William Faulkner's Connection With Women Soldiers

A collection of Faulkner's short stories were originally published as a whole in 1938 as The Unvanquished.  Mississippi serves as the setting for the stories, which revolve around the Sartoris family during the war and Reconstruction.  One of the characters is Drusilla who goes off to fight with her uncle in order to avenge the deaths of her fiancee and father.


The book is available for purchase as a hard copy, Nook, or Kindle versions.

(Warning:  "insensitive" language) 

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Woman Soldier Discovered at the Crater

In the pre-dawn hours on July 30th, 1864, the Federals exploded a mine amidst the Confederate defenses during the siege of Petersburg.  The result was a crater approximately 170 feet long, 70 feet wide, and 30 feet deep (measurements vary by source).  Attacking Union soldiers charged around and into the pit. The Confederates recovered from the initial shock of the blast and counterattacked the confused and vulnerable Yankees. What became known as the Battle of the Crater proved to be a debacle for the Northern troops while Confederate Brigadier General William Mahone called it a "turkey shoot." Indeed, that moniker proved to be quite accurate as soldiers in gray picked off soldiers in blue trapped in the crater, which ultimately served as a cemetery.

Two years later in 1866, grave diggers in the process of unearthing remains there for reburial discovered the body of a Federal woman in uniform among the male soldiers. The workers noticed that her body was in an "excellent state of preservation." Her hair had been cut short, and she had a delicate face. The cause of death was a gunshot wound through the head. 

Others explained why the bodies were well preserved two years after the Crater.  "One fact has been demonstrated, which is undeniable, that the soil possesses great preserving qualities."  The individual went on to provide a grisly description of the bodies.  "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."  

Unfortunately, that is all that is known about the woman soldier whose life came to a tragic end that early summer morning.  According to newspaper articles of the day, gravediggers placed her in a coffin and took her off to be reburied with the rest of her male comrades.  A search of burial records revealed that the soldiers unearthed at the Crater were reinterred at Poplar Grove National Cemetery, so she is more than likely one of the many unknowns who rest there today.  Unfortunately, the register does not reveal exactly where.

There is some question as to where exactly she was killed.  The newspaper article noted that her body was discovered "a short distance in front of that famous place [Crater]."  That seems to indicate that she was not killed in the Crater itself but rather in no man's land.  However, she certainly could have been killed in the Crater, and her body tossed out by the Confederates as they rebuilt the walls around the gigantic hole in the ground.  We will probably never know for sure.

The Crater, 2014
Photo by Mark Hidlebaugh

See a video I made on the 155th anniversary of this woman's untimely death.

Confederate Woman Captured at Charles City Courthouse

On our way to Williamsburg back in July, we decided to make a spontaneous side trip to Charles City. I knew there was a Confederate woman captured there during a raid in December, 1863, and wanted to see if anything still existed. There were a few things including the courthouse, a monument to the Confederate soldiers, and, much to my surprise and delight, this plaque mentioning the captured woman! The reference comes from Bradney Griffin, an assistant surgeon with the 1st NY Mounted Rifles. Part of the letter to his father contained, "Among the prisoners was a female soldier, a woman of about 20 years. She had male attire, and used her rifle against us, as well as the rest. She has been in several engagements, Bull Run, Chancellorsville, etc." (Photo by Mark Hidlebaugh; Griffin letter mentioned in Blanton and Cook "They Fought Like Demons" p. 18 and also found in a New York Times article from 2000 

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/12/weekinreview/word-for-word-letters-home-the-myriad-ways-in-which-war-has-been-hell.html?src=pm&pagewanted=1

The Real Ellen Levasay

Ellen Levasay is a woman soldier mentioned as having served in a Confederate Missouri unit and captured at Vicksburg. 

Women of Shiloh

In 1934, a gardener named Mancil Milligan was working his land which bordered the Shiloh battlefield when he unearthed 9 bodies of soldiers, bits of uniform, and parts of their gear. Scientists were called in to examine the remains. The results were startling. One of the soldiers, they concluded, was a woman.  I spoke with Mancil Milligan, Jr. who said he recalls his father telling him about the scientists visiting his home and telling him about the woman.  He still possesses artifacts from the site which were passed down from his father.

The nine bodies were reburied in the national cemetery in section R, grave, 3633. 

This was not the only woman who met her fate during the bloody battle of Shiloh.  An Illinois soldier on burial detail discovered a female among the dead Confederates.  She had been shot through the head.  Unfortunately, he did not give any more details other than he thought she had been an officer.  Additionally, two laundresses with the 16th Wisconsin were killed while running to the rear during the opening shots of the engagement.

Photo by Mark Hidlebaugh

You can read more about these women at Shiloh by clicking [HERE].