Show M pi at 7 al 4 X 64 ill ii 7 cakl f ti W A W I 1 M R A AX by ELMO SCOTT WATSON ill ei liu of u civil war mystery was heard recently when gen M U R mclean adjutant general of the kansas national guard received an inquiry from a nebraska woman oman who was seeking to learn the name of a woman who served I 1 two td years in the first kansas regiment and whose secret was not discovered until her death in a hospital accompanying t the he inquiry was a copy 0 of a letter written home by a soldier of the first minnesota battery at camp neal keal lake providence iowa on april 8 6 1853 which said in part one of the members of tle first kansas regiment died in the hospital yesterday after death the somewhat startling discovery was made by those who were preparing the body for burial that their companion beside whom they had marched and fought for nearly two years was vias a woman you can imagine their astonishment the regiment is camped near us and I 1 went sent to the hospital and saw her she was large for a woman with rattier rather maserline masi mas uline euline natures features she must haie ben very iery shred to have kept helit lier her secret so lon long when the bhe t he was its surrounded by several hundred men the first kansas was one of the first regiments merits that entered tile the aenlle two years ago tills this gill enlisted after it went to missouri so nothing was known of tier her eaily history site she doubtless served under an assumed name she A biad bad always sustained an excellent reputation in the regiment she ws was brave as a lion in bottle battle and never flinched from the severest fatigues or hardest duties she had been in more than a dozen battles and skirmishes she was a sergeant when site she died the men in the company all speak peak of her in tile the beims of re hect and af fealon she would have hae been promoted to a lieutenant in a few lays days had bud site she 11 led although such cases are comparatively rare the kansas woman was not nor unique in donning mens clothes and marching away to the wars A massachusetts girl set the style for that away avay back in the days of the american revolution it if you visit beautiful rock koch ridge cemetery near lake massapoag Massa poag you will find a quaint old gravestone urion upon the trout front of which lb ih this inscription deborah wife of benjamin gannett died april 29 1827 aged OS years but it Is not cot until you look upon the back of the monument that you get a hint of the story of this first tomboy in american Ul Dl story for there you will read deborah sampson gannett robert kuben Shur lett the female sol dier service 1781 deborah sampson was us born at nym plon mass in A gibat gi eat granddaughter of isaac sampson one of the first settlers of plympton arid and on tier lier mothers IsIde a direct descendant of william bradford slie site was of more than alian average intellect and was tall for her sex As a girl she taught school a short time at middleboro Middle Midd leboro horo four Corn corners eriv but was filled with the desire to actively engage in the cause causa of the colonies arraying herself in male attire site she set forth to enlist at owbridge oxbridge Ox bridge e she a agreed teed to take the place of an Ux udbridge uxbridge bridge man and was enlisted at worcester by muster master master ElIp eliphalet balet torp of dedham was marched to west point with other recruits where slie she became a member of capt georgre webbs ebbs company in the regiment com banded by colonel shepard of nf westfield West lidd and later 1 lii col henry jackson fackson of coston boston the fourth massachusetts during it 11 light fight between tier her regiment and a porty party of tory raiders deborah was twice wounded in tile lie head bead and in the thigh A surgeon while baudi the head wound wits was impressed with n alth the weakness of his ut ills attempt to investigate the cause of blood in oue one boot wits ke pulsed by bv ills his patient not until later did the sui aton elbs a silver asther probe which had bud been purloined by his patient lent ovi the muster rolls and known on deborah nh a in arins us robert hubert Shur lett to tier companions with tile the she hud had site she later removed from tier her groin i a bullet and thus preserved pru served tor for a time the of f lier her sex I 1 front from the effects of tier recover I 1 ll 11 g boels titer wound she bhe rejoined her company was agin again wounded tills tittle time it in line e shoulder but once to keep the secret M cret of tier lier sex again managed aged knowledge later when alic n with from becoming ken so she was lier her ro linein lent in I 1 unconscious mid kind was given til III that she rho became up for dead A all haclan discovered her secret oft if tile bandage she had biorn tightly ile pod tier lier hrast and reL removed lOvd tier her to ills his own home over back to health ani and her where ole war secret F 1 ati delit at il lords of tile the pets pension IOD ollice reveal that while records record in III tho the 1781 oie elie 0 nl if in fit april soston ponton P place lace the ami 1111 of at her tate o nt t N re daentl L I 1 0 V t A ft TER t xa Z 1 YOUNG ladof Z N v D HA art NOR margaret Mari garet Coi cobit at el est poin it title p of deborah sampsons Samp sons story enlistment as may 1 she was honorably discharged in III november 17 1783 was granted a pension of 48 a year from 1 1803 of from april and of fg 06 from froin september 1818 slie site married in april 1784 1734 gan nelt a farmer fanner of sharon and lived to become the alie mother of a son capt karl earl B gannett and two daughters many widows have applied for or pensions from the government bebau because of the alie war service of husbands but the only case on record of a wi widower doer applying for such a pension bec because aue of the war service of ills his wife Is the alie case of benjamin gannett Gann etl several scars cars after the first general pension law was pushed passed by congress in 1831 for the benefit of veterans of the revolution he applied tor for it a pension on the basis of Deli delborah orah Samp sampsons sons service ln in the clife continental army lie ile did not live to collect it but tier lier children lid did as interesting lule resting as the women soldiers 01 liers who sered in our wars warb in mens garb