| Frances Clayton enlisted in the Union Army under the pseudonym &#;Jack Williams&#; in order to serve alongside her husband during the Civil War. (Samuel Masury/Library of Congress) |
Frances Clalin was born in Illinois in the s. She married Elmer Clayton and gave birth to three children. The Claytons lived on a farm in Minnesota.
Some women dressed like men and marched off to war with a relative. Others enlisted because they had no means to support themselves after their loved one left home. More than a few were enticed by the wages promised by the army, because money meant freedom from their old roles and the ability to start a new, more independent life. And some female soldiers of the Civil War were simply patriotic and wanted to serve their country.
Conflicting stories were published in several newspapers, making it extremely
The story of Frances Clayton
It was , and war had broken out on American soil. With grievances over government representation, federal overreach, and slave ownership, several southern states seceded from the Union to form their own federal government that could run independently from the United States. A response came quickly, and the war began.
From all over the US, young and old men alike began enlisting in the ranks of the Union Army. Answering the call that year were two men, one named Frank Clayton and the other Jack Williams.
They were from Minnesota but traveled south to Missouri to enlist. The two thought that by enlisting in a different state, they would be able to hide the fact that Jack’s real name was Frances Clayton – the wife of Frank Clayton.
While uncommon, it wasn’t completely unheard of to find a woman among the men in the ranks. In July , a Union burial detail at Gettysburg was astonished to find a dead woman wearing the uniform of a Confederate private.
Jennie Hodges, who fought under the name of Albert Cashier, was said to have fought in more than 40 engagements. Another woman, Loreta Janeta Velasquez, served the Confederacy as a frontline soldi
Frances Clayton
Union Soldier in the War Between the States
Born: c, Illinois, United States of America
Died: after
Frances served under the aliases Jack Williams and Frances Clalin.
She enlisted in a Missouri regiment alongside her husband and fought in several battles. It is said Frances continued to fight after watching her husband die at her feet in Frances told reporters she’d been wounded three times and fought in eighteen battles but was mustered out of service after her true identity was learned after her husband’s death.
She disappeared from history in , despite the fact that her name was all over several newspapers that year and the two previous. Frances was searching for someone with the authority to grant the back pay she felt was due to herself and her late husband. France’s last reported sighting was in Illinois. She claimed to have been headed to Washington DC but was never seen or heard from again.
The photographs of Frances taken in and out of uniform are today seen as some of the clearest images of a female soldier in uniform. However, it should be noted that some historians doubt the authenticity of her story due to the lack of surviving archiva
Frances Clalin Clayton
We think of soldiering during the Civil War as a man’s fight. A couple hundred women, however, disguised themselves as men and fought in the Civil War. One white woman lamented “It seems so hard that we who have the wills of men should be denied from engaging in this great struggle for liberty just because we are ladies.” Most female soldiers likely entered service for the same reasons as their male counterparts. Some had even been living as men in their prewar lives. They joined for cause and country and for the adventure of war. In addition, many women likely joined to escape the oppressive limitations placed on women. Nineteenth-century America was a restrictive society that understood women as naturally suited to the domain of home and family. Soldiering offered women a chance for independence and money. Some upper-class white women found a small measure of independence through employment as teachers. Lower-class women, however, had few options outside marriage. The most lucrative form of female employment was prostitution. Beyond that, women could work as seamstresses or domestic servants. A good wage for a maid was $4 dollars a month, a cook $7 doll
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