Sarah Emma Edmonds
Title
Sarah Emma Edmonds
Subject
Military in Civil War
Description
Woman who fought in the United States Civil War
Creator
Amy French
Source
Image: University of Michigan photo collection
Birth Date
1841
Birthplace
New Brunswick, Canada
Death Date
1898
Occupation
Soldier and nurse
Biographical Text
After a rough childhood, Sarah Emma Edmonds (born Edmondson) ran away from her home in New Brunswick, Canada and settled in Flint, Michigan. On May 25, 1861, she enlisted in the Second Michigan Infantry as Franklin Thompson. She participated in the Peninsula Campaign and the battles of Bull Run, Antietam, and Fredericksburg. In her memoir, Edmonds wrote of working as a spy and infiltrating the Confederacy, at times dressing as a black man or an Irish woman (there is no official record of this). According to Edmonds, she safely avoided detection as a man for many years. In 1863, she contracted malaria though. Knowing that her sex would be revealed in the hospital, Edmonds (Franklin Thompson) deserted the army. After her leave, she worked as a nurse for a while. In 1865, she published Nurse and Spy in the Union Army. In the 1880s, she petitioned for a veteran's pension and was granted one. She was also granted an honorable discharge and membership to the Grand Army of the Republic as its only woman member.
Bibliography
Nurse and a Spy in the Union Army: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38497
Civil War Trust on Sarah Emma Edmonds: http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/biographies/sarah-emma-edmonds.html
Eggleston, Larry. Women in the Civil War: Extraordinary Stories of Soldiers, Spies, Nurses, Doctors, Crusaders, and Others. (McFarland and Co., 2003).
- Date Added
- June 13, 2014
- Collection
- Local (Michigan)
- Item Type
- Person
- Tags
- Civil War, female soldier, Franklin Thompson
- Citation
- Amy French, “Sarah Emma Edmonds,” Women Who Dared, accessed April 25, 2024, https://womenwhodared.omeka.net/items/show/49.