When I was a wee baby dyke of only 19, I was in college at Central Michigan University and floundering to find a major area of study that I could excel in. I kept finding myself more and more in the company of women who were part of the women's studies program there. With the help of a couple of guiding professors who later became advisors, I became a history major with a women's studies minor (the only available degree option in women's studies at the time). While I like to say I spent my college years studying women, I did actually do enough work to graduate. I wish I had pictures now of Dr. Carol Green-Devens Ramirez, and Dr. Claudia Clark. But alas, that was before these interwebs had the possibility of recording our every move. Sarah Emma Edmonds (1841-1898) was the first woman I ever wrote a paper on. Professor Carol Green-Devens was then editor of the Michigan Historical Review at Clarke Historical Library where some of Sarah Emma Edmonds' papers were kept. During the Civil War, Sarah enlisted in the 2nd Michigan Infantry as Franklin Thompson. She at first served as a male field nurse, participating in several campaigns under General McClellan, including the First andSecond Battle of Bull Run, Antietam, the Peninsula Campaign, Vicksburg, and others. I was particularly intrigued by the story I read which said she was prompted to join the army by a book she had read in her youth about a girl named Fanny Campbell and her adventures on a pirate ship dressed as a man. In 1864 Boston publisher DeWolfe, Fiske, & Co. published Edmonds' account of her military experiences as The Female Spy of the Union Army. One year later her story was picked up by a Hartford, CT publisher who issued it with a new title, Nurse and Spy in the Union Army. It was a huge success, selling in excess of 175,000 copies. In 1867, she married L. H. Seelye, a Canadian mechanic with whom she had three children. Her two sons and her daughter died young, so she adopted two boys. In 1886, she received a government pension of $12 a month for her military service, and after some campaigning, gained an honorable discharge. In 1897, she became the only woman admitted to the Grand Army of the Republic, the Civil War Union Army veterans' organization. Edmonds died in La Porte, Texas and is buried in Washington Cemetery in Houston, Texas. She was a civil war hero and should be remembered as such. She was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame in 1992. Edmonds book was reprinted again in 1999 with a new title, Memoirs of a Soldier, Nurse and Spy. While I did extensive study on her in the early 1990's and drew from original documents, I have outrageously plagiarized Wikipedia for this bio.For more information on Sarah Emma Edmonds, see Michigan Women's Historical Center and Hall of Fame page, Memoirs of A Soldier, Nurse and Spy, or go go Wikipedia or Google to find out more.
6 Comments
Christina (Garcia) Landino
3/26/2012 08:53:28 am
It's awesome to read about such heroic women when the times called for men to be men and women to be mothers. it's hard to imagine the amount of courage it took for Emonds to leave what society told her was the norm and go out and forge her own destiny.
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Dawn
3/26/2012 09:59:14 am
That is precisely why I started this project. I need inspiration!
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Auntikrist
3/26/2012 02:06:59 pm
More, please!
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6/15/2012 08:14:17 pm
Excellent! I admire all the helpful data you've shared in your articles. I'm looking forward for more helpful articles from you. :)
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8/22/2012 02:19:14 pm
I have read your article, I am very much impressed because you way of explanation quite good and very informative. And one more thing I have got to know that everyone has a different style to write the article, but I must say your article sounds very good.
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