Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1901-05-02
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! WOMEN WHO FOUGHT. |
Daughters OF America Who
Followed the Flag.
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.

9 Daughters OF America Who
q Followed the Flag. ?
"'VvVvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvs
Very few people have the slightest
conception of how many women entered
Tue army in the war of the rebellion and
carried muskets, tramped through marsh
ana over mountains, bivouacked on the
ploins and lodged rebel shot and shell in
1 1ae forest during the years from 1861 to
ADoo. Mrs. Livermore says in my Rec
objections of the War"
some one has stated the number of
women soldiers known to the service as
li'ue less than 400. l cannot vouch
LOT the correctness of this estimate, but
am convinced that larger number Of
women disguised themselves and enlist
ed IN the service for one cause or an
other than was dreamed of. Intrenched
III secrecy and regarded as men, they
were sometimes revealed as women by
accident or casually. Some startling his
tories of these military women were cur
rent IN the gossip of army life, and ex-
uavagant and unreal as were many Of
me variations one always felt that they
mad foundation in fact
One of the most successful instances Of
Woman's work in the war is a matter of
record in history and dyed deep with the
nood of the brave men who fell during
The tennessee campaign. 1t was a wo-
man who planned that campaign, Miss
anna Ella Carroll of Maryland, lineal
descendant of Charles Carroll of Car
rOIlton. Miss Carroll was a woman of
splendid intellect, great culture and in
tenseIy loyal to the cause of the Union.
She wrote many articles about the causes
leading up to the rebellion and published
several pamphlets in which she discussed
The problem of war and its solution.
President Lincoln was so much impress
ed By her strong personality and thor
| ough knowledge of the situation that she
became one of his trusted advisers and
was admitted to his presence at all times.
Her letters to him, now among docu-
ments of state, had a special pigeonhole
on his desk
The only woman on record as having
regularly enlisted in the war of the re-
bellion as woman was Mrs. Kady
BrOwnwell. She was the daughter of a
ScOtchman an officer in the British army,
and was born in the barracks at Caffarai,
Africa where her father was stationed
in 1912. While visiting in this country
she married a young man in Providence
named Robert S. Brownwell. Mr.. Brown
well enlisted in the First Rhode Island
the day after the colors were seen down
at Fort Sumter.
The First Rhode Island speedily made
up its complement of ten companies of
100 men each and had so many over that
''C,,tN, he slnft
overs and called the "Carbineers'' or
"Sharpshooters," and Kady Brownwell,
regularly enlisted, was made it's color
bearer. Although well versed in the arts
Of English warfare, she set herself to
learn all the Accomplishments" of an
American soldier. She became a skillful
shot with the carbine, and no one in the
regiment was her equal at slashing sa-
Der stroke. She marched beside her hus-
band, asking no favors because of her
SEX carrying her flag and always wear
ing the accouterments of a soldier.
The Nineteenth Illinois had "daugh-
ter of the regiment" in the person of the
wife of its colonel. Nine. Turchin, as she
was always called, was the daughter of a
Russian officer, and, like Kady Brown
well, was born in q foreign camp and
grew up in the midst of wars alarms.
She had been great favorite with her
fathers command and was fond of army
life, so when her husband entered the
army she was not displeased, but follow
ed his fortunes and became as great a ia
vorite in the American as in the Russian
command. She was a woman of splendid
physique and handsome. She was most
intensely loyal to the Union and would go
to even greater length than her husband
in her devotion to her adopted country.
Bridget Devins, better known to the
boys, perhaps, as Fighting Biddy" or
michigan Bridget" was with the First
Michigan cavalry, in which her husband
was a private. She was Irish, with all
the Irish characteristics as to features
and form, and though she had a temper
as warm as her hair was red she was
jolly and full of humor, which made her
a most acceptable companion at all times.
She was an excellent cook, delightful
nurse, crack shot and endowed with
daring disposition which baked at no
step taken in the cause of loyalty. She
marched beside her husband. If a soldier
dropped from the ranks, she seized his
gun and took his place. On the battlefield
she often caught the colors from the
wounded or stampeded standard bearer
and never failed thus to rally the retreat
ing troops. She brought the wounded
from the field and cared for them tender
" When the war was ended and the