> America's Civil War > All-Girl Rhea County Spartans > Begun as a lark, the all-girl Rhea County Spartans soon attracted the attention of unamused Union officers. > by Charles Rice > "I must tell you about a candy stew that they had at Uncle Frank's last night," young Mary Paine of Rhea County, > Tennessee, wrote to her Confederate-soldier brother in January 1863. "Miss Jennie and Manurva had been up to town on a visit and > came back there and asked if they might have one there. She told them she did not care if Uncle Frank was willing [,] so they waited > till he came home and begged him until he agreed that they might have one there. So they went on home and came back that night with > several other girls and had a fine time they say. But I will tell you who was there and then you can guess what a time they had. > There was Miss Jennie, Manurva, Scrap, Ann Gillespie, Jane Locke, Molly Kelly, and Isabel Cunnyngham. [Colonel Onslow] Bean was the > only gentleman there." > Unbelievable as it might seem, most of these carefree young ladies would one day be "captured" by the Union Army and > find themselves held as full-fledged prisoners of war. The story of the adventuresome Rhea County girls and the "cavalry company" > they formed is an undeservedly forgotten incident of the Civil War. > The Rhea County Girls' Company was created in the summer of 1862 through a combination of boredom and the desire to be a > part of the war for Southern independence. Almost all of the "sidesaddle soldiers" had fathers or brothers in the Confederate > military, and the young ladies evidently felt frustrated because their gender prevented them from enlisting. Since they could not > actually join the Confederate Army, they did the next best thing: They created an army of their own. > Rhea County, located on the northern bank of the Tennessee River in east Tennessee, was one of the most pro-Confederate > counties in the politically divided mountain region. Rhea County provided seven companies for the Southern army against only one for > the Union--something of a record for east Tennessee. When their fathers and brothers marched off to war, the young ladies refused to > be left out. Instead, the all-girl company came into existence. Mary McDonald, one of the oldest of the group, was duly elected > captain. Caroline McDonald, evidently her sister-in-law, became first lieutenant. Anne Paine was picked for second lieutenant, while > Rhoda Tennessee Thomison completed the commissioned list as third lieutenant. > Named as noncommissioned officers were Jane Keith, first sergeant; Rachel Howard, second sergeant; Sallie Mitchell, > third sergeant; and Minerva Tucker, fourth sergeant. The girls elected no corporals, and the remaining members of the company had to > be content with the humble rank of private. These included Barbara Allen, Josephine Allen, Martha Bell, Mary Crawford, Kate > Dunwoody, Martha Early, Ann Gillespie, Jennie Hoyal, Kate Hoyal, Maggie Keith, Jane Locke, Louisa McDonald, Mary Ann McDonald, > Sidney McDonald, Mary Paine, Mary Robinson, Sarah Rudd and Margaret Sykes. Like their male counterparts, the ladies chose for > themselves an appropriate martial name--the Rhea County Spartans. All the young women came from prominent local families. The > average age was 18, although the 1860 U.S. census lists Mary McDonald and Caroline McDonald as both being 25, which would have made > them about 27 when the company was formed. > At first, the Rhea County Spartans contented themselves with simply visiting their soldier sweethearts and relatives > among the three companies stationed in the area, presenting them with useful gifts of food and clothing. In mid-1863, however, Union > troops entered the area, and the girls' activities necessarily became more circumspect. The lady soldiers continued to hold > clandestine meetings, if only to keep up their spirits and to exchange news of the war. Rural churches in the Washington area were > their most common rendezvous. > Almost certainly, the ladies must have engaged in at least a small amount of spying and information-gathering for the > Confederate Army. What had started out as a lark became decidedly more serious. > The Spartans never had any official connection with either the Confederate Army or the state of Tennessee. Nevertheless, > at least one Union Army officer obviously took them quite seriously. > After Confederate General John Bell Hood led the Army of Tennessee to disaster at the Battle of Nashville in December > 1864, Union troops gained uncontested control of Rhea County for the remainder of the war. Among the units active in the region was > the 6th Tennessee Mounted Infantry (Federal). Formed in Chattanooga in October 1864 to serve one year, the 6th Mounted Infantry was > a ragtag regiment composed of a few genuine Tennessee Unionists combined with an unsavory assortment of Confederate draft dodgers > and deserters. Its primary purpose was to combat the small band of Confederate irregulars who still roamed the Cumberland Mountains > of east Tennessee and north Georgia. In the spring of 1865, Captain John P. Walker of Company B decided that the Rhea County Girls' > Company was just such an organization. > Walker, a 38-year-old Rhea County farmer, was a typical Tennessee Unionist. Even though he owned real estate worth an > impressive $1,000, Walker was "land poor." In fact, the 1860 census listed his personal estate at a mere $180--scarcely more than > the value of a top-quality horse. Dodging the Confederate conscript officers until the Union forces gained the upper hand, Walker > hastened to join the Union victors and share in the spoils. He quickly acquired a reputation for harshness toward Southern > sympathizers, using his authority to pay them back for such indignities as he felt he had suffered. > Walker certainly justified his reputation when he returned to Rhea County, for one of his first acts was to order the > mass arrest of the girls' company. As far as Walker was concerned, it was high time to teach the rebellious Southern ladies a > lesson. Somehow he persuaded his commander, Lt. Col. George A. Gowin of Hamilton County, to go along with his plan. > On April 5, 1865, while Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia was making the final desperate march that would end at > Appomattox, Walker sent out his men to round up the Rhea County Spartans. As a native of Rhea