Mollie Bean

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Mollie Bean
Other name(s)Melvin Bean
AllegianceFlag of the Confederate States of America (1865).svg  Confederate States of America
Service / branchBattle flag of the Confederate States of America (1-1).svg  Confederate States Army
UnitFlag of North Carolina (1861-1885).svg 47th North Carolina Infantry
Battles / wars American Civil War

Mollie Bean was a North Carolinian woman who, pretending to be a man, joined the 47th North Carolina Infantry, a regiment of the Confederate army in the American Civil War.

Contents

Civil War service

Mollie Bean took on the name of Melvin Bean [1] [2] and was captured in uniform by Confederate forces outside Richmond, Virginia, on the night of February 17, 1865.[ citation needed ] [3] When questioned, she said she had served with the 47th North Carolina Infantry for two years and been twice wounded, [2] but neither of these wounds led to her discovery. [4] Bean was described in the press as "manifestly crazy" and charged with being a "suspicious character", i.e. a spy. [5] She was incarcerated at Richmond's wartime prison Castle Thunder, [1] [6] where Mary and Molly Bell were held prisoners in October 1864.

Her captain was reported to be John Thorp. [1] The Richmond Whig, which reported Bean's discovery on February 20, 1865, assumed that other soldiers in the company knew Bean was a woman; according to historian Elizabeth D. Leonard, this was likely not true. [2]

A fictionalized version of Bean is a major character in Harry Turtledove's alternative history novel The Guns of the South , where she is cast as a former prostitute. [7]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Hall, Richard H. (2006). Women on the Civil War Battlefront. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. p.  150. ISBN   0-7006-1437-0.
  2. 1 2 3 Leonard, Elizabeth D. (1999). All the Daring of the Soldier: Women of the Civil War Armies (1st ed.). New York: W. W. Norton & Company. p. 222. ISBN   0-3930-4712-1.
  3. ↑ Richmond Whig, February 20, 1865, page 2.
  4. ↑ Blanton, DeAnne; Cook, Lauren M. (2002). They Fought like Demons: Women Soldiers in the American Civil War . Louisiana State University Press. p. 97. ISBN   0-8071-2806-6.
  5. ↑ Blanton & Cook (2002), pp. 154, 198.
  6. ↑ Blanton & Cook (2002), p. 120.
  7. ↑ Leonard (1999), note 39, p. 325.

Further reading


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