Sarah Emma Edmonds

Born:  December 1841, New Brunswick, Canada

Died:  September 5, 1898, La Porte, Texas

Resting Place:  Glenwood Cemetery, Houston, Texas

Brief History:  Edmonds was born in December 1841 in New Brunswick, Canada, then a British colony. She changed her last name to Edmonds in order to hide from her father, and started a millinery shop with a friend in Moncton, New Brunswick. By the start of the Civil War in 1861, Edmonds was boarding in Flint, Michigan, continuing to be quite successful at selling books. An ardent Unionist, she decided that the best way to help would be to enlist under her alias, and on May 25, 1861, Edmonds was mustered into the 2nd Michigan Infantry as a 3 year recruit. As "Franklin Flint Thompson" Edmonds participated in several battles the took place during the Maryland Campaign of 1862, which included Second Battles of Manassas and Antietam.

As a field nurse she would be dealing with mass casualties, especially at Antietam which is known as one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. According to her memoir, Thompson's career took a turn when an American spy in Richmond, Virginia, was discovered and put before a firing squad, and her friend James Vesey was killed in an ambush. Thompson suffered an injury before the Second Battle of Bull Run in 1862, when she took a trip to Berry's Brigade in order to deliver mail. Thompson's fellow soldiers spoke highly of her military service, and even after her disguise was discovered, they considered her a good soldier. She was referred to as a fearless soldier and was active in every battle that her regiment faced.