County, Walker knew not only who the > troublesome ladies were but also where to find them. First Lieutenant William B. Gothard accordingly proceeded to the area south of > Washington, where the Spartans' officers lived. > Armed with a list of names, Gothard was ordered to arrest the women and report with them by noon the next day at the > two-story house of William P. Thomison, a discharged Confederate soldier and the father of "Lieutenant" Rhoda Thomison. Other men > from Walker's company marched to apprehend the disloyal women in the countryside around Smith's Cross Roads (now the town of Dayton) > and Dunwoody's Mill. A few of the Spartans managed to elude their pursuers, but some 16 of the young women were arrested at gunpoint > and brought before Walker. > When they learned that they were to be sent to Chattanooga, the prisoners became understandably apprehensive. Mary > McDonald penned a hasty note to the 6th Tennessee's commander. She urged that Gothard, rather than Walker, be the one to accompany > them. "Doubtless the girls would prefer him," she said. "We all know him." Gowin refused to agree, however, writing that Walker, "a > married man, will go with your company." Interestingly, the 6th Tennessee seems to have been alone in viewing the Spartans as a real > military unit. It was an honor the unfortunate ladies could have done without. > Gothard and his mounted men did escort seven of the female Rebels five miles from the Thomison house to Smith's Cross > Roads, where Walker's home was located. The Union horse soldiers rode, while the women tramped along as best they could. At Smith's > Cross Roads, the footsore Spartans were joined by six more of their number. All 13 then began the long march to the Tennessee River > and Bell's Landing. It was dark and rainy, and the women frequently stumbled through unseen puddles. Just before they arrived at the > landing, the final group of three prisoners joined them. The crestfallen Confederates were made to wait on the flooded riverbank, > the clammy mud oozing into their shoes and adding to their discomfort. Finally, their transportation arrived--a crude little > steamboat called USS Chattanooga. Their ordeal, however, was far from over. > Chattanooga was the first of a series of vessels built by the Union Army at Bridgeport, Ala., to supply the besieged > Union garrison at Chattanooga. Major General Ulysses S. Grant's victories at Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge had made that > role unnecessary, and the no-frills steamboat had since enjoyed a somewhat checkered career. The steamer had engaged in so many > foraging expeditions that citizens along the Tennessee River nicknamed the boat the "Chicken Thief." Clearly not meant to carry > passengers, Chattanooga contained only one small room suitable for the ladies--an enclosed area normally used for dining. The table > and chairs were removed, and the 16 exhausted young women were crowded inside. Armed guards at both doors ensured that none of the > "dangerous" enemies of the Union would attempt to escape. Many of the women had walked 10 or more miles to the landing, and the > tired Spartans arranged themselves in rows on the floor and soon fell fast asleep. > When the boat paddled up to the wharf in Chattanooga, Walker rousted out his prisoners and marched them under guard up > muddy Market Street to the provost marshal's office on the corner of Seventh Street. Captain Seth B. Moe of Ohio, assistant adjutant > general of the Union Army's Department of the Etowah, took in the spectacle and promptly sent for his commander, Maj. Gen. James B. > Steedman. Steedman already viewed Gowin and his "hogback cavalry" with contempt; Walker's latest escapade must have strengthened > that feeling. > If Walker expected to be congratulated on his victory, he was quickly disillusioned. Steedman sharply reprimanded the > captain for taking up his time with such foolishness. He then ordered Moe to escort the ladies to the Central House hotel, where > they were allowed to refresh themselves and were treated to the best meal the hotel could offer. While the Union general (a Northern > Democrat with many Southern friends) went out of his way to demonstrate that not all Yankees were barbarians, he did require the > women to take the oath of allegiance to the Union. Now Walker would have no further excuse to harass them. > After the women had been fed, Moe dutifully saw them returned to Chattanooga for the journey back to Rhea County. The > ladies' accommodations were unchanged--no chairs, no beds, and only the scant comfort of the bare wood floor. This time, however, > there were no armed guards watching over them. Still, Walker had one last bit of revenge in mind. Even though Steedman had ordered > him to escort the women to their homes, Walker simply abandoned them at the landing to make their way back as best they could. > An irritated Steedman wrote to Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas at Nashville recommending that the 6th Tennessee Mounted > Infantry "be turned over to > the State authorities of Tennessee and replaced with good cavalry." Union Colonel Lewis Merrill was even more blunt. > "The Sixth Tennessee and First Georgia [Union Regiments]," Merrill told Thomas, "are, in General Steedman's opinion, utterly > worthless. My own observation of the first named confirms this opinion. They are simply cowardly thieves--useless, except to keep a > community embroiled and encourage guerrillas by running whenever attacked." > The company disbanded when the Spartans arrived back in Rhea County. The war was nearly over, and the Spartans soon > returned to the conventional role of 19th-century women. Weeks later, Walker was discharged from the Union Army and used his > experience to gain a few appointive offices during the Reconstruction years. Then he, too, drifted into obscurity. By the time > William G. Allen wrote an account for Confederate Veteran magazine in 1911, the girls' company had been all but forgotten. Only > three of the Spartans were then still living: Mary McDonald, Mary Ann McDonald and Rhoda Thomison. The aging male veterans, North > and South, often met to relive their youth, but the Rhea County Spartans never held a reunion. That is regrettable, for the ladies > had a fascinating story to tell. In a sense, they, too, had "seen the elephant" and done their patriotic duty as they saw fit. > Joyce Gaston Reece