Civil War and Women’s Military History: Sylvia G. L. Dannett’s She Rode with the Generals, Biography of Sarah Emma Edmonds and Her Service Disguised as a Union Soldier, 1960

Civil War Sylvia G. L. Dannett

Book

Dannett, Sylvia G. L. She Rode with the Generals: The True and Incredible Story of Sarah Emma Seelye, Alias Franklin Thompson (1960), a biography of Sarah Emma Edmonds Seelye (1841–1898), who served in the Union Army disguised as a man under the name Franklin Thompson during the American Civil War. A Canadian-born immigrant, Edmonds enlisted in the Second Michigan Infantry in 1861 and served as a field nurse, orderly, and military messenger during major Union campaigns, including the Peninsula Campaign and the Battle of Antietam. Her accounts also describe espionage missions behind Confederate lines, although these exploits remain incompletely corroborated by military records. After leaving the army in 1863 because of illness, she spent decades seeking official recognition of her service. In 1897, she was admitted to the Grand Army of the Republic, becoming one of the few women granted membership in the Union veterans' organization.
Dannett, Sylvia G. L. She Rode with the Generals: The True and Incredible Story of Sarah Emma Seelye, Alias Franklin Thompson. New York: Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1960. First edition. 326 pages. Hardcover with original dust jacket. Dannett traces Edmonds's military service under her assumed identity, her experiences accompanying Union troops, and her subsequent efforts to establish her status as a veteran. The biography examines the circumstances surrounding her departure from the army, the resulting desertion charge, and the testimony of former comrades who supported her application for a military pension. It also addresses her admission to the George B. McClellan Post of the Grand Army of the Republic in Houston, Texas, in 1897.

Edmonds published her own account, Nurse and Spy in the Union Army, during the Civil War, bringing public attention to her military experiences. Her subsequent campaign for recognition culminated in a federal pension awarded in 1884 and the removal of the desertion charge from her military record. Her case provides a documented example of women entering military service under male identities during the Civil War and the legal difficulties they encountered in establishing veterans' benefits afterward. Dannett's 1960 biography revisited Edmonds's career nearly a century after her enlistment, drawing attention to women's participation in Union military operations beyond conventional nursing roles. Hardcover and dust jacket in very good condition. Overall very good condition. First edition of a biography examining women's military service, wartime disguise, and veterans' recognition during and after the American Civil War.

Item #16460

Price: $225.00