In an earlier column I reviewed the brief military careers of a few Southern and Northern women who, motivated by love, went a-soldiering, or tried to. This month we will look at the stories of some women who, with motives other than love, served as soldiers, spies, sutlers, smugglers, and strumpets.
Let’s start with a sutler. In October 1861 the Montgomery Mail told of an adjunct to a Louisiana regiment who was passing through the Alabama capital with her boys. “A really beautiful and exquisitely formed lady, a vivandiere, of the 14th Louisiana regiment, was in the city and created considerable curiosity on the street….”
The Montgomery reporter added that the lady was “dressed in full costume” and, perhaps a bit smitten, repeated that she was “very beautiful.” His reaction to the lady’s enchanting appearance may explain the use of the high-sounding French “vivandiere” in place of the plain old Germanic “sutler.”*
A Louisiana newsman liked the term also, but misused it in an earlier article about “The Vivandiere
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of the Monroe Rifles.” In May 1861 the New Orleans Delta reported on a “noble spirited young lady – Miss Leona Neville” who had volunteered to serve. A ceremony was held to present her to the company. She was highly praised for her decision to “brave the dangers of the battle-field.” However, Miss Neville was not a sutler, but a nurse (or infirmère, if you prefer).
Well, that’s enough about sutlers and nurses. The June 1861 Savannah Republican told readers about a woman who joined a Minnesota regiment. She was described as an Amazon (along with Joan of Arc this was a favorite descriptor in these cases) who was “six feet two inches tall… and baffled even the inspection of the surgeon of the regiment in discovering her sex….”
She was outed by somebody who knew her from back home, a printer by trade, “who became shockingly frightened at her threats of vengeance….” After he tattled he vamoosed.
In early 1862 female would-be soldiers were still a novelty. For at least one Southern editor this created an opportunity to ridicule the enemy. In February 1862 the Arkansas True Democrat wrote “The distress among the poor of the North is so great that their papers give account [sic] of women,
dressed in men’s clothes, enlisting as privates in the army. A widow McDonald has been detected in several regiments and discharged as many times.” The editor did not say why he believed that poverty was Mrs. McDonald’s motivation.
In another case, also early in the war, a Southern woman somehow enlisted in a Kentucky Union regiment and used her position to do some spying.
In August 1861 the Cincinnati Commercial reported on her discovery. “A female spy has been discovered in the first Kentucky regiment. She is from Georgia and enlisted in Cincinnati. She was detected by writing information in regard to the movements of our troops to the enemy. She…says she knows the punishment of a spy is death, and is ready for her fate.” After this report the Savannah Republican urged the Confederate government to take action. “We hope our Government will see to it that this patriotic woman does not suffer the penalty of death, whatever may be the ransom.”
A Virginia woman earned her moment of fame with an attempt at smuggling. In October 1862 the Philadelphia Press told the story of Miss Susan Archer Tally of Norfolk. The previous June, she tried to get a supply
of percussion caps through the lines to Richmond by concealing the goods in a coffin and “alleging that the body of her brother was in it.” When the ruse failed “it was determined that she had acted as a spy between the pickets of the two armies.” The effort earned Miss Tally a visit to Fort McHenry. She was locked up, but not for long. On June 28 the authorities turned her loose and sent her home.
The following month the New York Times reported on a more sophisticated operation. “We are informed that some employee in the War Department has forged a pass, permitting three men and a loaded wagon and a team to pass our lines.” The smugglers nearly got away, but were overtaken by cavalry and captured.
In an update, the paper said that in the wagon were not three men but one man and two women, Miss Buckner and her mother Mrs. Taylor. “These parties, who are related to one of the highest officers of the government, so worked upon his confidence as to procure his good offices in securing a pass for themselves, with which they succeeded in getting through our lines….”
Mrs. Taylor was believed to be innocent. There was no doubt, however, about her daughter. A search resulted in the discovery “in [Miss Buckner’s] bustle, of one hundred and seven ounces of quinine, together with a rebel mail — all intended for Richmond; and a further search at Fairfax Court-house brought to light a letter in secret cipher, concealed in her petticoat.”
