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Old 05-25-2005, 12:51 PM
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Default The Noble Union Girl

reprinted from the commentary section of patriotfiles.com


During the American Civil War, there was an explosion of writing and letters being sent to newspapers as never before. Many of the soldiers were actually used as "field correspondants". In my research for Rockland County Civil War regiments, I came across a lot of interesting letters. This particular group of letters involved an exchange of letters from men in the 6th New York Heavy Artillery with an anonymous young lady known as the "Noble Union Girl". This article is an excerpt from a paper I wrote about the 6th Heavies.


6th HEAVY ARTILLERY
Back north and early in the fall, 1863, some interesting correspondence began taking place between a ?Union Girl? in Rockland County and the 6th Heavies. ?Girls don?t have a copperhead beau.? Our Union Girl proclaims, ?Better love no one at all than to love a copperhead....those cowardly stay-at-homes. Wait til the war is over and take a true Union soldier, one who fought for our rights as well as his own.? She concludes this advice to other Union girls with an entreaty to the soldiers in the field to ?remember the copperhead whenever you meet him, and every girl in the broad Union will love you all the better for it, and none more truly than the girls of Rockland County, especially she who signs herself A Union Girl.?

Barely two weeks later, a ?Union Boy from the 6th Heavies answered the letter. ?Had a few such letters been written by the ladies when the rebellion broke out,? he asserts ?I may safely say there would have been but very few young men left in Rockland today.? Our Union boy goes on to say that the Journal was gladly welcomed in camp as it contained something ?rich, rare and racy from a true little Yankie (sic) heroine. ....The Journal was obtained and your letter read aloud to the company at large, and at its conclusion three deafening cheers were given for the Union girl of Rockland County.? He ended his letter with this noble sentiment,? While you generous girl are fighting our secret enemies in the rear, there is one also in the army, contending with those in the front, in the person of A Union Boy.?

Soon thereafter another letter appeared, written by our ?noble, generous Union Girl,? as she was dubbed by the 6th Artillery. She thoroughly condemned and vilified copperheads exclaiming among other things that ?Jeff Davis may rule over men but never over women.? Let me tell you, young men who were drafted, and the rest of you who were afraid to go, the best thing you can do is to keep out of the reach of the Union girls, for if you are copperheads, we despise you; if you are cowards we are ashamed of you, and if you are sick, lame, deaf, near-sighted, or not constitutionally sound, I?m sure we don?t want you under any consideration, indeed we don?t.?

The last letter of the series was from the ?Union Boy? who apparently realized what a tiger he was corresponding with. ?Not until now, have we appreciated the influence of women in this war; and I trust that your influence,? he states, ?as well as that of every true Union Girl in the land, will be brought to bear with telling effect upon all our enemies and their sympathizers who seek to destroy our government and discourage its defenders.?

by: Bill Doherty (Tamaroa)
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