Sarah Rosetta Wakeman was born on January 16, 1843 and she died June 19, 1864. She was an American female soldier who served in the Union Army during the American Civil War under the male name of Lyons Wakeman. Wakeman served with Company H, 153rd New York Volunteer Infantry. She died in 1864 after contracting chronic diarrhea, a condition that killed thousands of Union soldiers who drank water contaminated by rotting animals.

Wakeman's identity was not revealed during her burial; her headstone reads "Lyons Wakeman." She was buried with full military honors at Chalmette National Cemetery in New Orleans. Wakeman's letters written during her service remained unread and stored away in an attic for nearly a century until 1976 when a family member finally made the connection between "Lyons Wakeman" and "Sarah Rosetta Wakeman".

Many women at the outbreak of the American Civil War did not know how to support their favored side. The roles of woman at the time were limited and none of them were direct involvement in the war. In the North and in the South, the war forced women into public life in ways they could barely have imagined just a generation before. Thousands of women in the North and South joined volunteer brigades and signed up to work as nurses to take a more active role in the war effort. It was the first time in American history that women played a significant role in a war effort.

Some women became known simply as camp followers. There were two common types of camp followers: first, the wives & children of soldiers, who followed their spouse or parent's army from place to place; the second type of camp followers have historically been informal army service providers, servicing the needs of encamped soldiers, in particular selling goods or services that the military did not supply (examples included cooking, laundering, liquor, nursing, and sexual services).

Then there were women who went as far as to disguise themselves as men in order to join the army in search of adventure, or out of patriotism. Money was also a great motive to join the army. Though the true number is likely much higher, we know of at least 400 women who disguised themselves as men to join the troops. We know about these women because they left behind memoirs, or their true sex was found out when they were wounded or killed in battle. For some of these women, we have both the true name and their masculine alias, and for others we only have the male name their fellow soldiers knew them by before they died on the field.

Sarah Rosetta Wakeman was one of the hundreds of women who disguised themselves as men to fight in the Civil War. Unlike most of the women, however, the letters that Wakeman wrote home were preserved by her family and later published. They give a unique picture of what it was like to undertake and maintain such a masquerade.

If her letters home had not been preserved, historians would never know that Lyons Wakeman was truly a woman in disguise. How many other female soldiers are buried under their enlisted names or unmarked graves we will never know. What we do know is that there are many other women just like Sarah Rosetta Wakeman.

Wakeman's story, hidden history that has remained long forgotten, is the story of a young woman committed to providing for her family and a world where her societal role was predetermined before birth.

For the rest of Wakeman's story, please check out the audio link provided for EPISODE SIX of our podcast, Hidden History:

LISTEN NOW: Letters Lost to Time: The Story of Sarah Rosetta Wakeman 

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Images and Documents

Sarah Rosetta Wakeman, alias Pvt. Lyons Wakeman, 153rd Regiment, New York State Volunteers.

Photo courtesy of Mr. Jackson K. Doane

Officers of the 153rd Regiment, NYS Volunteers in camp.

Photo courtesy of the U.S. Army Military History Institute,

Carlisle Barracks

City of Alexandria, Virginia, with Fort Ellsworth

on the hill in the distance.

Letter by Wakeman, Nov 24, 1862.

Carroll Prison, or Duff Green's Row.

From Prison Life in the Old Capital and

Reminiscences of the Civil War, 1911

Detail from September 14, 1863, Carroll Prison Guard Report. Wakeman is listed as No. 18 on the 3rd relief.

Photo courtesy of National Archives

Battle of Sabine Cross Roads.

Illustration for Vol 18. of

Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, 14 May 1864

Battle of Pleasant Hill, 9 April 1864, by Charles E. H.

Bonwell (or Bonwill).

As illustrated in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper,

14 May 1864, pp. 120-121.

Deck of the steamship Mississippi, taken May 30, 1864.

Photo courtesy of National Archives

Several of Wakeman's envelopes.

Note Alexandria, Washington, D.C., and New Orleans postmarks.

Sarah Rosetta Wakeman's ring, engraved with

ROSETTA WAKEMAN CO. H 153RD N.Y. VOL.

In a December 1863 letter, Wakeman mentions a silver ring she was sending home. She may have been referring to this ring.

Marine U.S.A. General Hospital in New Orleans, 1861 - 1862.

Photo courtesy of U.S. National Library of Medicine

Details of Wakeman's April 14, 1864 letter, her last letter home.

Pvt. Lyons Wakeman's army discharge, dated December 1864.

Photo courtesy of National Archives

Mr. & Mrs. Wakeman, along with their eight children,

as recorded in the New York State Census, 1865.

At the top are Harvey and Emily Wakeman. The two boxes all the way to the right marked "9" is the section of the census that asks "how many total children do you have?"

We do not know how the Wakeman family learned of Sarah's death but at some point they became aware that she was gone. We know this because the 1865 NYS Census included information about soldiers who died during the Civil War, as reported by their families.

Private Lyons Wakeman, 21 years of age, is listed among the dead (see the last line in the image).

Hidden at the end of Private Wakeman's information in the 1865 NYS Census is the city where she died & the line:

"Right name was Sarah R. Wakeman"

Chalmette National Cemetery, where Sarah R. Wakeman is buried.

Chalmette, Louisiana

Sarah Rosetta Wakeman's final resting place.

Reading Material

The Civil War was America's bloodiest and most divisive conflict, pitting the Union Army against the Confederate States of America. The war resulted in the deaths of more than 620,000 people, with millions more injured and the South left in ruins.

Learn more below:

Learn more about the 153rd Regiment, New York Infantry, the regiment Sarah Rosetta Wakeman served with during the American Civil War:

In many ways, the coming of the Civil War challenged the ideology of Victorian domesticity that had defined the lives of men and women in the antebellum era. In the North and in the South, the war forced women into public life in ways they could never imagine before.

Learn more below:

“Eat your vegetables.” Parents use the phrase today in a desperate effort to get their children to eat something besides ice cream or french fries. During the American Civil War though, such a request could literally be a life-saving suggestion since disease was responsible for more than two-thirds of all Civil War deaths.

Learn more about disease during the American Civil War:

Resources

• Burgess, Lauren. An Uncommon Soldier: The Civil War Letters of Sarah Rosetta Wakeman, alias Pvt. Lyons Wakeman, 153rd Regiment, New York State Volunteers, 1862 - 1864. (Pasadena: Minerva Center, 1994).

• https://www.familysearch.org/en/
• https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/sarah-rosetta-wakeman
• https://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-sarahwakeman/
• https://wanderwomenproject.com/women/sarah-rosetta-wakeman/