A reader sent me a link to an auction house that sold a letter written by Sgt. William Henry Austin of the 109th New York Infantry. He was a childhood friend of Rosetta Wakeman and was a bit surprised to see her in the uniform of a soldier when her regiment, the 153rd New York Infantry, was passing through Alexandria, Virginia. Austin says her unit was bound for Texas, but they ended up in Louisiana and participated in the ill-fated Red River Campaign. What I found especially intriguing about Austin's letter is the fact that he observed that she sported "an insipid moustache, highly colored."
In this photograph of her, she isn't sporting any mustache, insipid or otherwise.
So at what point did she abandon the fake facial hair? And don't you think that her male comrades would have noticed? I suppose it would have been easy to explain that she simply shaved it off. Regardless, this part of her disguise was not enough to fool Austin. He was one of the individuals she was referring to when she wrote in a letter back home, "They knew me as soon as they see me." Wakeman actually mentioned Austin several times in her letters, which you can read in An Uncommon Soldier, edited by Lauren Cook.
Prophetically, Austin concluded this section of his letter with "Hardly think she will ever get back to New York again." Wakeman died of disease in New Orleans in 1864 and is buried in Chalmette National Cemetery not too far from a Civil War relative of mine. Click [HERE] to see a video I did showing her grave.
Read more about this letter that sold for $5,000 in 2021 by clicking [HERE].
Thanks to Ashley for sending this along!
Until next formation.....rest.
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