A German Immigrant Lost Her Life at Resaca 160 Years Ago Today

 Part of the Federal spring offensive in 1864 involved launching a campaign to capture Atlanta, a major manufacturing and railroad hub for the Confederacy.  The first major clash between Union forces led by William T. Sherman and the defensive-minded Joseph E. Johnston occurred at Resaca.

 

 

 

Taking part by  the Federal right was the 3rd Missouri Infantry of Charles. R. Woods' brigade, Peter J. Osterhaus' division, "Blackjack" John Logan's XV Corps of the Army of the Tennessee, led by James B. McPherson.  Their goal was to take a range of hills held by Leonidas Polk's Confederate corps just to the west of what is I75 today.   By doing so, this would keep Polk from reinforcing Confederate on the right of their line.

The charge began between 5:30 and 6:00 p.m. on the evening of May 14th, 1864.  

 

George Barnard photo looking from the Confederate lines towards McPherson's position at Resaca.

 

 Blue-clad soldiers advancing across the Camp Creek valley faced a withering fire, including Pvt. Charles Junghaus of Co. E who was shot in the head.  Comrades carried the soldier to the divisional hospital, which is to the far left of the map below (1st Division, 15th Army Corps) just off the Resaca Road.

And it was there where Pvt. Junghaus died three days later, on May 17th, 1864.  Due to the dire nature of the wound, there was no need to examine the body.  Attendants had merely applied a simple dressing to the soldier's head where a minie ball had pierced the skull.  Consequently, nobody knew the secret the German held when they placed the corpse in the Georgia earth.  It was not until two years later when gravediggers exhuming bodies for reburial in Chattanooga National Cemetery uncovered a mystery that led to another.  Pvt. Junghaus was a woman.

The article, of course, is incorrect.   The regiment should have been the 3rd Missouri, not the 6th.

She was interred in Section K, Grave 9798 in Chattanooga National Cemetery.

 

And yes, her name was spelled multiple different ways in her service records and on her headstone.

You may be wondering how individuals were able to determine her sex two years after she died.  Wouldn't the body have decomposed considerably by that point?

Not necessarily.  Soil content can preserve bodies, especially those that were buried in trenches versus those interred in coffins in individual graves.  In 1866, grave diggers removing bodies of soldiers killed at the Crater in Petersburg observed, 

 

"The corpses were as perfect in flesh as the day they were consigned to the pit, two years before. They were fresh and gory, the blood oozing from their wounds, and saturating still perfect clothing."

 

Fighting at the Crater occurred in July 1864.  So the time frame between interment and re-interment was the same as Resaca:  two years. 

 

And there was a woman discovered at the Crater as well.  Like Pvt. Junghaus, she had been shot in the head.  You can learn more about that woman [here] and [here].  

As for Pvt. Charles Junghaus, you can read more about her experiences in the Civil War [here] and in my book Behind the Rifle:  Women Soldier in Civil War Mississippi.