Ida Remington, soldier, 1863
A soldier’s life is a thirsty one, and thus it is that Ida Remington, discharged soldier, was arrested in a saloon for being “a female imposter in male attire.” Remington’s stint in the army apparently included being a captain’s aide and seeing action.
As DeAnne Blanton and Lauren M. Cook point out, contemporary newspaper articles aren’t always accurate; the Daily Patriot and Union connected Remington with the 11th New York Infantry, but “That regiment, also known as the [First] Fire Zouaves, was mainly composed of firemen from New York City, an unlikely fit for a woman soldier trying to blend in with her comrades.” And the 11th had, apparently been mustered out a year before Ida supposedly accompanied the soldiers to Harrisburg. The 22nd New York Infantry National Guard, however, was mustered in on 18 June 1863 and sent to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where the regiment saw action at Sporting Hill; a 30-day regiment, it was mustered out 24 July 1863. (See “Pennsylvania Civil War Battles” at the National Park Service website.)
“Sailing Under False Colors.” Daily Patriot and Union [Harrisurg, Pennsylvania] 15 Aug 1863; p. 2.
A discharged soldier has been sporting about this city for several days past, whose feminine voice and cast of countenance gave rise to suspicion in the breasts of the Argus-eyed police force. His actions in a saloon yesterday morning, while tipping down a glass of stimulus and holding wassail with some comrades, were scrutinized with misgivings by officer Cline, and induced him to arrest the “bowld sojer boy” and bring him before Alderman Kline as a female imposter in male attire.
Here the soldier frankly acknowledged that he (she) was “no man at all.” She gave her name as Ida Remington, of Rochester, N. Y., and stated that she was persuaded to enter the army by some friends in the 11th New York Militia, and had come on to this place with the regiment during the late raid; that she had been in service for two years, most of the time acting as servant for a captain; that she was with the Army of the Potoma[c] at South Mountain, Antietam and many other hard-fought battles, and had with her an honorable discharge from the service. She was committed to the lock-up, whence she was subse[qu]ently brought out for a second heraring, after which she was released. She left town in the course of the day. Her whole story is full of dash and romance, and shows that “when a woman will, she will, and you can depend on’t.”
[In my research, I used DeAnne Blanton and Lauren M. Cook. They Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the American Civil War. (Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 2002)]
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