Henry Fitzallen, actress turned soldier, 1861-1862

“Covington: Romantic Incident in Camp Life—A Woman Detected in Soldier’s Uniform.” Cincinnati Commercial Tribune [Cincinnati, Ohio] 9 December 1861; p. 2.

On Saturday last, a man passing along Pike street, was attracted by the apparent suffering of a private soldier sitting upon the curbstone; and, upon questioning him, found that he was enduring great internal pain, to allay which he stated that he had tried to procure opium at some of the drug stores. The feminine voice and a convulsive heaving of the bosom excited the man’s suspicions touching the soldier’s sex, and while pretending to lead him where the desired drug could be had, he conducted him to the City Marshal, Clinton Butts, and whispered his suspicion to that officer. The marshal conveyed the soldier to the jail, where an examination took place, which, without being too particular, was sufficient to reveal the fact that the soldier was a woman.

She cried with very spite when her secret was discovered; and declared her determination to still pursue her fortunes in the camp. She gave her male name as Andy Fitzallan; said she was from Canada, but refused to tell her real name. She belongs to Colonel Mundy’s regiment, at Camp King, and has remained there for several months without detection. No soldier has been more dutiful or is better drilled, and she has been esteemed for her uniform good nature and kindness of heart. She is about twenty years old, quite good looking, over the medium height, and has fine blue eyes, with rich, dark auburn hair.

Colonel Mundy ordered female attire to be procured for her, and will retain her in the regiment as a nurse of the sick.

“A Romantic Female.” Chicato Tribune [Chicago, Illinois] 18 April 1862; p. 4.

On Sunday evening as an officer of the North Division was patrolling his beat at a late hour of the night, his attention was called to a woman found standing at the corner of Chicago Avenue and Clark streets, having a small bundle in her arms. He accosted her, learned that she had no place to stay and kindly took her to the station house, where she passed the time until morning, when she was tran[sf]erred to the Police Court, told her story, and was discharged, there being no testimony adduced that she was other than a poor but honest girl. Yesterday forenoon the same policeman, as he was passing along Rush street, near the bridge, had his curiosity considerably excited by something peculiar in the appearance of a man dressed in soldier’s uniform, walking ahead of him. He followed the person into a saloon and there recognized the quasi soldier as the girl he had taken to the station on Sunday night. Of course he arrested her, charging that she was a woman in man’s attire, which was at first stoutly denied, but afterwards confessed. Yesterday afternoon she was again brought to the Armory and upon being questioned, gave her name as Mary Fitzallan, said she was eighteen years of age, unmarried, a native of Kentucky, and had under the title of Harry Fitzallan worn male habiliments for the past seven months, four of which she had passed as a Union volunteer in the 23d Kentucky regiment, and previously working as a hired hand on a farm near Newport, Kentucky. When asked as to her former history and what made her dress in clothes unbecoming her sex, she refused to be communicative, but answered that she had her peculiar reasons, and that her history would be of no avail to the Court. She is a girl of medium size, rather embonpoint, with heavy and not wholly unhandsome face, her features being more masculine than otherwise, and hair black, cut short in the present style, and parted on one side. Her eyes are blue. Her hands betray evidences of manual labor. She stood in the presence of the Magistrate with not a bold but confident air, answered the few questions she wished to respond to deliberately, and apparently truthfully, betraying but little of the modesty and shrinking nature we have been in the habit of attributing to the share of the gentler sex.

Justice Akin, after giving the young woman some sound advice, fined her $20, under the ordinance, but suspended execution to allow her to get out of the city, and she made her exit from the court room in her male attire, and deliberately walked down into the street. Whether she will take her departure for Canada, or remain here, hunting up a friend—or lover—and again get arrested, remains for the future to solve.

“A Female Soldier in Custody—An Eventful Career.” Daily Intelligencer [Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia)] 25 December 1862; p. 4.

Among the prisoners brought up yesterday on the steamer Boston, No. 2, was the somewhat famous female soldier, Harry Fitzallen, of whom our readers have doubtless heard something through the Cincinnati papers. Harry, who was dressed in a tightly fitting cavalry uniform, was taken to jail yesterday, soon after his arrival, when the Provost Marshall, Major Darr, with a view of ascertaining, if possible the truth in relation to the charge that has been made against Harry of being a rebel spy held an interview with her.—During the conversation she said her name was Marian M’Kinsey. She was born in Glasgow, Scotland. Her mother died when she was an infant and her father removed with her to this country, when she was only four years old. Her father dying a short time after reaching New York, Marian was left alone upon the world and managed to make her living in “various ways” as she expressed it. She educated herself and studied for the stage, but finding the profession of an actress not exactly suited to her taste she traveled about from place to place engaging in divers employments. Shortly after the breaking out of the war she enlisted in a Kentucky regiment at Newport, and served two months. Upon her sex being discovered she had to quit. She enlisted several times after this in as many different regiments and was several times arrested. The last time she was arrested in Charleston, Kanawha, in men’s apparel, by the Provost Marshal. She says that she has brothers and sisters residing in Canada.—Upon being asked what part of Canada her relations inhabited she declined to answer, saying: “This sensation will have publicity enough, if it has not already, and I do not wish the innocent to suffer for the guilty.” When told that she would be detained until her statements could be corroborated she said, “Very well. I cannot help it. The only way in which I have violated the law is in assuming men’s apparel. The injury that I have done is principally to myself.”

She speaks fluently and uses the best of language, and is evidently an educated woman, well skilled in the iniquities of the world. She visited this city about three years ago, under the name of Miss Fitzallen, and in the character of a prostitute.—She says she went into the army for the love of excitement and from no motive in connection with the war, one way or another. She is about twenty-five years of age, and very short and very thick. She has heretofore acknowledged that she has been engaged in the rebel service, but now denies that soft impeachment. As there are several suspicious circumstances connected with the case, Harry will be furnished with appropriate clothing and detained until all doubts are removed.

“Wants Hoops.” Daily Intelligencer [Wheeling, Virgina (now West Virginia)] 20 January 1863; p. 4.

Harry Fitzallen, of whose arrest we gave some account not long ago, and who is still confined in jail, refuses to wear the woman’s clothing purchased for her by the Provost Marshal, but clings to the cavalry pea-jacket and pantaloons in which she soldiered through the Kanawha Valley. The reason assigned is that she is not provided with hoops.

Another female prisoner, Mary Jane Green, the gentle maiden from Braxton county, is also very much put out on the same account, and both of the girls are very rebellious.