Talk:Sarah Taylor (vivandière)

Subject Appears to be Fictional

According to The Imagined Civil War: Popular Literature of the North & South, 1861-1865 by Alice Fahs, the story of Sarah Taylor originated in Metta V. Victor's June 1862 work The Unionist's Daughter: A Tale of the Rebellion in Tennessee; Sarah Taylor's story appears in a letter--allegedly written in the camp of the 1st Tennessee Regiment--to make the overall novel sound more authentic. While there was a 1st Tennessee Cavalry Regiment, neither Captain Sarah Taylor nor Captain Dowden, her alleged stepfather, is listed among its officers. I can find no confirmation of Sarah's existence beyond Victor's novel and anecdotal books that quote it. -- Rhysdux

Thanks for pointing this out, I'm going to have to nominate this for deletion at some point. Asarelah (talk) 11:45, 16 July 2014 (UTC)

Subject Verifiable

Captain James A. Doughty was the name of Sarah Jane's stepfather; "Dowden" is a typo. Also, the above link is a Cavalry roster for the Confederacy. Sarah Jane and her stepfather fought for the Union. The National Park Service keeps records of Union soldiers.

Women soldiers were not listed on the muster; they had unofficial roles and were not formally enlisted or compensated. She was also called Sallie and more commonly, Jennie by family members. An autobiography of her account can be found in the book, "The Taylors and Related Families of Anderson County." A facsimile of her handwritten journal was donated to the McClung Archives and the Tennessee State Library and Archives. She gives a detailed account of how she left East Tennessee, where her own family members fought on different sides of the war. Most of her journey was made by foot, but she also boarded a Confederate stage coach in Clinton. Her reasoning was that the "proprietor of the stage route, and the owner of the stage being very much a Southern Rights man, (she) anticipated no danger of detection, or arrest by the rebels, feeling perfectly confident they would not even think of a Unionist who was "running away," as they term it, taking conveyance by means of a Secession stage."

Her journal accounts for some of the press that she received, in that she was an active fighter with the Regiment: She writes: "I have been advised to relinquish so masculine a notion and go into the hospital." She also writes: "I am not at all ignorant of the many, very many, sarcastic remarks to which I am subject. But everything connected with my position was perfectly considered before I undertook it. I have not made any kind of an effort to please the world in doing as I have, but have done what I considered my duty, therefore independently of uncalled for commentators, do I proudly enter the service of my Country. It is my own free choice, after again and again considering the matter, to do so. The battlefield is my preference to any position in life that could possibly be given me."

She was arrested on June 19, 1862 in Jacksonboro wearing the uniform of a Fille du Regiment per the SAVANNAH [GA] REPUBLICAN, June 27, 1862.

Whoever originally started this article had pretty suspect information. Besides listing her as a Confederate soldier, they did not have correct days of birth/death and listed an unrelated alias. I came upon this wikipedia entry whilst researching my great-grandmother, who was Sarah Jane Taylor. She later married Alfred A. McPheeters. Alfred also served with the 1st Regiment Tennessee Volunteer Infantry. They were married on April 9, 1966 and had nine children together.

The "Joan of Arc" quote is attributed to the Cincinnati Times. In 1861, The Cincinnati Times caught up with the 1st Regiment Tennessee Volunteer Infantry on their way to Camp Wildcat:

INCIDENTS OF THE BATTLE OF WILDCAT.

208.127.206.35 (talk) 19:42, 13 January 2015 (UTC)

[Correspondence of the Cincinnati Gazette.] CAMP WILDCAT, Ky., October 23d.-

THE JOAN OF ARC OF CAMP DICK ROBINSON. — A young lady who has been with the East Tenneeseans during their stay at Camp Dick Robinson is thus alluded to by the camp correspondent of the Cincinnati Times :

One of the features of the First Tennessee regiment is the person of a brave and accomplished young lady of but eighteen Summers, and of prepossessing appearance, named Sarah Taylor, of East Tennessee, who is the stepdaughter of Captain Dowden, of the First Tennessee regiment. Miss Taylor is an exile from her home, having joined the fortunes of her stepfather and her wandering companions, accompanying them in their perilous and dreary flight from their homes and estates. Miss Taylor has formed the determination to share with her late companions the dangers and fatigues of a military campaign. She has donned a neat blue chapeau, beneath which her long hair is fantastically arranged ; bearing at her side a highly finished regulation sword and silver mounted pistols in her belt, all of which gives her a very neat appearance. She is quite the idol of the Tennessee boys. They look upon her as a second Joan of Arc, believing that victory and glory will perch upon the standards borne in the ranks favored by her loved presence. Miss Captain Taylor is all courage and skill. Having become an adept in the sword exercise, and a sure shot with the pistel, she is determined to lead in the van of the march bearing her exiled and oppressed countrymen back to their homes, or, it failing, to offer up her own life's blood in the sacrifice. A gentleman who was on the ground on Saturday night, the 19th, when the order was issued to the Tennesseeans to march to reinforce Colonel Garrard, info ma us that the wildest excitement pervaded the whole camp, and that the young lady above alluded to mounted her horse, and, cap in hand, galloped along the line like a spirit of tlime, cheering oh the men. She wore a blue blouse, and was armed with pistols, sword and rifle. Our informant, who has been at the camp the whole time since the arrival of the Tennesseeans, says that Miss Taylor is regarded by the troops as a guardian angel who is to lead them to victory. These persecuted men look upon the daring girl who followed their fortunes through sunshine and shadow with the tenderest feeling of veneration, and each would freely offer his life in her defense. There was but little sleep in the camp on Saturday night, so great was the joy of the men at the prospect of meeting the foe, and at a very early hour in the morning they filed away jubilantly, with their Joan of Arc in the van. Just before taking up their line of march, they all knelt, and, lilting up their right hands, solemnly •wore never to return without seeing their homes and loved ones. Whether the East Tennesseeans of Camp Dick Robinson shall do daring deeds or not, Miss Taylor's fame is perfectly secured. She is a girl of history, and poetry will embalm her name in undying numbers. — Lexington (Ky ) Obsever, Oct. 30th"

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