To summarize, Pvt. Bradley enlisted in what would become Company G of Miles' Legion and served briefly in April 1862. All of the infantry units that comprised this legion originated from south Louisiana except for Company G, which was raised in the Natchez, Mississippi area.
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| "Mustered in through mistake, was of female sex." Fold3 |
Bradley's account had been documented before, but all that was available at the time were service records, part of which appears above. No newspaper articles, no letters or diary entries from soldiers about her.....nothing (yet at least).
And then Jeff Giambrone who works at the state archives in Jackson told me he recalled coming across a document in the T. Otis Baker papers about a woman soldier. Baker was a prominent citizen from Natchez, and his collection in the archives is extensive. Visitors to the Museum of Mississippi History, which is near the state archives, can view his uniform. Jeff wrote a nice blog post about Baker, which you can read [HERE].
Baker served as a lieutenant in Company B of the 10th Mississippi Infantry; therefore when I made the trip north to our state capital, I fully expected to find an account of a previously undocumented woman soldier connected with that regiment. But first, we had to find it in the collection. Jeff couldn't remember exactly where this document was, so Mark and I had no choice but to begin rummaging through contents of multiple boxes and folders. It was Mark who eventually found it and declared victory, which consisted of an exemption from purchasing supper. I couldn't care less who bought the meal at that point because I became fully engrossed in the find.
The undated multi-page document includes a brief history of a company in Miles' Legion formed in Natchez, Mississippi in April 1862. The writer mentions being sent to Jackson, Mississippi then to Grand Gulf and then surrendering at Port Hudson. A short roster is included. Much is written in third person, and the author identifies himself in one brief paragraph as P. Burns when he mentions temporarily taking charge of a company before the unit's surrender at Port Hudson.
Interestingly, P. Burns devoted a whole page to an extraordinary event. The page itself included information that was written in third person with no signature and no indication of the time period in which it represented. So here is how I tied the clues from this page to the rest of the document by answering a myriad of questions. Where did this circumstance occur? Who documented this? When did he write it?
This is what my research showed:
WHERE:
The page started with, "A remarkable circumstance happened while we were marching up Main St. one day...." and that the incident happened "nearly opposite James Grillo's." And we know that James Grillo's had to be on Main Street since the writer said that's where they were marching. After searching newspaper articles, I found an ad for Grillo's business, which was located on Main Street:
This was from the Natchez Daily Courier, March 26, 1861. It was a restaurant and grocery store. And in [THIS VIDEO], I show where it was and, thus, where this incident occurred.
So we can confirm that this happened in Natchez, Mississippi and is connected with the information in the rest of the document.
WHO:
As mentioned, the writer of the document wrote mostly in third person and only revealed himself briefly on one the pages as P. Burns. At the bottom of the page relating the remarkable circumstance, the writer mentioned "PBurns and James McDonald are the only members of the co[mpany] still in the town." The town is Natchez where this incident happened and involved a company whose members included PBurns and James McDonald. After examining the roster of the 10th Mississippi Infantry, T. Otis Baker's regiment, I learned that these men were not a part of that regiment. So which unit then? Other papers in the collection held the clue. While rummaging through the items in the folders, not to mention the remainder of the document itself, I kept seeing references to Miles' Legion. And after checking rosters, I found a Patrick Burns and James McDonald in Company G of Miles' Legion, the same company as "William Bradley," and the one formed in Natchez. Specifically, I noticed items in the collection from Patrick Burns. Plus, a pamphlet referenced on [THIS WEBSITE] mentions Patrick Burns assisting in compiling information for T. Otis Baker. I learned that Baker was tasked after the war with collecting accounts from his fellow Natchezian veterans. That's why there are items regarding Miles' Legion in his collection in the archives. And the fact that Burns was a sergeant fits with his statement that, "The writer was trying to make her keep the steps which was very difficult for her when she was recognized by her master." Making soldiers keep in step was part of a sergeant's job. McDonald was a private and would have only had to concern himself with keeping his own steps while marching and not what others were doing. So that rules him out. Thus, Burns was the writer of the page just as he is the other pages of the document. |
| Patrick Burns |
Did you catch that about her master recognizing her? Burns noted that she was a "bright colored girl that ran away and took the bounty." So, she was a runaway slave girl with light-colored skin, a slave girl who enlisted in the Confederate army and, according to Burns, "not one in the co[mpany] knew she was a woman." And nobody knew she was black either — black as defined by society at the time — until her master recognized her and had her pulled out of the ranks. As for the bounty, the military offered financial incentives for soldiers to enlist called bounties. So when Burns said she "took the bounty" he means that she enlisted and received her payment for doing so. Interestingly, Burns did not include her in his roster that was part of the document. Yet, her service records above undeniably solidifies her place in Burns' company. Perhaps he felt no need to include her in his roster since she had been "mustered in through mistake" and, thus, removed.
So now we know that it was Sgt. Patrick Burns who documented this incident of a runaway slave girl's master recognizing her as she marched up Main Street in Natchez, Mississippi with her unit, Co. G of Miles' Legion.
And since we know this incident involved a woman soldier of Co. G of Miles' Legion, we know this had to be "Pvt. William Bradley." And we also know that she was a formally enlisted soldier, not a member of civilian support staff such as a cook, or an impressed laborer.
As an aside, Burns was an Irish immigrant and a non-slaveholder. After the war, he ran a shoe store in Natchez. Interestingly, Patrick Burns was born on St. Patrick's Day, which is also the day he died.
WHEN:
From her service records above, we know Pvt. Bradley enlisted on April 18, 1862. And, according to Burns, "she was with this company about 3 weeks drilling." While her records fail to mention exactly when she was recognized by her master and discharged, we know it had to be at the end of April, and we also know it had to be when the unit was still in Natchez. This corresponds with the history of Miles' Legion, which was in Natchez until, "on or about" April 27, 1862, when it departed for Vicksburg.THE COLLECTION:
The T. Otis Baker papers are not digitized. So if you'd like to view this extraordinary document yourself, you'd need to visit the state archives in Jackson, Mississippi. If you go to the section about William Bradley in my book (use the index), you can see which note appears at the end of the paragraph(s) and then find it in the endnotes section in my book,which is divided by chapters. There, I cited which box and folder you can find it.
Until next formation....rest.
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