tire are alme amazons who fought shoulder to shoulder with their huM husbands or brothers not as men but as women some of them have beame bei ome part of our national tradition certainly such Is the case with the celebrated molly pitcher of the battle of monmouth fame during the years since tier her heroic deed there so much legend lege till has gathered about molly that it la Is difficult to be sure of all the facts about her life part of this is due to the fact that she Is often confused with another molly of revolutionary war taine but front from the best evidence available it seems that molly PIte pitchers liers real name was mary blary ludwig and that she was born in mercer county new jersey near trenton october 13 1754 when site she was about fourteen years old mrs william irvine wife of a in Car carlisle lIble pa ia happened to sit the vicinity and took mary buck back with tier her as a hired girl there she met jolin john copper flays a barber and they were married in at the outbreak of the revolution hays enlisted in capt francis proctors independent artillery company and ills hla wife marched away to war ar with him film ills enlistment expired Deveir december iber 1 1770 1776 and it lg Is said that milry alary hays urged him film to re enlist which he did this toils time thile lu in tile the seventh pennsylvania regiment of the live line corn com banded by tier her former employer doctor erhie again ills his wife seefus to have been a welcome ad to the troops for she ilat not only cared for her laii fiands clothes and cooled cooked for litin him but she also performed similar services tor for his comrades oil oi a blazing july day daiy it in 1778 the he battle of f mou mon mouzli was fought it was so hot that ninny many of tile the soldiers on both sides dropped dead from froin the heat beat all during the battle mary hays was busy carrying titer to the soldiers in tier husbands real regiment lent the avell io here site she filled tier her pitcher may still ile be seen near Ten N I 1 und and tier her ber services vices that ay won for her from the thirsty soldiers the sobriquet of molly pitcher but she lie to be mor mort moro t than just a water waler carrilla her husband although an nl f his 1111 pr arelous pret elous lous service the artillery vai hillid upon illicit to serve one of we tie guns gun luring during the blittle when bell he fell wounded oun ded site directed tile auld lers to carry him away then she sprang to tile llie gun avid and began to ire and load fill almost as witch akell kill as that shown by her husband it Is this incident lit for which she Is fatuous still and which filch la Is preserved in stone in two monuments one ON oer er her gra araie graie e at carlisle pa and the other on the battlefield tle field at freehold Free hoid N t J after the revolution molly holly lived for some years in an old guard house built by hessians taken prisoner at the battle of trenton then she moved back to carlisle and her husband having died she married another veteran of the revolution george mcl colly or mccauley both names are recorded on the carlisle monument as are her to previous names ludwig and hays bays the date of tier her death as Is the case with the date of her birth Is in dispute one account says she died in january 1833 but the carlisle monument which gives tier her birth as october 13 1744 instead of 1751 as the new jersey tradition has it gives the date of her death as january 22 1832 the other famous molly of the revolution was margaret corbin aho ho followed tier her husband john corbin to the war and stood at ills his side when he was killed while serving his cannon nt at the battle of fort flirt washington on november IG 1770 1776 she immediately leaned over took the ramrod from ills his dead hand and continued to serve tile the sun gun until site she was severely wounded bounded when a charge of grapeshot tore away part of her breast and almost severed her arm she was taken prisoner by the british when fort washington fell then paroled to general greene at fort lee and later was sent on oil to philadelphia with the ivoun wounded ded undaunted by this experience captain mollie as site she was now known by the soldiers to in the continental Coutin aimy enlisted in an all invalid regiment was sent to west and remained with her unit there until mustered out of service in april 1783 it you visit the cemetery of the the united states military academy at west point today you will find there a monument which bears the following inscription in memory of margaret corbin a heroine of tile the revolution known as captain mollie 1800 who at the battle of fort washington new york city when her bus husband band john corbin was 1 med killed kept his field piece in fit action until see severely rely wounded and thereafter by act of congress received half the pay and allowance of A soldier in the service she lived died und and was burled buried on the hudson river bank near the village now called Hig highland falls in n appreciation of her deeds tor for the cause of liberty mid and that tier her heroism may not be forgotten her dust was moved to this spot and the memorial erected by the notional Nut ional society of the daughters of the american revolution in new york state 1026 no less a person than mary alary A livermore famous for her bor with the alie hospitals and relief work of the sanitary commission during the civil war Is for the statement that tile the number r of women soldiers it in bervice in that war little less than four foul hundred I 1 cannot vouch fur for the lie of this estimate but I 1 am convinced that a larger number of women disguised themselves and enlisted in the service r for 0 r one clutts or another than was dreamed ot of one of 0 the most famous of was bridget devena as michigan bridget sho she went eiith tile tiie first cavalry in it which her hus and s a 11 pr prince inre sometimes when a soldier fell she took his place il iee fighting in his stead with will cour courage bays miss livermore some vines shit she retreating traps brought olt off wounded front from the held alawiya fearless lad daring alwaes doing doln good service as s r soldier pr tier fler love of army life after tho thi war aided and bilth her husband she joined of cf the elie regular army stationed on t ali r plains Pl alua fcc Kea tru yuloo |