page_title: Frances Clayton
hierarchical_section_title: Frances Clayton
caption_attribution_description: English: Frances Clalin, disguised as a man, served in the 44th Regiment, Missouri Artillery, Company I for 3 months and in the 13th Missouri Cavalry, Company A, for 19 months and returned to Minneapolis after service.
context_page_description: Frances Louisa Clayton, also recorded as Frances Clalin, was an American woman who purportedly disguised herself as a man to fight for the Union Army in the American Civil war. Under the alias Jack Williams, she claimed to have enlisted in a Missouri regiment along with her husband, and fought in several battles. She claimed that she left the army soon after her husband died at Stones River.
  Newspaper reports indicate that Clayton served in both cavalry and artillery units. Her story became known and widely circulated after her service, though each account contains contradictory, and in some cases dubious, information about her life and supposed service. Several photographs of Clayton, including images of her in uniform, are known to exist. However, little else is known of her life and no official military record exists of her service.
context_section_description: Frances Louisa Clayton (c. 1830 – after 1863), also recorded as Frances Clalin, was an American woman who purportedly disguised herself as a man to fight for the Union Army in the American Civil war. Under the alias Jack Williams, she claimed to have enlisted in a Missouri regiment along with her husband, and fought in several battles. She claimed that she left the army soon after her husband died at Stones River.
  Newspaper reports indicate that Clayton served in both cavalry and artillery units. Her story became known and widely circulated after her service, though each account contains contradictory, and in some cases dubious, information about her life and supposed service. Several photographs of Clayton, including images of her in uniform, are known to exist. However, little else is known of her life and no official military record exists of her service.
caption: Frances Clayton in uniform. From the collection of the Minnesota Historical Society.
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