Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction, and the story of Sarah Emma Edmondson, daughter of an Irish Immigrant falls directly in that category. I recently read her book "Nurse and Spy in the Union Army" - a best seller in the mid 1800's with over 170,000 copies sold. (Uncle Tom's Cabin, the most popular book of the era sold 330,000 copies at the time.)
Her story is better than most fiction from the Civil War. Imagine a woman disguised as a man, who volunteers to disguise herself as a woman to spy against the enemy? But let's start with her background. Her mother came from Ireland before the war and married a Scottish Immigrant she met in Canada. Sarah was born in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia in 1841.
Growing up in a farming family in Nova Scotia at that time was tough and Sarah developed a wanderlust at an early age. She had read about the fictional lady pirate, Captain Fanny Campbell, and admired her courage and ability to command a pirate ship. After reading the book she wrote in her diary “I felt as if an angel had touched me with a live coal from off the altar….I went home that night with the problem of my life solved.” But she also noted a perceived flaw in Fanny and wrote “I regretted that she had no higher ambition than running after a man.”
Sarah Edmondson
A major life change was forced upon her at age 17 when her strict father decided to marry her of to a much older man. She had seen her sisters sold off like that and decided that being married to an old farmer was not for her. She ran away and changed her same to Sarah Edmonds.
She feared that even with the changed name her father would find her. So she did something radical for the time - cut off her hair, tanned her face with stain, and dressed as a man. Sarah was tall (5'6") for a woman of her time and worked on a farm so she felt she could pull it off. And she grew up learning how to ride and shoot as well as most men. So she established male persona. The name she chose was Frank Thompson - who would soon become a soldier for the Union Army.
But first Frank chose a career that would require travel all over Northeastern Canada and into the United States - a bible salesman! Frank did well selling for Hurlbut and Company, making $100 a month - a good wage for the day. Frank was good at it!! The boss even said that in his 30 years on the job, no one outsold Frank Thompson.
Frank also dated young women to keep up his male persona and wrote of one “I came very near to marrying a pretty little girl that was bound that I should not leave Nova Scotia without her.” It does make you wonder what the courtship was like!
Frank Thompson
In spring of 1861 Frank was in Flint Michigan when the Civil War broke out. Out of loyalty to her adopted country she enlisted. Then she realized that she would have to pass an Army physical. At the time the medical officer was supposed to examine recruits stripped to make sure the body was intact and disease free.
Frank knew that so many people were joining up that the physical was generally just a few questions and a cursory look see. Frank did not make it past the doctor on the first try, not because of her sex , but because of her height. She persisted and applied a second time to another regiment, as the regiments needed bodies and quota's were not being met.
She was also worried about her hands as they had lost the rough calluses from her farm life. The second doctor's exam was not as thorough - he only asked Frank how he made a living and that was it - he gave her a firm handshake and she was in.
On May 25, 1861, at age 19, Emma emerged onto the streets of Detroit as Private Frank Thompson, Company F, Second Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment, beginning yet another new life as a soldier.
The regiment was soon to get ready to travel to Washington and shortly afterwards Frank would experience first hand the Battle of Bull Run. The story is about to get better....
