Bonnie Milne Gardner - Delaware County Historical Society

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Ohio Wesleyan University
Department of Theatre & Dance
A new full-length play by
Bonnie Milne Gardner
Audience Guide
October 2013
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“THE SECRET WAR of EMMA EDMONDS”
aka Private Franklin Thompson, 2nd Michigan Regiment
A new full-length play by Bonnie Milne Gardner
Did Emma Edmonds really serve in the Civil War disguised as a man? Or is she merely
posing in order to defraud the War Department out of pension money two decades
later?
World Premiere Production
October 4, 5, 11, 12 at 8:00 and 13 at 2:00
Department of Theatre & Dance, Chappelear Drama Center, 45 Rowland Ave
Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio 43015
Main Stage production. For tickets, call 740-368-3855 weekdays, 9am-5pm
About the Production
Guest Director: Kerry Shanklin
Playwright/Dramaturg/Producer: Bonnie Milne Gardner
Scenographer: D. Glen Vanderbilt
Costume Designer: Jacqueline Shelley
Stage Manager: Margaret Knecht
Cast Members: Margot Reed (as Emma Edmonds), Jason Bogdany, Christian Sanford,
Jackie Amanna, Lucas Scaros, Evan Hively, Luke Steffan, Claire Hackett, Ian Boyle,
Anthony Lamoreaux, Reggie Hemphill, Kieran Smith, Megan Pinto, Maeve Nash
Synopsis
In 1882, Sarah Emma Edmonds, age 40, applies to the Department of War for her
military pension as a Civil War soldier twenty years earlier. Did she really serve,
undetected, as a man, for two years in the Union Army? Was she actually Frank
Thompson of the 2nd Michigan Infantry Regiment? Was she a postmaster, a medical
steward, an officerʼs aide, and a spy?! While some champion her dedication and
bravery, others dismiss her as a strumpet, braggart, and fraud. The play, based on a
true story, reveals Emmaʼs tense days in camp, and follows her unrelenting quest for
public recognition and personal retribution. Are her claims true? Why did she do it?
Setting and Characters
The play occurs in various locales in Canada and the U.S. between the 1860s through
the 1890s. There are fourteen characters in fifteen scenes. The play runs about 2 hours.
Useful Resources
Edmonds, S.E. Memoirs of a Soldier, Nurse, and Spy: A Woman's Adventures in the
Union Army. Dekalb: Northern Illinois UP, 1999. (reissue of her 19th c. memoirs)
Gansler, Laura Leedy. The Mysterious Private Thompson. NYC: Free Press, 2005.
This guide was written, compiled, and edited by Matthew Jamison, OWU ʻ14.
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From the Playwright
I was first drawn to Emmaʼs story about five years ago, from an intriguing newspaper
article about her life, which got tossed into the file marked “play ideas.” Winter of 2012, I
completed some preliminary research which convinced me this was a mystery worth
exploring. Did she truly disguise herself as a man and serve 2 years in the Civil War, as
a soldier, postmaster, and spy? What suddenly made her desert the army, never to be
heard from again for 20 years? The more I dug into her world, the more it fascinated
me. The bulk of the writing occurred summer of 2012, and a first draft completed by
October. Revisions continued until . . . last week?! The story you will experience in the
performance is primarily based on historical accounts, with a healthy dose of dramatic
license. A huge thank you to all the patient students and considerate friends who
provided invaluable feedback along the way. You know who you are!
Bonnie Milne Gardner
September 2013
Margot Reed as Sarah Emma Edmonds
World Premiere Production
October 2013
Photo by Shannon Dean
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Sarah Emma Edmonds and the Civil War: A Timeline
Some Main Players
Sarah Emma Edmonds: 1841-1898, age 56
Jerome (Jeremy Robbins): 1841-1921, age 80
Clara Barton: 1821-1912
George McClellan: 1826-1885
Damon Stewart: 1834-1905
Orlando Poe: 1832-1895
1841 Dec.?
Born to Isaac and Betsy, Sarah Emma
Edmondson, in New Brunswick, Canada. Later
shortened her name to Edmonds. Raised on a
hard working farm, but got a good education in a
parish school.
