SArah Emma Edmonds
FrSarah Emma Edmonds (1841 - 1898)
The Woman Warrior
The soldier, riding a mule, was carrying the mail from Washington to Centerville on the Second Battle of Bull Run, in Manassas, Virginia. Taking a short cut from the intended route, the rider and beast were crossing a muddy, wet, wide ditch, when the animal reared, toppling into the rut headlong, tossing the passenger with force against the inside wall. Hooves sinking in the muck, the heavy mule worked desperately to liberate itself, in the process, injuring the stunned rider further. Finally, as the sounds of cannons blasted the air, the soldier found the will to climb from the ditch, painfully creeping toward the waiting creature. Struggling to remount with a crippling leg injury and excruciating side pain, the Yankee regimental postmaster readjusted the mailbag, and with great urgency, rode toward the battlefield to make the important delivery. Once there, the soldier sought the doctor in the rear of the line, asking only for salve for the leg, making no report of the accident, though it became apparent that internal damage was causing hemorrhaging of a lung. Had it not been for the nursing and care of fellow friends, the soldier might have died.
Why not report the injury? Why suffer, risking death? Because the young, boyish soldier from Flint, Michigan, known as Franklin "Frank" Flint Thompson, was in truth, a woman. She could not risk discovery in a medical examination of her lungs: she would have been dismissed from service, and treated as a criminal, as it was illegal for a female to disguise herself as a man, and to serve in the military.
The Woman Warrior
The soldier, riding a mule, was carrying the mail from Washington to Centerville on the Second Battle of Bull Run, in Manassas, Virginia. Taking a short cut from the intended route, the rider and beast were crossing a muddy, wet, wide ditch, when the animal reared, toppling into the rut headlong, tossing the passenger with force against the inside wall. Hooves sinking in the muck, the heavy mule worked desperately to liberate itself, in the process, injuring the stunned rider further. Finally, as the sounds of cannons blasted the air, the soldier found the will to climb from the ditch, painfully creeping toward the waiting creature. Struggling to remount with a crippling leg injury and excruciating side pain, the Yankee regimental postmaster readjusted the mailbag, and with great urgency, rode toward the battlefield to make the important delivery. Once there, the soldier sought the doctor in the rear of the line, asking only for salve for the leg, making no report of the accident, though it became apparent that internal damage was causing hemorrhaging of a lung. Had it not been for the nursing and care of fellow friends, the soldier might have died.
Why not report the injury? Why suffer, risking death? Because the young, boyish soldier from Flint, Michigan, known as Franklin "Frank" Flint Thompson, was in truth, a woman. She could not risk discovery in a medical examination of her lungs: she would have been dismissed from service, and treated as a criminal, as it was illegal for a female to disguise herself as a man, and to serve in the military.
