The Soldier with a Secret: Who Was Sarah Emma Edmonds?

Sarah Emma Edmonds was one of the most well-documented female soldiers in the American Civil War (1861-1865). While women were forbidden from fighting on the front line, she took up the role by masquerading as a man. Most women served their country or cause by registering as nurses, or taking on other caring, cleaning, and administrative roles. Female family members of fighting soldiers often came with them to help mend the clothes, cook food, clean laundry and even cannons, roles which were seen as typical for woman to carry out.

Women were not officially allowed to be soldiers until 1948. On June 12, 1948, US President Harry S. Truman signed a bill allowing women to enlist in the Army, although it was longer until they were involved in active combat. It wasn’t until 1993 that they were allowed to be fully involved in all roles and units.

However, that didn’t stop women from serving. Edmonds certainly wasn’t the first to pretend to be a man and join the war – in fact, throughout many of America’s fiercest combats there may be many hundreds of cases where women like Edmonds pretended to be men in order to take part. It was only during accidents or casualties that their true identities were revealed. 

We know of Margaret Corbin—disguised as a man and shot in battle during the American Revolutionary War, although she survived and was given a military pension, and Lydia Darragh, who aided the revolutionary cause by spying on the British for the Patriots.

What Was Edmonds’ Background?

Sarah Emma Edmonds (born as Edmondson) was born in December of 1841 at New Brunswick, Canada. Her upbringing was not a happy one. Her brother Thomas had what historians believe to be epilepsy, which made him unable to properly help their father on the farm. When she was fifteen her family had arranged a marriage for her, so she fled her childhood home and changed her last name to Edmonds to hide. When her father found her, she left again, hiding as the persona Franklin Thomas so she could travel solo and find paid work, something much more difficult for a woman.

She became a Bible seller for Hurlburt and Company in Connecticut. Edmonds continued to use the persona of a man and enjoyed wearing men’s clothes, something she credits to her father always dressing her in pants to work on the farm rather than traditional dresses. She would eventually settle in Flint, Michigan. It was there that she enlisted in Company F of the 2nd Michigan Infantry on May 25, 1861. There, Edmonds used the name Franklin Flint Thomas after spending some time as a field nurse.

Edmonds took part in several battles under the name of ‘Frank’, although she was only a male soldier for about a year. She took part in the Battle of Blackburn’s Ford. The campaign took place on July 18, 1861, in the Confederate state Virginia. She was also in the First Battle of Bull Run and the Peninsular Campaign. Funnily enough there are also unconfirmed stories that she took a few spy missions in Confederate territory “disguised” as a woman. 

During her time as a soldier, Edmonds became friends with another soldier named Jerome John Robbins, who she met in Washington D.C. while working at a hospital. Robbins was also from Michigan, but in a different unit, Company I. Their friendship is documented in Robbins’ diaries, and they wrote letters to each other. Robbins eventually found out about the truth of “Frank” and their friendship broke down, although their letters still continued.

Did Edmonds Reveal Her True Identity?

In the end it was an illness that ended ‘Frank’s’ career and made Edmonds take a step back from her role in the Civil War. While she was in Chickahominy, Virginia, she caught malaria, which, along with pneumonia, typhoid, and dysentery was one of the most prevalent diseases that plagued soldiers. Diseases were the leading cause of death among Civil War soldiers rather than the wounds they received in battle. The horrific conditions including poor food, water, a lack of food, proper shelter, and clothing made the exposure to these diseases worse.

Normally disease would have been treated in the camps by physicians. However, if that happened Edmonds would have been exposed. 

Originally Edmonds attempted to see a civilian doctor, something that would require leave. She petitioned to be allowed time to leave for treatment however it was rejected —probably under the assumption that she could easily receive treatment by the army doctor.

As this leave of absence was not sanctioned, ‘Frank’ was labeled a deserter. The United States did not take kindly to deserters – their supposed disloyalty was considered a capital offense. In the Civil War, those found guilty of desertion were often executed by hanging or firing squad. Of course, as she had been in disguise, it was easy for ‘Frank’ to disappear and not get caught.

While Edmonds could no longer be ‘Frank’ and fight physically in the war, it did not mean the end of her service. Instead, she enlisted with the United States Chirstian Commission and worked as a nurse from June 1863 until the Confederates conceded. She remained busy after the war, penning her own memoir, Nurse and Spy in the Union Army, a book that is still available today to purchase.  

Three years after the publication of her memoir she married Linus H. Seelye. They had three children who tragically did not survive childhood. They later adopted two sons.

As ‘Frank’ had been listed a deserter, he wasn’t entitled to benefits of being a veteran. In 1882 she tried to clear that charge so she would be able to collect an official pension, which she did by having members of her unit write on her behalf. ‘Frank’ was cleared in 1884, and Edmonds was issued a pension of $12 a month and got a discharge certificate in 1887.

She and her husband settled in Texas. In 1897, she was one of only two women admitted into the Grand Army of the Republic, a Civil War Union Army veterans’ organization. Edmonds died a year later, on September 5, 1898, in La Porte, Texas at the young age of 56 years old. She was buried originally in a normal cemetery, but eventually was reburied with full military honors in 1901 in the Grand Army of the Republic section of Washington Cemetery.