They Didn't Just Enlist in Wartime, Part 2

In my last blog post, I shared an article about a New York woman who enlisted in 1855, before the war.  Click [HERE] for it.  The following appeared in the Davenport Daily Gazette in October 1865, relating a brief story about an Iowa woman who had been serving at Camp McClellan six months after Lee surrendered.

Searching for Sophronia: Sophronia Smith Hunt, 29th Iowa Infantry

Satronia is how her name appeared in her obituary that was carried by newspapers from across the country.  Though she died in August 1928, she just received a headstone on Veterans Day, 2016.  She had lain in an unmarked grave for over 80 years.   Click (HERE) to read more.

Sophrona's marker with her husband's in the background

Fool Me Once...

The two nurses moved about the steamship headed south, the vessel carrying them and the soldiers toward their fate.  The women wondered how many of these boys would not make the return trip home.  They knew the blue-clad warriors were pondering the same possibility, and so the ladies began to hand out handkerchiefs to them in hopes the pieces of cloth would perhaps remind them of the home they just left behind and help ease their mind in the turbulent times to come.