Sarah Emma Edmonds

Edmonds was born in 1841 in New Brunswick, then a British colony, and grew up with her sisters on their family's farm near Magaguadavic Lake, not far from the border with the State of Maine. She fled home at age 15 to escape an arranged marriage and the abuse of her father, who wanted a son instead of a daughter; she was aided by her mother, who also had married young. She escaped the marriage and ultimately adopted the guise of Franklin Thompson to travel more easily. A male disguise allowed Edmonds to eat, travel, and work independently. She crossed into the United States and worked for a successful Bible bookseller and publisher in Hartford, Connecticut.[2]

Edmonds' interest in adventure was sparked by Maturin Murray Ballou's book Fanny Campbell, the Female Pirate Captain',[3] telling the story of Fanny Campbell and her adventures on a pirate ship during the American Revolution while dressed as a man.[2] Campbell continued dressing as a man after the war in order to pursue other adventures, to which Edmonds attributed her desire to cross dress. She enlisted in Company F of the 2nd Michigan Infantry on May 25, 1861, also known as the Flint Union Greys.[2] On her second try, she disguised herself as a man named Franklin Flint Thompson, the middle name possibly after the city of Flint, Michigan where she volunteered. She felt that it was her duty to serve the United States, as it was her new country.[4] She at first served as a field nurse, participating in several campaigns under General McClellan, including the First and Second Battle of Bull Run, Antietam, the Peninsula Campaign, Vicksburg, Fredericksburg, and others. However, some historians claim that these reports place her in more than one location at the same time.

Edmonds' career took a turn during the war when a Union spy in Richmond, Virginia was discovered and put before a firing squad, and her friend James Vesey was killed in an ambush. She took advantage of the open spot and the opportunity to avenge her friend's death. She applied for the position in the guise of Franklin Thompson. There is no proof in her military records that she actually served as a spy, but she wrote extensively about her experiences in disguise during the war.[5]

She travelled into enemy territory to gather information, requiring her to come up with many disguises. One disguise required her to use silver nitrate to dye her skin black, wear a black wig, and walk into the Confederacy disguised as a black man by the name of Cuff. Another time, she entered as an Irish peddler by the name of Bridget O'Shea, claiming that she was selling apples and soap to the soldiers. Again, she was posing as a black laundress working for the Confederates when a packet of official papers fell out of an officer's jacket. She returned to the Union with the papers, and the generals were delighted. Another time, she worked as a detective in Kentucky as Charles Mayberry, uncovering a Confederacy agent.[6]

Edmonds' career as Frank Thompson came to an end when she took a trip to Berry's Brigade in order to deliver mail to Union forces. In an attempt to take a shortcut, she was thrown into a ditch by her mule before reaching the brigade; she sustained severe injuries and could not finish the trip before the First Battle of Bull Run had commenced. She abandoned her duty in the military, fearing that she would be discovered if she went to a military hospital. She checked herself into a private hospital, intending to return to military life once she had recuperated. Once she recovered, however, she saw posters listing Frank Thompson as a deserter. Rather than return to the army under another alias or as Frank Thompson, risking execution for desertion, she decided to serve as a female nurse at a Washington, D.C. hospital for wounded soldiers run by the United States Christian Commission. There was speculation that Edmonds may have deserted because of John Reid being discharged months earlier, and there is evidence in his diary that she had mentioned leaving before she had contracted malaria. Her fellow soldiers spoke highly of her military service, and even after her disguise was discovered, they considered her a good soldier. She was referred to as a fearless soldier and was active in every battle that her regiment faced.[5][7]

In 1864, Boston publisher DeWolfe, Fiske, & Co. published Edmonds' account of her military experiences as The Female Spy of the Union Army. One year later, her story was picked up by a Hartford, CT publisher who issued it with a new title, Nurse and Spy in the Union Army. It was a huge success, selling in excess of 175,000 copies.[8] Edmonds donated the profits from her memoir to "various soldiers' aid organization." [2]

In 1867, she married Linus. H. Seelye, a mechanic and a childhood friend with whom she had three children. [8] All three of their children died in their youth, leading the couple to adopt two sons.[2]

Edmonds became a lecturer after her story became public in 1883.[2] In 1886,[8] she received a government pension of $12 a month for her military service, and after some campaigning, was able to have the charge of desertion dropped, and receive an honorable discharge. In 1897, she became one of two women admitted to the Grand Army of the Republic, the Civil War Union Army veterans' organization. Edmonds died in La Porte, Texas, and is buried in the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) section of Washington Cemetery in Houston. Edmonds was laid to rest a second time in 1901 with full military honors.[2]

• Edmonds, S. Emma E. Nurse and Spy in the Union Army: Comprising the Adventures and Experiences of a Woman in Hospitals, Camps, and Battle-Fields. Hartford, Conn: W.S. Williams, 1865. OCLC 170538 Reprinted by Meadow Books in 2006, ISBN 9781846850417

A number of fictional accounts of her life were written for young adults in the 20th century, including Ann Rinaldi's Girl in Blue. Rinaldi writes of Edmonds' life and how she came to be Franklin Thompson.

She was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame in 1992.[9]

• Loreta Janeta Velázquez
• Mary Brown (nurse)
• List of wartime cross-dressers

• Wheelwright, Julie (1999). Amazons and military maids : women who dressed as men in the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. London: Pandora. ISBN 978-0-04-440494-1. OCLC 718007447.
• Dannett, Sylvia G L (1960). She rode with the generals : the true and incredible story of Sarah Emma Seelye, alias Franklin Thompson. Thomas Nelson and Sons. OCLC 1731436.
• Gansler, Laura Leedy (2007). The Mysterious Private Thompson: The Double Life of Sarah Emma Edmonds, Civil War Soldier. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-5988-1.

• Biography from Spartacus Educational which has primary sources
• University of Texas at Austin
• DeAnne Blanton - Women soldiers of the Civil War (Part 3)
• Online version of "Nurse and Spy in the Union Army"
• Online version of "Unsexed; or, The Female Soldier"
• Online version of "The female spy of the Union Army"
• Comprehensive biography
• Sarah Emma Edmonds a.k.a. Private Franklin Thompson
• Works by Sarah Emma Edmonds at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Sarah Emma Edmonds at Internet Archive
• Works by Sarah Emma Edmonds at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• Sarah Emma Edmonds at Find a Grave
• Interview with Sarah in Ft. Scott Weekly Monitor, January 17, 1884
• Sarah in brief, current life, NY Times. March 10, 1884
• Sarah before military, Memorial Day, NY Times. May 30, 1886

• Sizer, Lyde Cullen. "Sara Emma Evelyn Edmonds". American National Biography. Oxford University Press.
• Dannett, Sylvia G L; Williams, Frank and Virginia (1960). She rode with generals: the true and incredible story of Sarah Emma Seelye, alias Franklin Thompson. Edinburgh, NY: Thomas Nelson and Sons.
• Lammers, Pat; Boyce, Amy (1984). A Female in the ranks: alias Franklin Thompson.