1858 Age 17
Emma runs away from home to avoid forced
marriage. Works about 11 months in shops in
Salisbury, then Moncton, New Brunswick.
1859
Emma becomes Franklin Thompson to hide from
her father and to get a job peddling books. Travels
and lives in New Brunswick and New England
before going broke. Travels to Hartford, gets a job
from Hurlburt, and prospers in Halifax and Nova
Scotia. Makes her way from Hartford to Detroit to
Flint.
a.
Sarah Emma Edmonds
1861 Feb. 8
Feb. 18
Mar. 4
Apr. 13
May 25
Jun. 2
Jul. 21
Oct.
1862 Jan.
Mar.
Mar. 17
Apr.
May
Seceding states meet in Alabama to form Confederate States of America.
Jefferson Davis inaugurated as provisional president.
Abraham Lincoln inaugurated as president of the United States.
Fort Sumner falls. Lincoln calls for volunteers to build an army.
nd
Frank Thompson joins Army, 2 Regiment Michigan Infantry (Company F, the
militia) in Flint under Captain Morse. First bunkmate, Damon Stewart, 26.
nd
2 Michigan begins journey through Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, to D.C.
It makes its way to Manassas, Virginia.
nd
First Battle of Bull Run. 2 Michigan guards the retreat back to D.C. This is
Thompsonʼs first encounter with war; she is wounded.
nd
Thompson meets Jerome (Jeremy) Robbins at 2 regiment hospital near
Alexandria.
th
James Reid of the 79 New York, who had been captured at Bull Run in July, is
released from Confederate prison camp; joins Poeʼs brigade.
Poe promotes Thompson to regimental mail carrier/postmaster.
nd
2 Michigan sent to Fort Monroe. Thompson and Robbins catch fever. They give
runaway slaves refuge and hear the horrors of slavery.
Thompson becomes Secret Service agent, behind enemy lines as a male slave.
Other spy disguises include an Irish peddler woman who shares her religious
views with a dying Confederate major; agrees to return his gold watch and shoots
him.
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May 6
1863
b.
Jerome
nd
Battle of Williamsburg. First real battle for 2 Michigan and one of their bloodiest.
Thompson and Robbins spend two weeks in makeshift hospital near
Williamsburg with surgeons from both sides.
May 30
Battle of Fair Oaks. Confederate surprise attack: 800 killed; 3,500 wounded.
Thompson runs makeshift hospital in a sawmill.
Jun. 27
Battle at Gaines Mill. Thompson rides to various auxiliary hospitals on north side
of the Chickahominy River to warn surgeons of approaching enemy. At
Talleysville, Thompson tries to convince Robbins to retreat, but he refuses.
Thompson rides through several battles to safety at Malvern Hill. Robbins and his
staff are overrun and offered parole instead of the Confederate prison camp.
Jul.
Thompson sent on working furlough from regiment to deliver mail to the men in
D.C. hospitals.
Jul. 28
Second Battle of Bull Run. Lincoln orders McClellan to abandon Peninsula
Campaign and bring his army back to D.C. to reinforce General Pope. 16,000
nd
casualties. 2 Michigan engaged in heavy action, 3 days, retreating.
Aug. 29
Robbins turns 21. Thompson writes him 11 letters that fall, Anna (his girlfriend),
only four. Robbins writes eight to Thompson.
Sep. 22
Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing slaves held in
Confederate States, but not slaves held in loyal states like Missouri.
Dec. 10
Battle of Fredericksburg. Town burned, Confederates retreat to defense position.
Union troops attack, but are mowed down crossing a river and open field.
Thompson meets Clara Barton at Lacy House field hospital.
Dec. 15
Robbins finally freed, rejoins company F, finds Thompson in a camp a day or two
later, discovers she is tent mates with James Reid. Reid is now Generalʼs Aide
Assistant Adjutant General; Thompson befriended him at Fredericksburg about a
month earlier.
