Sarah Rosetta Wakeman Sarah Rosetta Wakeman ( January 16 , 1843 – June 19 , 1864 ) is one of several women who disguised themselves as men in order to fight for the Union in the U . S . Civil War . Because she died while still enlisted , no one in the Union Army knew that she was a woman until long after . Sarah Wakeman served in the 153rd Regiment of the New York State Volunteers . Her letters written during her service remained unread for nearly a century because they were stored in the attic of her relatives . Early life . Wakeman was born January 16 , 1843 , in Chenango County , New York , to Harvey Anable Wakeman and Emily Hale Wakeman . Sarah was the oldest of nine children . Wakeman left her home in 1862 and disguised herself as a man to work as a boatman for the Chenango Canal . While on her job she met enlisted men who encouraged her to join the Union Army and she did so on August 30 , 1862 , using the name Lyons Wakeman , and claiming to be 21 years old . The description on her enlistment papers stated that she was five feet tall , fair - skinned , with blue eyes . Military Service . Her regiment was assigned guard duty in Alexandria , Virginia , later to Washington , DC , to protect the nation ' s capital . The first letter Wakeman sent home contained information about why she left home and what she was doing . Wakeman often sent money home in the hope of making amends . Sarah Rosetta Wakeman used her birth name when signing her correspondence ; if her letters had been intercepted , this act could have ended her military career . Wakeman often wrote about being financially independent , something many women of the time wanted . She was religious and proud to be a " good soldier " . The 153rd Regiment was transferred to an active battle field in 1864 . The battle that ensued took place at Pleasant Hill , Louisiana . This force probably numbered around 11 , 000 soldiers . After her arrival she sent her last letter home from the Grand Ecore Landing on the Red River . The last letter Sarah sent reported : " Our army made an advance up the river to Pleasant Hill about . There we had a fight . The first day of the fight our army got whip [ ped ] and we had to retreat back about . The next day the fight was renewed and the firing took place about eight o ' clock in the morning . There was a heavy Cannonading all day and a Sharp firing of infantry . I was not in the first day ' s fight , but the next day I had to face the enemy bullets with my regiment . I was under fire about four hours and laid on the field of battle all night . There was three wounded in my Co . and one killed . I feel thankful to God that he spared my life , and I pray to him that he will lead me safe through the field of battle and that I may return safe home . " Death & Legacy . Of the deceased soldiers Rosetta wrote , they lay " sometimes in heaps and in rows … with distorted features , among mangled and dead horses , trampled in mud , and thrown in all conceivable sorts of places . You can distinctly hear , over the whole field , the hum and hissing of decomposition . " The Red River campaign claimed several lives including Wakeman ' s . She contracted chronic diarrhea which she eventually died of on June 19 , 1864 in the Marine USA General Hospital in New Orleans . Wakeman was not the only one ; thousands of Union soldiers were killed by drinking water contaminated by rotting animals . Wakeman ' s identity was not revealed during her burial as her headstone reads " Lyons Wakeman . "