FReeper Canteen ~ Part IX of Women Warriors: Women Soldiers and Sailors ~ March 16, 2004

GenderGap.com ^ | March 16, 2004 | LaDivaLoca

[LaDivaLoca]

For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday...
Thank the Veterans who served in
The United States Armed Forces.

Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom?
Support The United States Armed Forces Today!

Part IX: Women Soldiers & Sailors

In 1428 a 16 year old peasant girl named Jehanne la Pucelle convinced the Dauphin of France to put her in charge of his army by promising to reclaim Orleans from the English and have him crowned at Riems. In May 1429 she led the army in the battle that returned Orleans to the French and two months later watched the Dauphin crowned Charles VII of France in the Cathedral of Reims. In May 1430 the girl who became known to the world as Joan of Arc was captured by the Burgundians during her attack on Compiegne and sold to the English. She was charged in an ecclesiastical court with heresy, blasphemy, idolatry, and sorcery. In May 1431 she was burned at the stake in the market place of Rouen as a relapsed heretic. Her relapse consisted of donning the men's clothing she had worn throughout her career and which she had earlier agreed to abandon in order to save herself from the stake.

There are accounts, verified by multiple official sources, of more than 20 women who dressed as men and served in the British Royal Navy or Marines from the late 17th to the early 19th centuries. In 1690 Anne Chamberlyne joined her brother's ship and fought in the battle against the French off Beachy Head. A tablet to her memory was placed in the wall of the Chelsea Old Church, London, along with other Chamberlyne family memorials. The English translation of the original Latin read, "In an adjoining vault lies Anne, the only daughter of Edward Chamberlyne, Doctor of Laws, born in London, the 20th January 1667, who having long declined marriage and aspiring to great achievements unusual to her sex and age, on the 30th June 1690, on board a fireship in man's clothing, as a second Pallas, chaste and fearless fought valiantly six hours against the French ...".

It was also not unusual for the wives of crewmen to live aboard both English and French warships. During battles they would deliver water and carry gun powder from the magazine to the cannons as well as assisting the ships' surgeon.

John Nichols, a seaman aboard the HMS Goliath wrote of the women aboard during the Battle of the Nile on Aug. 1, 1798, "There were some of the women wounded, and one woman belonging to Leith died of her wounds and was buried on a small island in the bay. One woman bore a son in the heat of the action; she belonged to Edinburgh." The names of four of the women aboard the Goliath during the battle were listed in the ship's muster book which stated they were "victualed at two-thirds allowance in consideration of their assistance in dressing and attending on the wounded, being widows of men slain in the fight with the enemy on the first day of August."

In 1847 the British government decided that Queen Victoria would award a Naval General Service Medal to all living survivors of the major battles fought between 1793 and 1840. Mary Ann Riley and Ann Hopping, who had been aboard the Goliath during the Battle of the Nile, and Jane Townshend, who was aboard the Defiance at Trafalgar in 1805, applied and were originally approved by the Admirals reviewing the claims. They were later refused the medal on the basis that, "There were many women in the fleet equally useful, and it will leave the Army exposed to innumerable applications of the same nature." [Italics in original]. More than 20,000 men received the medal including at least one who was an infant at the time the ship he was on engaged in battle.

Kit Cavanagh, better known as "Mother Ross" was one of several women who served as dragoons in the British Army. She fought during the 1690's at first disguised as a man and later openly as a woman. She was wounded several times but survived and received a military burial when she eventually died of old age. Ann Mills was another British dragoon who fought on the frigate Maidstone in 1740.

Phoebe Hessel's gravestone in Brighton churchyard Sussex, tells of her having, "served for many years as a private Soldier in the 5th Reg't of foot in different parts of Europe and in the year 1745 fought under the command of the Duke of Cumberland at the Battle of Fontenoy where she received a bayonet wound in her arm. Her long life which commenced in the time of Queen Anne extended into the reign of George IV, by whose munificence she received comfort and support in her later years."

Angelique Brulon defended Corsica in seven campaigns between 1792 and 1799. At first she fought disguised as a man, by the time her gender was discovered she had proved so valuable in battle that she was allowed to remain in the military fighting openly as a woman. She commanded male troops at Calvi who later drew up a testimonial which read in part, "We the garrison at Calvi certify that Marie-Angelique Josephine Duchemin Brulon, acting sergeant, commanding the attack on Fort Gesco, fought with us with the courage of a heroine". They went on to commend her skill with a sword and in hand to hand combat. She was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in 1822 and personally presented the French Legion of Honor by Napoleon III.

