A Monument to a Civil War Woman Soldier?

There aren't many monuments to women soldiers in our country.  There's a statue of Deborah Sampson that stands outside the public library in Sharon, Massachusetts.

https://ournewenglandlegends.com/podcast-98-an-infantryman-named-robert/

But she fought in the Revolutionary War.

There's a plaque for Anna Maria Lane in Richmond, Virginia.

https://allthatsinteresting.com/badass-revolutionary-war-women/4

 But she was Rev. War, also. 

So was Margaret Corbin who has a monument in West Point where she was supposedly buried.

Wikipedia

In 1926, remains believed to have been Corbin's were reinterred in West Point.  However, when construction workers inadvertently disturbed the remains in 2016, a new study revealed they belonged to those of a male.  The remains were reinterred elsewhere in West Point as an unknown, and the monument was left alone.  The DAR rededicated it in 2018.

http://littlebitsofhistory.blogspot.com/2011/02/margaret-cochran-corbin.html

 
Corbin also has a memorial in Fort Tryon Park in Manhattan.

Flickr

Wikimedia Commons

Then, there is a bust of Cathay Williams in Leavenworth, Kansas.

https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article91412232.html

People have mistakenly labeled her as a Civil War soldier.  She wasn't.  She served as a cook in the Union army - against her wishes according to her - during the Civil War in feminine garb.  Then, assuming the alias "William Cathay," enlisted as a soldier in 1866, after the war had concluded.  She was a buffalo soldier.  I have also seen her labeled as the first black woman to serve as a soldier in our country's history.  This is also incorrect.  Read my book, Behind the Rifle, to learn about "William Bradley" who served in 1862.

As for the Civil War, there is a plaque for Sarah Emma Edmonds, alias "Franklin Thompson" of the 2nd Michigan Infantry, that stands near the courthouse in Flint, Michigan.

http://lostinmichigan.net/category/people/

She is also mentioned in a plaque in Washington Cemetery in Texas where she is buried.

Find a Grave

 

And then there is this one about Frances Clayton on the Iowa/Minnesota state line near Northwood, Iowa.

 

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=238273

 

 

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=238273

 

There are a number of discrepancies regarding Clayton's story.  One of them is the name of her husband, here named Elmer.  This was an genealogical attempt by a modern historian who found a woman named Frances Clayton married to Elmer in an Illinois census.  However, this is a different Frances as evident by photos on Ancestry.  Period newspapers named her husband as John, and I question whether she ever went to war with him or if he even existed at all.  My new research shows an increasing number of women soldiers lied about serving with a loved on in order to garner sympathy in the press to help guard from the ostracism they would receive from a strict Victorian society.

 

 But these are just plaques.  While they are important, I don't really count them as "monuments" or "memorials."

The Women in Military Service for America Memorial honors women soldiers from all time periods.  It stands in Washington, D.C.

www.womensmemorial.org
Arlington is in the background.

But there's not an actual monument to a Civil War woman soldier.

Or is there?

In July 2019, I had the privilege of sharing the story of Elizabeth Quinn (better known as Frances E. Hook) at the conference for the Society for Women and the Civil War.   She served as "Pvt. Frank Miller" in the 90th Illinois Infantry (among others) and had two images struck while recuperating in a hospital in Nashville.  They grace the cover of my book.

Unfortunately, her final resting place has been lost to history.  But I found where her brother, Thomas, is buried.  Was I surprised when I visited it several years ago!   And I was delighted to share this curiosity with the attendees at the conference.  It is a little lagniappe since I did not include it in my book.

Thomas Quinn, Jr. was born in 1848 in Illinois and died in 1898.  He relocated to Iowa after the war and is buried in St. Michael's Cemetery in the town of Norway.

Here is a closeup of the front.

The relief is a GAR medal.  He belonged to the Howland Post, #349 in Calhoun County.  His unit is also inscribed on this panel:  Co. B, 52nd Illinois Infantry.

This is the back of Thomas's grave marker.

It is a wreath around the inscription, "Rest in Peace."

One of the side panels is for his wife, Ellen, who is buried next to him.

And this is the other side panel:

It's somewhat difficult to make out in this picture, but this panel is for a child of Thomas and Ellen they named Francis E. Quinn.  I have not been able to find anything about this child, but I assume he was a male based on the spelling:  Francis versus Frances.  But it is obvious to see that Thomas named the child after his big sister, Frances E. Quinn Angel.  Not only is there a connection to the name, but the child was born just three months after his aunt died.  She succumbed to dropsy - or edema - at the young age of 27.

And what is on this panel but a relief of a Civil War soldier.  I don't think this soldier represents Thomas.  He could have put it on the front instead of, or in addition to, the GAR medal.  Or he could have put it on the back instead of the simple wreath.  But he didn't.  Thomas had this carved soldier placed on the panel for the child he named after his sister.  So I think this was his way of saying, "This is for my sister, Civil War soldier, and I'm proud of her."

Is this a monument to "Pvt. Frank Miller?"  Unless more information comes to light regarding Thomas's intentions and wishes for his grave marker, we will never know for sure.  But it certainly appears that way.  And if so, it is the only known monument or memorial to a Civil War woman soldier.

As for the child, Francis E. Quinn, he is not actually buried in this cemetery, or even in the same state as his family.  He is buried in Kansas.  He died on the Fourth of July in 1874, two months shy of his second birthday.  Like his aunt, he was gone too soon.

Until next formation....rest.