Isaac Edmonds, a Canadian who farmed near Lake Magaguadavic, in York County, New Brunswick, had four daughters and a son who showed no interest in farming. In consequence, he wanted another son, who, when he was old enough, could help him work the land. Instead, his wife, Elisabeth, gave birth to another daughter.
This infuriated Isaac, who compelled his latest child to dress as a boy, learn to shoot and help with the heavy farming work, although she was by no means robust. Such was Isaac’s resentment that he treated the girl with increasing harshness until, at 16, she could take no more and ran away, supposedly to avoid a forced marriage.
Sarah Emma Evelyn Edmonds was born in December 1841. Of no more than medium height and slightly built, she made up for any physical frailty by her unflinching courage and resourcefulness
She began to call herself Frank Thompson, cutting her hair short and wearing men’s attire, as she would for many years to come. Crossing into the United States, she obtained employment selling Bibles door-to-door for L.P. Crown & Co., a Boston publisher. It was not a successful start for her.
Undeterred, she tried another publisher, based in Hartford, Conn. For this firm, “Frank” began to sell books door-to-door in Flint, Mich., where she developed an aptitude for salesmanship. However, then came news that Fort Sumter had fallen to Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard’s guns, and she decided to enlist.
Medical examinations for would-be soldiers in those days were cursory, to say the least, and hers gave her no trouble. On May 17, 1861, Frank Thompson became a private in Company F, 2nd Regiment of Michigan Infantry Volunteers. Because of her slightness of build, she was assigned to nursing duties.
She saw bloody conflict at Blackburn’s Ford and at First Bull Run, after which came the dreadful slaughter of Antietam. The girl in Army uniform somehow survived when so many fell. Then someone decided she might make a capable spy.
Never lacking in courage or inventiveness, she set out to gather information invaluable for the Union Army. She mingled with slaves, having dyed her skin black. At times, she had to join genuine blacks in hard physical labor, claiming to be a free black. In December 1862, she was sent by Col. Orlando Metcalfe Poe, an engineering officer and at one time an aide to William T. Sherman, to see what she could find out for him at Yorktown, Va.
One has to be very careful when tracing the career of Frank Thompson. Much that has been written about her is confused, conflicting and, at times, inaccurate. Her book “Nurse and Spy in the Union Army” does not help. Partly factual, it owes much to a very lively imagination. A best-seller, it was published in 1865, after the war had ended. A second book, “Unsexed,” or “The Female Soldier,” should no doubt be treated with equal caution, if it can still be found.
In wearing an Army uniform, Sarah Edmonds was by no means unique. It is believed that several hundred women saw military service in either the Union or the Confederate Army. Sarah herself encountered one such who died from wounds received. Throughout, she seems to have acquitted herself well, but there came a situation that compelled her to make an unwelcome decision in a hurry.
She had contracted malaria in Kentucky and was due for a medical examination that would be considerably more thorough than the one that had enabled her to enlist. Beyond doubt, her true sex would be revealed, and that would mean instant dismissal.
On April 22, 1863, she deserted, probably with considerable regret. Resuming her true identity, she spent the remainder of the war years working as a nurse for the U.S. Sanitary Department in St. Louis.
In 1884, declaring her wartime activities and creating a sensation, she succeeded in attending a regimental reunion and appealed to be pardoned for her desertion. This was granted, and in due course she achieved the singular distinction of being the only woman member of the Grand Army of the Republic.
A bill, granting her a pension of $144 per annum, was signed into law in July 1884 by President Chester Arthur. She would receive this, as a Civil War veteran, for the rest of her life.
She moved back to Canada for a time, and while there met a carpenter, Linus H. Seelye, whom she married on April 27, 1867. Their three children died young, and they adopted two others. Having crossed into the United States, they seem to have been constantly on the move, and Sarah Seelye, one-time Pvt. Frank Thompson, died at La Porte, in Harris County, Texas, on Sept. 5, 1898, at age 57.
Peter Cliffe, a retired corporate administrator, lives in Hertfordshire, England. He became interested in the Civil War while working with a multinational firm in this country.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.