I probably confused the internet search engines this week when I typed “How to hide pregnancy.” No, dear reader, I am NOT having a baby anytime soon. Let me be clear about that! But I was thinking historically about some Civil War research notes I’d been reviewing and trying to understand how it was possible. How was it possible for a woman who had disguised herself as a soldier to be pregnant and no one around her realized it until…well, she went into labor and delivered a baby? While I struggle to think it was a complete surprise to the woman, it clearly surprised a lot of male soldiers in the same camp.
The best recorded incident of this surprising motherhood seems to have been in the Army of the Potomac in the spring of 1863.
Colonel Adrian Root from the 94th New York Infantry explained the details as he saw them to his mother:
“When I was last on duty as General Officer of the Day I came across a very singular case of illness out on the picket line…. A corporal of a New Jersey regiment who was on duty with the pickets complained of being unwell, but little notice was given his complaints at first. His pain and other symptoms of severe indisposition increased, becoming so evident that his officers had him carried to a nearby farmhouse. There the worthy corporal was safely delivered of a fine, fat little recruit for the…regiment!”
Lieutenant Sam Partridge of the 13th New York Infantry wrote on April 10, 1863. It’s not quite clear if the last name “Blank” was really the soldier’s name or a way that Partridge protected her identity.
Last night Corporal Blank was reported sick, was sent to the hospital tent and examined by the surgeons, said examination causing a great commotion among the doctors and hospital attendants, and the report thereof causing[?] a general laugh among the officers.
In the course of the night Corporal Blank gave birth to a fine boy — genuine child of the Regiment. It’s about the gayest thing I’ve heard of yet. She enlisted as a man last August. The regiment came to the field early in September, and here amidst the ten thousand things which ought to have shown her sex, she’s preserved it undiscovered for seven months. Bully for her.
She’s got her discharge now anyhow.