Tuesday, September 16, 2014

"They Fought Like Demons" (Confederate Female Soldiers)

Via mind jog by Sioux on Army Rangers want female volunteers, female traini...

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In a letter dated June 3, 1864, Robert Ardry of the 111TH Illinois. Inf. Co. B wrote concerning a battle that had taken place on May 26.

"They fought like demons and we cut them down like dogs.....I saw 3 or 4 rebel women soldiers in the heap of bodies....All had been shot down during the final rebel charge upon our works. One Secesh woman charged to within several rods of our works waving the traitor flag and screaming vulgarities at us. She was shot three times but still on she came. She was finally killed by two shots fired almost simultaneously by our boys. Another She-Devil shot her way to our breastworks with two large revolvers dealing death all in her path... she pulled out the largest pig-sticker I ever seen...When the Corporal tried to shoot her she kicked him in the face smashing it quite severely. Then she stabbed three boys and was about to decapitate a fourth when the Lieutenant killed her. Without doubt this gal inflicted more damage to our line than any other reb.

If Gen. Lee were to field a brigade of such fighters, I think that the Union prospects would be very gloomy indeed for it would be hard to equal their ferocity and pluck. 

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"A Woman's War: Southern Women, Civil War, and the Confederate Legacy to accompany an exhibition organized by the Museum of the Confederacy on the occasion of its centennial"- Campbell, D. C. and Kym Rice Ed.- Charlottesville, VA: The University Press of Virginia, © 1996 pp. 92-93 Robert Ardry letter


14 comments:

  1. Gotta love southern women, I know I love mine :D

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  2. Maybe if the men had fought as well as the women.....

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  3. Now that's what I'm talking about ! I want some She-Devil training in ferocity and pluck. Considering what evils were suffered by Southern women during the War of Northern Aggression, I can see how they would be way more pissed than any Yankee woman could ever conceive.
    I will read the whole story and get lots more pointer, I hope.

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  4. that is one cool knife - how long do you figure it is? how heavy?

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    1. I remember reading about this when I found it originally, but just tried searching and my post is the only one that comes up for some reason,

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  5. I am going to go heat up some whiskey and honey - be right back....

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    1. That's what my Aunt Mary used to give us boys for a cold before we went to sleep.

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  6. Aunt Mary was right about that - I was getting a cold, so I got some whiskey today and heated it with my Triple Echinacea tea and honey and lemon - not as good as what you had there at Dixieland, but it did the trick ;)

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  7. After Pickets charge, the Sanitary commission found 400 body's identifiable as women in front of the union works---Ray

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    1. Thanks and they have certainly done a good job covering that up.

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