Julia Underhill: "Don't Forget Me," Part 2

In my previous article, I shared the first part of Julia Rundlett Underhill's story.  She was born in Maine and had married Leemon Underhill, who did not meet her father's approval.  The couple moved initially to Minnesota and then to Wisconsin.  Things were going well until Leemon enlisted in the 1st Wisconsin Heavy Artillery and marched away to garrison Fort Jackson in southern Louisiana.  With her husband absent, Julia found it increasingly difficult to take care of their two daughters and fend off unwanted attention from men.  The tense situation she discovered herself in ultimately drove her back east - to Massachusetts where two of her aunts lived.  And it was from there where she sent Leemon a letter in 1864, informing him that she had become a "good looking boy."  Click [HERE] to read part one.

Rosetta's Real Life "Mercy Street" in New Orleans

http://thecivilwarparlor.tumblr.com/

Continuing with the theme of women soldiers and their hospital experiences, this blog post details that of Sarah Rosetta Wakeman, whose story has been highly publicized in books, articles, and blogs since Lauren Cook introduced us to the woman warrior in 1994 through her wartime letters in An Uncommon Soldier.

The 5'0" tall, blue-eyed farm girl was financially driven to enlist in the 153rd New York Infantry on August 30th, 1862.  As a "man," she would make more money than she ever would as a woman.  Rosetta sent a portion of her soldier's pay home to Afton, New York in order to help alleviate the debt her family had accrued.  (Uncommon Soldier, p. 9)

In February, 1864, the 153rd was transferred from Washington D.C to Louisiana where they would participate in Major General Nathanial Banks' Red River Campaign.   During the ill-fated venture, Federal troops experienced bad water, bad food and fatigue from hundreds of miles of hard marching in the burning heat and suffocating humidity of Louisiana's subtropical climate.  The stress of dealing with all of these hardships took its toll as soldiers began to succumb to a variety of diseases.  Private Wakeman was one of them.