Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1880-08-26
FEMALE SOLDIERS.
Women Who Have Preferred Rzt-
tle-Fields to Home.

III AoAaC0 0ASAlll1fudll uc Lei
thorst. Her parents seem tC
have been neglectfni to her, bui
the girls character was resolute
She dressed as a man, called
herself Monsieur lie Baron dc
Leithorst, and became page tc
the Baron dee Halden, Regens-
barg, the ambassador of the
Bishop of Wurtzburg to the
Court in that town. Afterward
she went to Vienna and enlisted
as a soldier in the Imperial army.
She served seven years as a ca
Diet in the regiment of Francis
de Lorraine, in Hungary, and
only during a sickness was her
sex discovered. She became a
Lieutenant, and was dismissed
from the service with a life PEN
sion. She dressed in male at
tire until her death, in 1748.
Leonora Prohaska fell in an
engagement on the Gorde, Sep
tember 16, 1918, a bullet having
pierced her breast. When she
felt that she was dying she re-
vealed to her comrades that she
was a young woman, and that
her name was Leonora Prohas-
ka, and not Charles REM. Her
friend, Carolina Peters, known
as Charles Peterson, was more
fortunate. She participated IN
the campaigns of 1873 and 1914,
was decorated with the Order
Of the Iron Cross on account of
her bravery, and was honorably
discharged from the army at the
end of the war, when she declar-
ed her sex. She was afterward
married to the captain of an
English trading vessel, whom
she accompanied ON his travels,
and with whom she visited her
relatives at Stettin in 1874.
In the pages of All the Year
Round, 1874, we read of one wo-
man making her 'feld of fame"
on the deck of a British man-of-
war. On the 18th of April,
1871, in the West Indies, Lord
Rodney gained his great victory
over the French feet, COM
by Admiral the Count
de Grasse, and a daughter of
shared in the honcrs
of that memorable day. After
the surrender of the French dag
ship Vile de Harve, one hue
lred guns, to R0dney's flag ship,
Formidable, sixty-four gun8 "a
woman who had, contrary to
5he rules of the navy, secreted
herself in her husbands cabin,
and fought a quarterback gun
n the room of her husband, who
vas down in cockpit, was dis
covered. Lord Rodney severely
'eprimanded her for breach of
orders, but gave her Immediately
lfterward ten guineas for so val
antly sutaining the post of her
wounded husband"
The life of Mary Ann Talbot,
IN illegitimate daughter of the
Earl of Talbot, was one of re-
adventure. Born in
london on February 2, 1778,she
he was well educated at the ex-
,ense of her father. When only
bout fourteen she was induced
o run away from school by q
Japtain Bowen, with whom she
wed short time in London.
he then went with his regiment
o the West Indies; served af-
erward as a drummer at the
eige OF Valenciennes, where
he Captain was killed, and the
girl left fiiendless. She
ontrived to reach the coast, and
hipped as a boy on board a
'rench privateer. This vessel
yas captured by one of the ships
f Lord Howe's fleet,and, the op-
ortunity being open to her, Mary
abbot entered the British navy.
he served in many actions, was
everal times a prisoner Of war,
nd finally, 1886, when suffering
'om a shattered leg, was com
lissioned a Midshipman and
ischarged from the service.
ubsequently, Queen Charlotte
ranted her pension of 920.
V hen recovered OF her wounds
ne went to America, working
er way thither as steward Of
merchant ship, on board of
hich, it is said, she was oblig-
! to reveal her sex in order to
pei the amorous advances of
lie captains daughter. After IL
,ng absence, little being known
her exploits in the meantime.
le again appeared in London,
rom this point her subsequent
fe was one of great wretched-
ess and poverty, and she was
in Newgate under
ping Imprisonment for debt.
mt Of prison she assumed a
lriety of characters, being sail
:, actress, peddler and footpad
Y turns. The date of her death
unknown. A few years ago