The Town She Left Behind, Part 2

In my last post, I provided a glimpse of La Moille, Illinois, the town woman soldier Frances Hook left behind when she enlisted as a soldier.  Click [HERE] for the post.  In this article....which is more like part 1.5 instead of part 2....I discuss the means by which she left her small town, bound for Chicago.

Women Prisoners of Camp Douglas

Here is a short video about the women discovered at Camp Douglas in Chicago in July, 1862. Only one of them, Bridget Higgins, an Irish immigrant, may have actually fought as a soldier with her husband in a Confederate artillery unit (Richard Hall, Women on the Civil War Battlefront, p. 147). These women originally arrived at Camp Randall in Wisconsin on May 28, 1862. However, upon expressing a desire to remain with their loved ones, officials honored their wish and chose not to reveal their identities when they were sent to Camp Douglas. (George Levy, To Die in Chicago, p. 89-90; he cites the Official Records,  series 2, volume 4, p. 228-229