Jan. 10
Robbins tells Thompson of his engagement to Anna. Thompson signs a jealous
response, “Emma.” Gossip of soldier recently giving birth increases suspicion
and risk for Thompson.
nd
Mar.
2 Michigan sent to Kentucky as part of Army of
the Cumberland, probably part of a renewed effort
by General Grant to capture Vicksburg in the
spring. Thompson sent to spy on fort; shoots
Confederate captain in the face.
Apr. 1
Reid resigns his commission to take sick wife to
Scotland.
Apr. 4
Thompson may have had a breakdown; becomes
ill. Robbins writes she is lovesick; he sounds
jealous of her devotion to Reid.
Apr. 11-17 Thompson disappears. Walks to Cairo, becomes
Emma again for good. Recoups briefly in Oberlin,
Ohio. Robbins confronts Reid and appears
disgusted by his news about Thompson.
Apr. 22
Thompson listed as an army deserter, punishable
by death.
May
Emma Edmonds appears in D.C. boarding house.
Moves to Harperʼs Ferry as a volunteer nurse at the
(Jeremy) Robbins
U.S. Sanitary Commission Hospital. Writes her
memoirs in her free time.
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Civil War Photography
c.
e.
“Approximately a thousand photographers worked
separately and in teams to produce hundreds of
thousands of portraits and views that were actively
collected during the period (and for the past 150
years) by Americans of all ages and social classes.
In a direct expression of the nation’s changing
vision of itself, the camera documented the fouryear war and also mediated it by memorializing the
brutal events of the battlefield as well as the
consequent toll on the home front. And in the
creation of this vast treasury of photographs—a
national visual library of sorts—the camera
performed a key role the opposing armies and their
leaders could not: it defined and even helped unify
the nation through an unrehearsed and unscripted
act of collective memory-making.”
- Jeff L. Rosenheim,
Photography and the American Civil War
d.
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Capturing Conflict, Documenting Destruction
It is hard to imagine a time, particularly a time of
conflict, without the accompanying inundation of
photographic documentation. The Civil War
(1861-65), however, is considered the first
extensively photographed conflict. It is only the
fourth war in history to be photographed,
following the Mexican-American War (1846-48),
the Crimean War (1854-56), and the Indian
Rebellion of 1857.
Although photography existed 20 years prior to
the Civil War, technological refinement allowed
photographers like Mathew Brady, Alexander
Gardner, and George Barnard to take and share
photographs on a large scale. Photographs were
sold in enormous quantities across the country,
stripping away the Victorian-era romance
surrounding warfare and giving the public insight
into their leaders and loved onesʼ conditions.
For the first time, families could have a real-life
representation of their relatives fighting in the
war. Most families had a tintype, printed on
metal, or an ambrotype, printed on glass.
Families often had these images framed. The
ambrotype was most common and a large
collection of these images still exists today.
g.
“During the Civil War, the process of
taking photographs was complex and
time-consuming. Two photographers
would arrive at a location. One would
mix chemicals and pour them on a clean
glass plate. After the chemicals were
given time to evaporate, the glass plate
would be sensitized by being
immersed—in darkness—in a bath
solution. Placed in a holder, the plate
would then be inserted in the camera,
which had been positioned and focused
by the other photographer. Exposure of
the plate and development of the
photograph had to be completed within
minutes; then the exposed plate was
rushed to the darkroom wagon for
developing. Each fragile glass plate had
to be treated with great care after
development—a difficult task on a
battlefield.”
- The Library of Congress,
Taking Photographs at the Time of the
Civil War
“‘Mr. Brady has done something to
bring home to us the terrible reality and
earnestness of war. If he has not
brought bodies and laid them in our
dooryards and along the streets, he has
done something very like it,’ wrote the
New York Times on Oct. 20, 1862
about Brady's New York exhibit just a
month after the bloody Battle of
Antietam.”
