In a previous post, I discussed the discovery that the remains of a warrior buried in Birka, Sweden actually belonged to a woman. The Viking grave dated back to the 10th century and was originally excavated in 1878. Scientists believed the individual was a male due to the array of weapons included in the grave.....at least until 2017 when researchers reanalyzed the remains and determined that the individual was actually a woman.
The 160th anniversary of the Battle of Big Black River slipped past me! It was on May 17th. Here is a video I did last year about a woman killed there. She was the subject of a poem written by an Iowa soldier who was moved to do so after learning about the incident.
I felt I needed to make this video sorting out all the garbled mess surrounding the accounts of Elizabeth Quinn, a.k.a. "Frances Hook," and Ella Reno. It ended up being longer than I originally planned, and even then I still didn't discuss all of the discrepancies in their stories.
My blog posts I referenced in the video:
Finding Frances: My Quest to Discover the True Frances Hook
A Monument to a Civil War Woman Soldier? .
I created a couple of documents which I hope will provide a helpful, organized summary of the information I discussed in the video.
Comparison between Quinn and Reno by topic:
Timeline:
The first two episodes of the Fearless & Proud podcast are now available. They are arranged topically with insights shared by multiple historians, including myself. Check back as a new episode will be added each week.
Last month, I was approached by Fox Business News (no political comments please) about doing a podcast with Gerri Willis and John Toldi about women soldiers of the Civil War. I was honored to do so! So check it out wherever you get podcasts. The trailer is live and then beginning Monday, they will release one episode a week.
