Early War Alabama Woman Soldier?

 I've dabbled with AI to animate photos of woman soldiers, which you can see on my YouTube channel.  I've got others I have not publicized yet but will at some point.  I want to go back and re-work some of them.  But they're neat, and I've used some in my presentations to add to the attendees' experience.  AI is controversial today, but it can certainly serve as a positive tool.  In the case of historical topics, these enhanced photos and videos can humanize the individuals we study and bring them closer to us.

 You can find various AI videos on YouTube.  Some are great.  Others are goofy.  I came across this video I found especially intriguing because it contains a couple of Civil War women soldiers. 

Spanish Fort: Two Women Soldiers Experience One of the Last Engagements of the War

In the spring of 1865, the Confederacy was in its final death throes.  Lee was being run into the ground by Grant in the east.  And then in the west, the Federals had turned their attention to capturing Mobile, which was one of the best fortified cities in the Confederacy.  Admiral David Farragut damned the torpedoes and, on August 5th, 1864, made a run past Forts Gaines and Morgan which guarded the the entrance to Mobile Bay.   This is ironic because Farragut spent his childhood on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, about 30 miles from Mobile.  He was born in Tennessee but moved with his family to the Gautier area.  You can pronounce it as either GO-shay or GO-chay.  Both will work.  But some sources say it wasn't Gautier anyway but Pascagoula.  My research points towards Gautier.  There is a Farragut Lake north of Gautier, and there are still descendants of the admiral's in the area.  Matter of fact, I have played tennis with/against one.

Battle of Fort Blakeley-150 Years Ago Today

Today, April 9th, marks the 150th anniversary of the capitulation of Fort Blakeley and the end of the Mobile Campaign. At least one of the soldiers present was a woman, Jennie Hodgers, alias "Albert Cashier," of the 95th Illinois Infantry, which was commanded by Colonel Leander Blanden.

Hodgers, an Irish immigrant, had seen action with the 95th from the beginning and was involved in the unit's last engagements of the war. 

150th Anniversary of the Battle of Bentonville

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the first day of the 3-day battle of Bentonville.  There was at least one woman who participated, Margaret Plyler Torry.  On April 11th, 1865, the Charlotte Western Democrat ran an article from two Raleigh papers, the Progress and Daily Conservative detailing her story, the former of which incorrectly calling her "Plyde."

Annie Wittenmyer's Encounter With a Woman Soldier

From Wikipedia

Born in Sandy Springs, Ohio in 1827,  Annie Wittenmyer became active in social reform and relief work after marrying and moving to Keokuk, Iowa in 1850.  During the Civil War, she traveled to hospitals to provide aid and improve the horrible conditions she found there.  It was during her journeys when she encountered the same woman soldier on two occasions, events she recorded in her memoirs.

The woman, a Union soldier, initially refused to tell Wittenmyer her name or where she was from for fear of the newspapers learning her identity and publishing the information.  But she did share her story with Annie.

Unlike many women soldiers, she did not follow a loved one off to war.  As a matter of fact, she claimed that she didn't know anybody in her regiment.  Her reason for enlisting: "I thought I'd like camp-life, and I did."  Wittenmyer described her as ".....stout and muscular, with heavy features, high cheek bones, and her black abundant hair ....cut very close.  She was perhaps twenty-six or twenty-eight years old, but when in her military rig looked like a beardless boy."