Further west, two attractive
sisters in Savannah, Tenn., made the news a month after the battle at nearby Shiloh. The Irwin girls professed strong pro-Union sympathies and were believed. Their home became “a general rendezvous for all the young gallants in the service.” One officer was led “to an indiscreet, not to say criminal, revelation of all he knew about the plans of the campaign and the strength of the army. He is reported as a vain man, and flattery rendered him loquacious, until the whole story was known to the sisters.”
I am reminded of a line from an old James Taylor song: “Snakes in the ocean, fish in the sea, I let a red-headed woman make a fool out of me.” The fool in this case was the brother of Governor Yates of Illinois. The information he disclosed was relayed to General Beauregard “before a second day dawned.” The foolish officer was promptly transferred.
That’s one version, given in the May 31 Chicago Times. Version two ran in the Chicago Daily Tribune a week later. Regarding the charming sisters, a correspondent wrote, “That they are rebels, every one knows who ever entered their household….. The only truth contained in the article, is that the house was the resort for our officers; to a certain extent this was true.”
Why were the officers in the Irwin house at all? According to this correspondent “It was a curiosity, to most, to find anything like civilization on the Tennessee River.” Ouch.
It was all lies and politics. “The author of the article either never was in Savannah or wrote what he knew to be false, for the purpose of injuring one who is dearer to the Illinois soldiers than any other – Gov. Yates.”
Let’s not try to reconcile these
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conflicts and instead move on to a story about two other women, cousins this time, Mary and Mollie Bell, aka Tom Parker and Bob Morgan. This tale, like the previous one, has two versions.
The October 1864 Richmond Dispatch gives one account. Mary and Mollie had lived in southwest Virginia with an uncle until the fall of 1862; YES, when he “left them and went over to the Yankees.” Wanting to right this wrong, the sisters “attired themselves in male apparel and were admitted into a cavalry company….” Their company was captured, but all were quickly freed when a Confederate force overtook and scattered their captors. The cousins then left the cavalry for the infantry. They fought bravely with the Thirty-sixth Virginia, shielded from discovery by their company commander who was in on their secret. After their protector was captured at Cedar Creek they were found out and sent to Richmond by General Early. “Bob” and “Tom,” we are told, “were acknowledged by all the soldiers with whom they were associated to be valiant soldiers, having never been known to straggle or shirk duty.” Mollie, in fact, had “killed three Yankees while on picket, and on her return to the brigade was promoted for gallantry to corporalcy.”
The Daily Examiner told a different story. The captain who escorted Mary and Mollie to Richmond said that they were “common camp followers, and that they have been the means of demoralizing several hundred men in his command. They adopted the disguise of soldiers the better to follow the army and hide their iniquity. Beyond a doubt they had been with the army some time, and we have reason to believe that more of the same sort are left in the ranks, marked by a Confederate uniform.”
The Examiner’s version concluded with this judgment: “The country had here an insight into one of the probable causes of the utter worthlessness and inefficiency of some of the commands in the valley.”
So, on Oct. 31, 1864, the Dispatch told a positive story about two patriotic and brave women. The Examiner’s subscribers that day read something less uplifting. Odder than the conflicting accounts is this: the same correspondent submitted both versions to the rival newspapers. I don’t know what to make of that.
A May 1864 issue of the Nashville Dispatch contained an interesting story about women in the Federal army, and one that hints at a corruptive influence greater than the scandal condemned by the Richmond Examiner.
“The official Washington state that upwards of 150 female recruits have been discovered since the commencement of the war. It is supposed that nearly all of these were in collusion with men who were examined and accepted, after which the fair ones managed to substitute themselves and be mustered into service. Over seventy of these martial ladies, when their sex was discovered, were acting as officers’ servants. In one regiment there were seventeen of them in this capacity.” Nothing was said about the duties of these servants.
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Next month we will look at the careers of some of the most famous female participants in the Civil War.
*Merriam-Webster’s online edition states the word “sutler” was first used in English in 1844. It was taken from the Dutch soeteler, which was derived from a Low German word meaning “sloppy worker.” The French means the same thing, but it does sound better.