Soldiers Rest in Alexandria, Virginia

 In a previous post [click here], I shared a part of a letter written by Sgt. William Henry Austin of the 109th New York Infantry.  He knew Rosetta Wakeman from back home and mentioned that he encountered her at Soldiers Rest in Alexandria, Virginia.  What is interesting is that at the time, she was serving as Pvt. Lyons Wakeman in the 153rd New York Infantry and sported an "insipid moustache."  Despite the disguise, Austin nevertheless recognized her.  In this post, I wanted to share images and information of Soldiers Rest where he encountered her prior to the 153rd New York's assignment to the western theater where Wakeman and her regiment participated in the ill-fated Red River Campaign.  Rosetta ultimately would not live to see the end of the war as she succumbed to dysentery in June 1864.

Rosetta Wakeman sans "insipid moustache"

My Central Louisiana Talks, 3/4 and 3/5

About five years ago, I posed a question on a message board regarding a flag. Richard Holloway responded. And we went from talking about flags to women soldiers. Of course. Unbeknownst to me, he was (and is) the president of the Civil War Round Table of Central Louisiana based in the Alexandria/Pineville area. The next thing I knew, he invited me to speak at a meeting. The last time I taught anything history related was in the spring of 1997 when I did my student teaching. Since then, it's been all math. So yeah, I was hesitant. But then I began to welcome the challenge of putting together a power point presentation on women soldiers. It was exciting. But boy was I nervous when I spoke for the first time at that meeting in March, 2010. I enjoyed the experience and gradually started giving more presentations on women soldiers.