Marie Schellinck, a Belgian, fought for France in the Napoleonic Wars. She was wounded at Jemmappes, Austerlitz and Jena. She received the French Legion of Honor and a military pension in 1808. Virginie Ghesquiere who fought under Junot in Portugal and Angelique Brulon were two other women awarded the French Legion of Honor in the 18th century.

In 1807 Napoleon removed the French Legion of Honor from his own chest and awarded it to Ducaud Laborde, who fought openly as a woman with a troop of hussars at the battles of Eylau, Friedland and Waterloo. Although she was wounded at Friedland she continued to fight and captured 6 prisoners. At Waterloo her husband was killed and her military career ended when a cannon ball destroyed her leg. 

Elizabeth Hatzler wore the uniform of a French dragoon and fought beside her husband in several battles in 1812. She carried him during the army's retreat after he was wounded in a losing battle against the Cossacks.

Sylvia Mariotti served as a private in the 11th Battalion of the Italian Bersaglieri from 1866 to 1879. She fought the Austrians in the Battle of Custozza.

Next Tuesday Part IX of Women Warriors:

Women Revolutionaries

[Soaring Feather]

So you're doing drugs today?????
BWAAAAAAAAAA!!
Tomkow, just for you.....click

[Brad’s Gramma]

Good MORNING (hehe) everyone!

I have work to do today, as I stayed on here too long yesterday...AND SINCE SOMEONE SPILLED SYRUP on the internet!!!!!!!!!!!......so I'll be back later, Lord willin'.

Have fun! Good luck posting!

:-)

[StarCMC]

Not me. I'm innocent!

[Soaring Feather]

WOO HOO just heard from the Weather Channel... up to 12 inches of snow coming here. Traffic on interstate thruways is snarled up with huge number of accidents.

Not pretty.

[tiamat]

And tomkow nails it with one shot! LOL!

#250!

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

Have a good day!
Hope to see you later.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

Afternoon Brother!

[tomkow6]

 

 

TomKow6 for Prez!

A FAVORITE of the Canteen Galz!

 

 

 

So loved & adored by the Canteen Galz that they devised & named a DANCE for him!

A vote for TomKow is a vote for.....

 

[Kathy in Alaska]

Beggars banquet: Out come the tongues as six eyes watch the jettisoning of a morsel at the St. Pug O'Ween Festival in Naples, Fla.

[Kathy in Alaska]

I couldn't resist........

Boxers or briefs? Warm air rising from a vent during Cincinnati's St. Patty's Day Parade reveals the answer to an age-old question: neither.

[tiamat]

I know I have told this story here before.... My dad played pipes and marched in parades for years.

He got SO tired of people asking, "What's under there!"

I remember one time, while he was having a pint after the event, a little old lady actually LIFTED HIS HEM with her cane trying to peek!

Needless to say, he was indignant and asked her how SHE would feel if someone did that to HER!

[Kathy in Alaska]

Hi, 4CJ. Happy Tuesday.

[USVet6792Retired]

Right back at ya Bro

[Soaring Feather]

TomKow6 for Prez!

A FAVORITE of the Canteen Galz!
 
    So loved & adored by the Canteen Galz that they
devised & named a DANCE for him!

Say What, tomkow??

You know you paid them to say that!

[Kathy in Alaska]

My apologies, tia. I thought and thought, but couldn't remember who the other piper was. FR is so slow, I just posted it anyway. I LOVE listening to the pipes.

The Pipes!
radu

[Diva Betsy Ross]

Wasn't me.... I bet you it was Star.. she is always doin' something over there. I would keep my eyes on Brad's Gramma too.. she is a feisty trickster too! ;}

[tiamat]

LOL!

I like pipes OUTSIDE.

Kind of hard to take INSIDE, in a small house, in the winter with everything closed up!

(Made the dog crazy! )

It was worse in the spring and fall. My dad taught school, and would be out in the yard, playing before he went in...

The rest of the folks in our neighborhood were cops, or worked for Ford, GM, Chrysler, Stroh's....they worked terrible hours and din't like piping at 6 am!

We got threats, and I don't blame them!

[Radix]

1850 Nathaniel Hawthorne's      "Scarlet Letter" published

 

....When Hester Prynne bears an illegitimate child she is introduced to the ugliness, complexity, and ultimately the strength of the human spirit. Though set in Puritan community centuries ago, the moral dilemmas of personal responsibility, and consuming emotions of guilt, anger, loyalty and revenge are timeless.....

 

 

 

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good Tuesday afternoon, Tom! Good Tuesday afternoon, Patriotic Pattie!

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good day, w04Man. Thanks for the links.