In this video, Mark and I talk about Federal efforts to dig canals to facilitate their goal of investing the city of Vicksburg, deemed to be the "key" to a Union victory by President Abraham Lincoln. A camp was established at Lake Providence to serve as a base while these operations were going on. Among the soldiers there were at least two women soldiers. In this video, we talk about this location and the women there.
For more, read this previous blog post [HERE].
"One of the members of the 1st Kansas Reg't died in the Hospital yesterday after a very short illness. After death the somewhat startling discovery was made by those preparing the body for burial, that their companion, beside whom they had marched and fought for nearly two years was a woman. You can imagine their astonishment. The Reg't is camped near us and I went to the Hospital and saw her. She was of pretty good size for a woman with rather masculine features. She must have been very shrewd to keep her secret for so long when she was surrounded by several hundred men. The 1st Kansas was one of the first Regiments that entered the service two years ago. This girl enlisted when they went to Missouri, so they knew nothing of her early history. She doubtless served under an assumed name. Poor girl! Who knows what trouble, grief, or persecution drove her to embrace the hardships of a soldier's life. She had always sustained an excellent reputation in the Regiment. She was brave as a Lion in battle and never flinched from the severest fatigues or the hardest duties. She had been in more than a dozen battles and skirmishes. She was a Sergeant when she died. The men in the company all speak of her in terms of respect and affection She would have been promoted to a Lieutenancy in a few days if she had lived."
