The Savannah morning news., 1901-02-23

the Feminine Warrior Was Dis
covered-No Doubt Many Served
Their Time and Were Mustered
Ont as Men without Discovery.
From the Washington Post.
The discovery following the. death In
New York the other day of Murray Han
that this we'll known Tammany politician.
roisterer, and "all-around sport" of thirty
years standing was not a man at all.
but woman, has brought to light mum
Der of revelations concerning women who
have successfully masqueraded as men In
peace and war. A Washington man who
has been in the War Department for more
than forty years, and who during the civil
War kept a record of all the cases thai
came to his notice wherein women were
discovered under arms in both services.
Federal and Confederate, gave the writer
hereof access to his women soldiers"
data the other day. and the matter is
both peculiar and interesting.
Physical examination for enlistment dur
ing the Civil War did not amount TO much
more than the recruiting officers eye
measurement of the applicants inches.
If the applicant appropriated feet in
hight and was not obviously blind. halt,
lame. or deaf and dumb admission TO the
ranks was given, and this was partic-
uiarly the case when the war had been
IN progress for couple OF years. The
wonder does not, therefore, seem so
great that a considerable number of wo-
men actually soldiered as uniformed men
during vii .
these adventurous women enlisted on the
Union side, and their sex in most cases
was only revealed when they were wound
ed in action. There We're doubtless many
more women who enlisted in the armies
on both sides as men than the records
show-women who, having escaped
wounds and detection. were mustered out
at the close of their enlistments, or al the
conclusion of the war; without their ac-
-tual sex becoming known to their Off
GERS or comrades. 1t, seems almost in.
credible that some of these women, whose
cases are well authenticated, should have
carried out their 4 6leceptions with such
success under difficult circumstances but
the fact remains that very few of them
were discovered to be women through thelr
poor acting of their soldierly ro,es
A girl of. twentY-two, named Frances
Hook, who Is described as ''of about me-
dunn height, with dark hazel eyes, dark
brown hair. rounded features and fetni-
nine voice and appearance" enlisted with
her brother in the Sixty-fifth Illinois
Home Guards shortly after the beginning
of the Civil War She and her brother
were orphans. In enlisting the girl as
sumed the name of Frank Miller. She
served three months and was mustered
out without the. slightest suspicion as to
her sex having arisen. Her brother was
Killed lin action soon. after he enlisted.
After receiving her three months dis
charge the girl ."Erank Miller rs,erlisted
in the Union army. zthis time in the
Nineteth Illinois.
She was taken prisoner in battle
near Chattanooga lie attempting to
escape she was shot through the calf of
the right leg. The Confederate so diers
who picked her up Searched her for pa
pers. and discovered her sex The Con-
federates respected hem sex and gave her
separate room In thGN military prison at
Atlanta. The girl claimed that during
her captivity she received letter from
Jefferson Davis Offering her a lieutenants
commission if she would accept the Con-
federate service but this fact has never
been verified. The girl had no home and
no relatives but she said that she would
rather fight private soldier for the
Stars and STRIPES than accept any com
mission up to that of lieutenant general
in the Confederate army. She swas even
tually exchanged. She said upon reach
ing the North that her captors had tried
to extort from her a promise that she
would go home and not enter the Union
service again.
go homer" she replied GO home and
my brother the only relative I had In
the world, killed by my side at Pittsburg
Landing? I'VE got no home, until the
war is over"
This young woman's subsequent career
in the service if. indeed, she again fe-en-
listed, is not known.
The brother of a young Ohio girl had
enlisted and she determined to join him
She was inspected, accepted and sworn
in with the rest of her company. The
companysmarched to Camp Jackson, Ohio.
and drilled there tor several days, when
the girl was sent with the Third Ohio
Regiment to Camp Dehnison, near Gin
cinnati. Here she assisted in all the du-
ties of forming a new camp, handling
lumber, doing sentry duty, etc, for
couple of weeks, when, ascertaining for
the first time that there were two Camp
Dennisons, and that her brother was sta
toned in the other one, near Lancaster
Pa, she went to her commanding officer.
Col Morrow, and requesed to be trans
ferred to the Camp Dennison in Pennsyl-
vania. giving as her reason that she pre-
ferred to associate with Americans, and
that most of the men in the outfit to
which she was attached were foreigners
Col. Morrow, shrewd man, discovered
the girls sex, and dismissed her from the
camp.
A bright little girl OF ~ years ~ age
enlisted as a drummer boy in one OF the
Pennsylvania regiments in the early pc
Rod of the war. She gave the name OF