A Vignette Of An Unsung Civil War Heroine: Anna "Michigan Annie" Etheridge; The Michigan Infantry's "Daughter Of The Regiment

Unsung Heroines Of History, #2

Thousands of books and articles have been written about the battles----both great and small----and the major personalities of the American Civil War. The vast majority of these books and articles have concentrated on the battles and personalities of the famous "household names"----the generals and political figures that first caused, and then directed, the tragic conflict to its bloody conclusion. The literature of the Civil War abounds with biographies of the heroes of the South such as Robert E. Lee, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, James Longstreet and Jefferson Davis as well as those of the North like Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, George Custer, and Phil Sheridan to name but a few. There are also myriad descriptions of the battles, both great, like Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg to mention three of the most important; and small that dotted the Union and the Confederate territory during the four long years that the war seesawed back and forth across the landscape. Little, however, has been published about the thousands of everyday men and women who contributed----sometimes losing their lives in the process----to the Union and Confederate argument over which political entity was supreme; the individual governments of the States or the central government of the Federal Republic.

"A Vignette Of An Unsung Civil War Heroine: Anna "Michigan Annie" Etheridge; The Michigan Infantry's "Daughter Of The Regiment" is a vignette of this unsung heroine. Anna Etheridge, illustrates the never-say-die tenacity of many women of the era. Their courage and tenacity was demonstrated both behind the scenes and on countless battlefields during the war. "Michigan Annie," and many other women like her, personify the courage and resourcefulness of the faceless, unsung thousands of both men and women whose names and deeds are now lost to history.

Using various sources including some from the Civil War period, we get a view of this amazing woman and her lifesaving deeds as an "on-the-battlefield" nurse. She was in an astonishing thirty-two Civil War battles, including Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. She served for the entire period of the war and was one of only two women to be awarded the Kearney Medal for heroism under fire. From some of the eyewitness accounts, emerges a portrait of courage and determination as heroic as any the Civil War produced.

Anna's story, illustrates the courageous women on both sides of the conflict, who were able, despite the roadblocks erected in their way----as women have been able throughout history----to find their way around male-devised obstructionist rules and make their meaningful contribution to the war effort.

In this short e-book of about 11,000+ words and approximately 36+ pages at 300 words per page, Anna's deeds and life, on and off the battlefield, reveal the American female spirit of the time.