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Female Soldier

The Daily True Delta, April 24, 1862. {New Orleans, La.- Confederate States}

Female Soldier.

Yesterday a female, dressed in soldier's clothes, surrendered herself to the mayor, and was sent before the provost-marshal. She gave Arnold as he name. We had no the pleasure of an introduction to this female patriot, but learn from those who were more fortunate, that she appears to be a woman of intelligence and gentle breeding. She gave the names of respectable houses here in the city who knew her in her proper sphere, when she resided in Arkansas, where she says she owns a plantation. Her story is quite a romantic one.

She asserts that she was arrested in Richmond on suspicion of being unfriendly to the South, but was treated very civilly while held as a prisoner. She claims to have been in the battles of Manassas and Belmont, and to have been with the army in Kentucky.

She says she left here in response to the call of Gen. Beauregard for ninety days volunteers, and that she was in the battles of the 6th and 7th [Shilo], in which she was wounded in the foot and hand. She came back to the city with the wounded.

Her reason for making known her sex at this time was the fear of detection, and consequent trouble. She was before the provost-marshal yesterday, and is to have another interview with that functionary to-day.

Her reason for the course she has adopted is, that she is collecting material for a history of the war, and that she adopted male attire as the plan best calculated to enable her to carry out her design.

She has no desire to abandon her project if permitted to prosecute it in her own way. There are others engaged with her, but their names she deems proper to withhold. That she is an extraodinary woman there is no question, and our curiosity is excited to know more of her history and her adventures in male attire.

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David Upton

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