- Eric Miller
“How Civil War Photography
Changed War”
For Discussion
The Civil War paved the way for photography in future wars—World Wars I & II, the Vietnam War, the
Iraq War, etc. The collection of these photographs shows the progression of technology and the extent
of the death and destruction war can cause. What are the advantages and disadvantages of
photographic documentation of the violence and aftermath of wartime or conflict during the Civil War
and today?
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f.
h.
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Civil War By the Numbers
400
The estimated number of women who served as men in the Civil War.
504
The average number of deaths per day during the Civil War.
17
The number of Delaware, OH residents killed in action.
4 million
The number of enslaved persons in the United States in 1860.
2,260
The number of Confederate prisoners buried at Camp Chase in Columbus, OH.
9:1
The ratio of African American Civil War troops who died of disease to those who died on
the battlefield, largely due to discriminatory medical care.
2.5
The approximate percentage of the American population that died in the Civil War.
2 out of 3
The number of Civil War deaths that occurred from disease and not battle.
1 in 5
The average death rate for all Civil War soldiers.
3,000
The estimated number of horses killed at the Battle of Gettysburg.
40 (+)
The estimated percentage of Civil War dead who were never identified.
180,000
The number of African American soldiers who served in the Civil War.
900
The approximate number of battlefield deaths in 12 hours at the Battle of Bull Run.
For more, visit http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/death-numbers/.
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Jennie Hodgers and Frances Clalin Clayton
Sarah Emma Edmonds was not the only woman to disguise herself as a man during the
Civil War. There are an estimated 400 women who also joined the ranks of men serving
their country in the Union and Confederate armies. Two of these women who donned
the uniform to serve are Jennie Hodgers (Albert Cashier) and Frances Clalin Clayton
(Jack Williams).
Jennie Hodgers as Albert Cashier
Jennie Hodgers, under the name Albert Cashier,
served for three years in the 95th Illinois Infantry
Regiment. Hodgers holds the record for the longest
documented length of service by a woman in the
Civil War. Hodgers successfully lived as Albert
Cashier after the Civil War until 1911, when her real
identity was discovered following a car accident. The
doctor agreed not to reveal Hodgersʼ true identity
and had her admitted to the Soldiersʼ and Sailorsʼ
Home in Quincy, Illinois. The commandant of the
i.
veteransʼ home also agreed not to reveal Hodgers
true identity. In 1913, the truth became public as
Hodgers had become difficult to manage in her old
age. She was determined to be “insane,” and sent to the Watertown State Hospital for
the Insane. She told her comrade First Sergeant Charles W. Ives, who visited her at
Watertown, “Lots of boys enlisted under the wrong name. So did I. The country needed
men, and I wanted excitement.” Hodgers died on October 10, 1915, at age 71. She was
buried in her Union uniform, in a flag-draped casket. Her tombstone reads: ALBERT
D.J. CASHIER, CO. G, 95 ILL. INF.
Frances Clalin Clayton as Jack Williams
Frances Clalin Clayton was a private called Jack Williams in a Minnesota regiment. It is
believed she served in both cavalry and artillery units. She joined the army to be with
her husband. During the Battle of Stones River, her husband was hit and killed in front
of her. According to one newspaper account, “She charged over his body with the rear
line, driving the rebels with the bayonet,
but was soon struck with a ball in the hip,
and conveyed to the hospital, where her
sex was of course discovered.” The
newspaper continued: “While in the army,
the better to conceal her sex, she learned
to drink, smoke, chew and swear with the
best, or worst of the soldiers. She stood
guard, went on picket duty, in rain and
storm, and fought on the field with the
rest, and was considered a good fighting
man.”
j.
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Central Ohio in the Civil War: A Scavenger Hunt
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Africa Community
Delaware,!OH!
Samuel!Patterson!and!his!neighbors!began!hiding!runaway!slaves!in!their!homes!here!around!
