Talk:Sarah Taylor (vivandière)

message: According to The Imagined Civil War: Popular Literature of the North & South, 1861-1865
by Alice Fahs, the story of Sarah Taylor originated in Metta V. Victor's June 1862 work The Unionist's Daughter: A Tale of the Rebellion in Tennessee; Sarah Taylor's story appears in a letter--allegedly written in the camp of the 1st Tennessee Regiment--to make the overall novel sound more authentic. While there was a 1st Tennessee Cavalry Regiment, neither Captain Sarah Taylor nor Captain Dowden, her alleged stepfather, is listed among its officers. I can find no confirmation of Sarah's existence beyond Victor's novel and anecdotal books that quote it. -- Rhysdux
::Thanks for pointing this out, I'm going to have to nominate this for deletion at some point. Asarelah (talk) 11:45, 16 July 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Subject Appears to be Fictional 

message: Captain James A. Doughty was the name of Sarah Jane's stepfather; "Dowden" is a typo. Also, the above link is a Cavalry roster for the Confederacy. Sarah Jane and her stepfather fought for the Union. The National Park Service keeps records of Union soldiers. http://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-soldiers-detail.htm?soldierId=61D87897-DC7A-DF11-BF36-B8AC6F5D926A
Women soldiers were not listed on the muster; they had unofficial roles and were not formally enlisted or compensated. She was also called Sallie and more commonly, Jennie by family members. An autobiography of her account can be found in the book, "The Taylors and Related Families of Anderson County." A facsimile of her handwritten journal was donated to the McClung Archives and the Tennessee State Library and Archives. She gives a detailed account of how she left East Tennessee, where her own family members fought on different sides of the war. Most of her journey was made by foot, but she also boarded a Confederate stage coach in Clinton. Her reasoning was that the "proprietor of the stage route, and the owner of the stage being very much a Southern Rights man, (she) anticipated no danger of detection, or arrest by the rebels, feeling perfectly confident they would not even think of a Unionist who was "running away," as they term it, taking conveyance by means of a Secession stage."
Her journal accounts for some of the press that she received, in that she was an active fighter with the Regiment: She writes: "I have been advised to relinquish so masculine a notion and go into the hospital." She also writes: "I am not at all ignorant of the many, very many, sarcastic remarks to which I am subject. But everything connected with my position was perfectly considered before I undertook it. I have not made any kind of an effort to please the world in doing as I have, but have done what I considered my duty, therefore independently of uncalled for commentators, do I proudly enter the service of my Country. It is my own free choice, after again and again considering the matter, to do so. The battlefield is my preference to any position in life that could possibly be given me." 
She was arrested on June 19, 1862 in Jacksonboro wearing the uniform of a Fille du Regiment per the SAVANNAH [GA] REPUBLICAN, June 27, 1862. http://www.uttyler.edu/vbetts/women_soldiers.htm
Whoever originally started this article had pretty suspect information. Besides listing her as a Confederate soldier, they did not have correct days of birth/death and listed an unrelated alias. I came upon this wikipedia entry whilst researching my great-grandmother, who was Sarah Jane Taylor. She later married Alfred A. McPheeters. Alfred also served with the 1st Regiment Tennessee Volunteer Infantryhttp://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-soldiers-detail.htm?soldierId=9875C6B9-DC7A-DF11-BF36-B8AC6F5D926A. They were married on April 9, 1966 and had nine children together.
The "Joan of Arc" quote is attributed to the Cincinnati Times. In 1861, The Cincinnati Times caught up with the 1st Regiment Tennessee Volunteer Infantry on their way to Camp Wildcat:
INCIDENTS OF THE BATTLE OF WILDCAT.
208.127.206.35 (talk) 19:42, 13 January 2015 (UTC)
thread_title: Subject Verifiable