Battle of Stones River - Frances Clalin

[davg2000]

At the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, in Springfield, we have pictures of two women who fought as men--Frances Clalin and Jenny Hodgers. We have two pictures of Frances, one where she is in uniform and one where she is wearing a dress. She is fierce-looking dressed as a soldier. I have had women patrons, after looking at both pictures, tell me that Frances "makes a better man than a woman."

Jenny Hodgers, from Illinois, fought the war as Albert Cashier. When she was in an automobile accident early in the twentieth century, doctors discovered the truth.

A few years ago I talked about such women with a person who had written her dissertation on women who fought alongside men in the Civil War. She was adamant that women soldiers were uncommon.