How Many Women Soldiers Were There? Solving for X.

I address this topic in my book as well as in the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) section found in the menu at the top of my blog.  But I wanted to expand on it here.   First of all, as a mathematics instructor, I can tell you that you can make numbers say pretty much anything you want.  Trust me.  I have had some rather innovative students, and I have marveled at their creations.  Now, some of them were wrong, but creative nevertheless.

So what do the numbers say regarding women soldiers of the Civil War? 

Battle of Allatoona Pass - 155 Years Later

A woman soldier lost her life in a horrifying manner 155 years ago during a nasty little fight just north of Atlanta. She and a few other of her sister soldiers fell in the Battle of Allatoona Pass, which can be viewed as a footnote to the Atlanta Campaign or an introduction to the ill-fated Franklin-Nashville venture.

Atlanta fell to the Federals a month prior, on September 1st.  However, John Bell Hood continued to lurk in the area and decided to attack the Federal supply base at Allatoona, located along Western and Atlantic railroad.  William T. Sherman ordered Brigadier General John Corse stationed in Rome to defend the pass and the stores at Allatoona.  There, on October 5th, 1864, he clashed with Confederate troops commanded by New Jersey native Major General Samuel French.

Samuel French's map of Allatoona
From Two Wars:  The Autobiography of Samuel G. French (1901)

Battle of Port Gibson

The Battle of Port Gibson was a delaying action undertaken by Confederates to show General Ulysses S. Grant's advance to Vicksburg.   Outnumbered approximately three to one, General John S. Bowen commanded Confederate forces consisting of a few brigades that faced two Federal corps under John McClernand and James McPherson.

battlefields.org

A Monument to a Civil War Woman Soldier?

There aren't many monuments to women soldiers in our country.  There's a statue of Deborah Sampson that stands outside the public library in Sharon, Massachusetts.

https://ournewenglandlegends.com/podcast-98-an-infantryman-named-robert/

My Appearance on C-SPAN2's Book TV

On Saturday, August 17th, I had the privilege to participate in a panel discussion on the Civil War at the Mississippi Book Festival.  John Marszalek, Ben Wynne, Jacquelyn Hal, and I all enjoyed speaking about our recent books detailing lesser known aspects of the Civil War.  Follow the link to watch the video:

https://www.c-span.org/video/?463290-11/author-discussion-civil-war-south&playEvent=&fbclid=IwAR0KuYxH-DN3HWP5XIqQAdrlBDUtmf813l0N38u4tTQm_qc32ztZlpJZfQc



Until next formation.....rest.

Video - 155th Anniversary of the Battle of the Crater

Today marks the 155th anniversary of the Battle of the Crater, and I wanted to share a video Mark and I made with a good friend of ours, Aaron Rowland, who is a ranger at Petersburg National Battlefield.  In it, we discuss the battle and the woman soldier whose body was discovered there.

Click [HERE] to read an earlier post I wrote about this topic.

Video: Jennie Hodgers's Name Etched on the Illinois Monument, Vicksburg National Military Park

Next time you visit the battlefield in Vicksburg, find the name of "Albert D. J. Cashier" on a tablet inside the Illinois monument.  That is the male alias of Jennie Hodgers who served throughout the war in the 95th Illinois Infantry.  In this video, I show you where it is.  How many more such names do we gaze upon that are actually hidden women?

Until next formation....rest.

Women Soldiers and Suicide

I tried to compose this post weeks ago.  But other projects kept coming up, and I had to put this one aside.  And then in the matter of a week, I learned that two friends lost their sons to suicide.  The younger one was only sixteen.   They  both succumbed to depression.  I still hurt for them.  My thoughts soon turned back to this post, and I immediately dismissed it as one that needed to remain hidden.  But it kept creeping back into my consciousness, and I relented.

The following women did not meet their fates on a battlefield as others did.  As a matter of fact, only one of them may have encountered the enemy at all.  Instead, the foe these women faced was within themselves, and they either perished by their own hand - or nearly did.  Their stories are tragic and should be told.  We should remember them not completely out of pity, but because they provide us with a connection to our own flawed, mortal, and often wounded psyche.

Video: Watch Mark and Me on the Tony Tone Show

Video: Follow in the Footsteps of a Female Participant in Thayer's Assault at Vicksburg

Today is the 156th anniversary of the Federals' second assault at Vicksburg and the last before Grant laid siege to the river city. During this assault , Brigadier General John M. Thayer attacked a Confederate fort across challenging terrain. Check out the video Mark and I made in which we navigate Thayer's approach. Interestingly, a woman soldier serving in the 3rd Missouri Infantry (US) was among the Federal element of Woods' brigade providing support.

We made this video in October 2018 prior to the release of my book, Behind the Rifle. But now that it's out, you can read all about "Charles Junghaus." She is buried in Chattanooga National Cemetery.

Until next formation....rest.