear. But he went on to marry two years later.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to find where Charley was buried. She may be an unknown in Mound City National Cemetery.
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| Parade Ground of Camp Defiance, Cairo, Illinois This is where the woman known as "Charley" sent herself into eternity in April 1863. LOC |
While it is unknown whether Charley followed a sweetheart to war, Maggie Bradford definitely did. However, she likely was not a soldier. Newspapers did not mention that she was in male attire, so I do not think she had enlisted, or even attempted to. Besides, women accompanied regiments working in traditional feminine roles, such as laundresses and cooks. So just because newspapers reported that a woman was traveling with a unit, it cannot be assumed that she had been serving as a soldier in male disguise. At any rate, I have decided to share Bradford's story anyway.
Maggie was around the same young age as Charley. She hailed from Alton, Illinois. And when her lover, George Percival, went to war, she wanted to go with him. So she boarded the steamer, Empress, with his Illinois regiment. The newspapers said it was the 127th, but nobody with his name appears on the roster. It was probably an error for the 117th instead. At any rate, Percival wasn't initially aware of Maggie's presence. When he did find out she was on board, he had the officers remove her from the boat upon their arrival at St. Louis and "exclude her from the lines." After her protests and pleas fell on deaf ears, Maggie visited the nearest drug store and destroyed herself with arsenic as she stood upon the levee in view of the entire regiment. This story is so tragic in so many ways. But perhaps the most terrible part is the fact that her lover for whom she died appears to have been of low character. As a matter of fact, he deserted his unit at Cairo soon after this event occurred and may have been a bounty jumper. Bounty jumpers roved from regiment to regiment, staying just long enough to receive the payment for enlisting before deserting and moving on to the next one.
While Maggie did not survive her encounter with arsenic, a New Jersey woman manage to escape a similar fate with the element. The woman followed her lover to war in hopes of serving with him in the ranks of the 39th New York Infantry, or the "Garibaldi Guard." After military officials discovered her and sent her home, despair took her and she ingested arsenic. But she was saved.
Then there was "John" of the 19th Illinois Infantry. Her tale appeared in newspapers as well as the post-war memoirs of Sanitary Commission nurse, Mary Livermore. Military officials discovered the woman's ruse just before the regiment departed Camp Long in Chicago during the summer of 1861. Despondent, she jumped into the Chicago River with an intention of drowning herself. A policeman pulled her from the water and saved her life. You can read more about her in my book, Behind the Rifle.
Pistol, poison, and water - these were the tools of choice used by the women mentioned previously in their quest to end their existence. Marian McKenzie, however, fashioned parts of her dress as a noose in an effort to hang herself in Bridwell, the prison where she was sent in Chicago. She had previously served with the 23rd Kentucky Infantry as "Henry Fitzallen." The reason for her to attempt suicide? She wanted to wear male clothing (pants) and was not allowed to do so. Or at least that's what she said.
For these women, their true battle was within themselves. They could only see an escape by ending the struggle and their lives. It is our job to help them win their final battle by remembering them and their sacrifice.
Until next formation....rest
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