1824.!A!neighbor!called!their!community,!“Africa,”!and!the!area!of!East!Orange!became!known!
as!the!Africa!Community.!Several!of!Patterson!and!his!neighbors’!homes!are!still!standing.!
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Camp Chase
Columbus,!OH!
A!Union!military!staging,!training,!and!prison!camp.!Today,!all!that!remains!is!a!Confederate!
cemetery!with!2,260!graves.!
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Camp Delaware
Delaware,!OH!
The!sites!of!the!camps!for!the!white!96th!and!121st!regiments!of!Ohio!Volunteer!Infantry!and!
most!African!American!Ohioans!joining!the!army.!
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Delaware County Courthouse
Delaware,!OH!
There!is!a!Civil!War!monument!in!front!of!the!Delaware!County!Courthouse.!
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Major General William Starke Rosencrans
Sunbury,!OH!
William!Starke!Rosencrans!was!born!in!Delaware!County!in!1819.!He!graduated!from!West!
Point!in!1842!and!commanded!Union!Armies!of!the!Ohio,!the!Cumberland,!and!the!Missouri!
during!the!Civil!War.!He!also!developed!a!popular!wartime!ambulance.!He!died!in!1898!and!is!
buried!in!Arlington!National!Cemetery.!
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Oak Grove Cemetery
Delaware,!OH!
11!Delaware!residents!died!in!the!Civil!War.!Some!of!them!are!buried!in!Oak!Grove!Cemetery!
along!with!a!circle!of!markers,!made!by!the!Grand!Army!of!the!Republic,!for!unknown!African!
American!troops.!
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Endnotes
a. Unknown. “Sarah Emma Edmundson (or Sarah Edmonds) as ʻFrank Thompson.ʼ” Wikipedia. Web. 15
Sept. 2013.
b, Unknown. “Jerome Robbins.” 2nd Michigan Infantry Links to Michigan in the Civil War. Web. 15 Sept.
2013.
c. Unknown. “Union Private with Musket and Pistol.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Web. 14 Sept.
2013.
d. Rosenheim, Jeff L. Photography and the American Civil War. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art,
2013.
e. Unknown. “Sergeant Alex Rogers with Battle Flag, Eighty-third Pennsylvania Volunteers, Third
Brigade, First Division, Fifth Corps, Army of the Potomac.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Web. 14
Sept. 2013.
f. “Taking Photographs at the Time of the Civil War.” American Memory: Civil War Photographs. The
Library of Congress, 15 Jan. 2000. Web. 14 Sept. 2013.
g. Unknown. “Private James House with Fighting Knife, Sixteenth Georgia Cavalry Battalion, Army of
Tennessee.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Web. 14 Sept. 2013.
h. Miller, Eric. “How Civil War Photography Changed War.” Discovery News. 27 Nov. 2012. Web. 14
Sept. 2013.
i. Johnson, R.T. “Albert D.J. Cashier: Dressing Up for the Civil War.” The History Rat. 6 July 2012. Web.
24 Sept. 2013.
j. Blanton, DeAnne. “Women Soldiers of the Civil War.” Prologue Magazine. National Archives, 1993.
Web. 24 Sept. 2013.
Bibliography
“Frances Clalin AKA Jack Williams.” Arkansas Toothpick: The Civil War Hub of Arkansas. 29 Apr. 2008.
Web. 25 Sept. 2013.
Hall, Richard. Patriots in Disguise: Women Warriors of the Civil War. New York: Paragon House, 1993.
Print.
“Photography and the Civil War, 1861-1865.” Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. The Metropolitan Museum
of Art. Web. 14 Sept. 2013.
“Photography and the Civil War: Bringing the Battlefront to the Homefront.” The Civil War Trust: Saving
Americaʼs Civil War Battlefields. The Civil War Trust. Web. 14 Sept. 2013.
“The Civil War by the Numbers.” PBS. PBS. Web. 20 Sept. 2013.
Wright, Mike. What They Didn't Teach You about the Civil War. Novato, CA: Presido, 1996. Print.