Sophia Cryder, soldier, 1861
Early in the Civil War, the Union army included several female-bodied soldiers. For a week or two, Sophia Cryder was one, having joined Company C, 9th Pennsylvania Infantry, captained by Christian Kuhns, mustered in at Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
Cryder’s story was presented as a romantic incident of war and appealed to a number of newspapers; the original was reprinted and summarized in newspapers of two countries. The sequel … not so much.
The first story appeared originally in the Daily Patriot and Union [Harrisburg, Pennsylvania], according to the reprint in the Altoona Tribune [Altoona, Pennsylvania]. (See “The Romance of the Camp.” Altoona Tribune [Altoona, Pennsylvania] 19 September 1861; p. 2) This piece appeared in dozens of newspapers across the U. S. and in at least two newspapers in New Zealand.
“Romance of the Camp.” Harrisburg Patriot and Union [Harrisburg, Pennsylvania]; reprinted in Carlisle Herald [Carlisle, Pennsylvnia] 13 September 1861; p. 2.
On Monday afternoon two gentlemen—solid looking farmers—arrived in Camp Curtin, who sought an interview with the officer of the day, and informed him that they were in search of a girl who had strayed away. The officer thought a military camp a queer place to hunt for stray girls, especially as it reflected on the virtue and dignity of the men at arms, nevertheless the gentlemen were at liberty to make search. As the old song says, “[they] hunted her high, and they hunted her low,” but they did not hunt her “when a year passed away,” for lo! in less than an hour she was found on guard doing duty as a sentinel, in the uniform of Captain Kuhn’s company of Sumner Rifles, of Carlisle. We do not know what name she enlisted under to protect the honor of her country’s flag, but her real name is Sophia Cryder, and her residence only about a mile from this city. She had been in Captain Kuhn’s company a week, is a plump lass of only sixteen years of age, and had so completely unsexed herself that she could safely bid defiance to any one not acquainted with her to detect her. How she shirked an examination, which is said to be made with great strictness by the medical men of Camp Curtis, we were not informed.
She is represented as a girl of unblemished reputation, and did not, as generally happens in such cases, enlist to be near the object of her affections, but merely in a wild spirit of adventure. It does not speak well for the modesty of Miss Sophia, however, to say, that she was in the habit of accompanying the men on their excursions to the river to bathe; but she may have done this to ward off suspicion, especially as she took precious good care to keep out of the water herself. This is the first case of the kind that has been brought to light, but we are informed that the most reckless dare devil attached to the Seventh regiment of the three months’ volunteers was a woman—the mother of four children.
Miss Cryder was taken home, where she can reflect over what she did see, as well as what she did not see.—Harrisburg Paper.
(Oh, how I wish I could identify that daredevil of a mother of four … )
The Harrisburg Patriot certainly got a little coy about the thought that Cryder had or had not seen the men of Company C naked as they swam, with Cryder expected to reflect on what was seen and what wasn’t—appropriate, given that what already hadn’t been seen was that Cryder was biologically female.
The Patriot was less in love with Cryder two weeks later, having learned more of her past from a piece published in the Democrat [Carlisle, Pennsylvania] (and unavailable to me).
“More of the Girl Soldier.” Patriot [Harrisburg, Pennsylvania] 26 September 1861; p. 5.
The Carlisle Democrat rather knocks the romance out of the enlistment of Sophia Cryder, found in soldier’s clothes in Captain Kuhn’s company. It alleges that previous to enlisting she was in the employ of a gentleman in Carlisle as hostler, alleging that she had been several years in the employ of the Messrs. Ahl, at Newville, as a teamster, but her sex being discovered she was promptly discharged from his service, after which she was picked up by one of Captain K.’s men and enlisted.
On Sunday last she was lodged in the Carlisle jail, charged with setting fire to the barn of Mr. George Kuhns, at Plainfield, with whom she resided. It is supposed she fired the barn as a revenge for interfering with her course of conduct. The barn was entirely destroyed. Mr. Kuhns, we believe, is her uncle, who rescued her from camp. If guilty, the romance of the whole affair falleth to ye ground, and there is no question at all but what she would be about as well off in the army as any other man.
Oh, poor Harrisburg Patriot, having its romantic notions dashed to “ye ground”! This piece was decidedly not reprinted; and it might have dismayed the Patriot even more to learn that its romantic soldier would a couple years later be expelled from the church community.
Cryder appears to have been known as both Sophia Kuhns and Sophia Krider and was the granddaughter of George Kuhns (c. 1780-March 1863), a farmer living in Plainfield, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania; and the niece of George Kuhns (born about 1822). In 1860, the Kuhns household consisted of George, senior, Elizabeth (age 75), Margaret (age 42), George (age 38), John (age 36), Mary (age 34), and Sophia (age 18). [See the 1860 U.S. census for Plainfield, West Pennsborough, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania; M653 roll 1102; p. 983; house 383; family 385.] Was the Democrat incorrect in stating that Cryder had worked “several years” as a man? Evidently; it seems unlikely that a 19-year-old would have worked for years as a hostler and a teamster.
The family attended the German Reformed Church in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, according to the church’s meticulous records of families, communicants, and dismissals. [See end of this page for information about the source.] In the section on families, Sophia Kuhns is listed as the granddaughter of George Kuhns, senior—and is noted as “expelled.” [p. 45] (Christian Kuhn and his family are recorded on the same page.) In the section recording those receiving communion, Sophia Kuhns received communion once, in 1861, before being expelled in March 1863—the same month when the death of George Kuhns, senior, is noted. [See “Communicants’ Record”; p. 98.] And in the list titled “Dismissions from the Church” is Sophia Krider—but not Sophia Kuhns. Krider is listed as excommunicated on 30 April 1863 with the remark, “A notorious character.” [p. 81]
”A notorious character.” Was it because Cryder refused to live as a woman? or was there another reason? Either way, it appears to have taken years for the church to expel its notorious congregant.
And what happened next? Neither Cryder nor Sophia Kuhns are mentioned in later newspapers—at least by those names.
[Here is the epic bibliographic information for the cited church records: Records of the First United Church of Christ (First Reformed Church) Carlisle, Pennsylvania; vol 4. Microfilmed as part of Historic Pennsylvania Church and Town Records. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Methodist Church Records. Valley Forge, Pennsylvania: Eastern Pennsylvania United Methodist Church Commission on Archives and History; reel 276. Online at ancestry.com as Pennsylvania and New Jersey, U.S., Church and Town Records, 1669-2013. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.]
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