GENESEE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
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SArah Emma Edmonds

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FrSarah Emma Edmonds  (1841 - 1898)

The Woman Warrior
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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.

Born Sarah Evelyn Emma Edmondson, in 1841, in rural New Brunswick, Canada, she was the youngest child of an Irish-born mother, Betsy, and a hardhanded, authoritarian father, Isaac, who held little value for females, treating them cruelly. “In our family the women were not sheltered but enslaved…”, she wrote. At fifteen, she was promised in an arranged marriage. Emma ran away to a neighboring town, but after discovery by her father, she created a male persona, then “vanished”.
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At the age of thirteen, a traveling merchant gave Emma a copy of Fanny Campbell, the Female Pirate Captain, a novel about a young adventuress who masquerading as a man, becomes a pirate to save her fiancé. She said after reading it, “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.”
Made possible with support from:
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And Our Members
Programs sponsored by the Greater Flint Arts Council Share Art Genesee County Program made possible by the Genesee County Arts Education and Cultural Enrichment Millage funds.  Your tax dollars are at work!

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Genesee County Historical Society
​Durant-Dort Carriage Company Headquarters
316 W Water St
Flint, MI  48503
(810) 410-4605

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  • Home
  • Explore
    • County Timeline
    • Our Stories
    • Links & Resources
    • Vintage Photos
  • Learn
    • About the Society
    • Preservation >
      • Ask the Archivist
      • Preservation Articles
    • Radio Show
  • Events
  • Contribute
  • Become a Member
  • The Market
  • Visit
    • Schedule a Tour
    • Hours & Location
    • Contact