Kady Brownell
-------------
The daughter of a Scots soldier in the British army, she was born in
the army camp at Caffraria on the African coast in 1842. She had
moved to Providence, Rhode Island and married a mechanic, Robert S.
Brownell, and was only 19 when Fort Sumter surrendered to the Rebel
forces in May of 1861. The army having been her whole life, she
signed up with him the day after into Company 11, Rhode Island
Infantry, a three month enlistment.
----------------------------------------
The following is excerpted from Frank Moore's, "Women of the war;
their heroism and self-sacrifice" (Hartford, Conn. and Chicago: S. S.
Scranton & co., 1866), pp. 54-64. The whole text of this book and
others are available on the Web at the University of Michigan's
Making of America Digital Library at . . .
http://www.umdl.umich.edu/moa/index.html
----------------------------------------
1842-?
All our revolutionary historians are eloquent an their praises of the
bold herolne of Monmouth, "Captain Molly." They tell us how she was
carrying water to the men of Proctor's battery on that hot and bloody
afternoon in July, when a ball crushed in the skull of her husband
just as he was ramming a charge into his field piece and he fell at
her feet a bloody corpse. "Lie there, my darling, till I avenge your
death!" exclaimed ,Mollys and seizing the rammer, she went on with
the work which death had cut short while the men cheered her all
along the line. All through that afternoon till night covered the
landscape and closed the battle, Molly stood by her gun, and made
good her husband's place, swabbing the piece, and forcing home the
successive charges with the vigor and coolness of the bravest
soldier. The next morning she was presented to General Wayne all
soiled and bloody as she had fought; and Washington gave her a
commission as sergeant, and by his recommendation her name was placed
on the list of half-pay officers for life.
The annals of our great war for the Union are not wanting in similar
instances where the wife of the soldier has gone with her husband,
experienced all the hardships of the camp, stood in the line with
sword at her side, carrled the colors into the thickest of the fight,
and then, when the bloody work was over, devoted herself, with the
delicate tenderness of her sex, to mitigating the horrors of the
battle-field.
Such was the brave young wife whose name stands at the head of our
sketch; and such there her courage, her bearing, and her services on
the plains of Manassas and at the battle of Newbern. Her father was a
Scotchman, and a soldier lo the British army. He was stationed far
away on the African coast in Caffraria ; and there in the year
1842,in the regimental barracks, and surrounded by the rude but kind
old soldiers, her fathers companions en arms, little Kady was born.
Accustomed to arms and soldiers from infancy, she learned to love the
camp; and it was not strange, years later, when she had come to
America and married a young mechanic in Providence, that the
recollections of the camp fire in front of her father's tent, as well
as the devotion of a newly-married wife, and loyalty to the Union,
prompted her to follow her husband, stand beside him in battle, and
share all his hardships.
Her husband Robert S. Brownell, was made orderly Sergeant of a
compatly in the First Rhode Island infantry, one of the earliest
regiments of three months men who responded to the first call for
troops, the day after national colors were run down the flag-mast at
Fort Sumter~
The First Rhode Island infantry was soon full to overflowing. It had
eleven full companies of a hundred each; and as ten were enough for a
complete organization, the eleventh was formed into a company of
carbineers or sharpshooters, and the brave young wife of the orderly
was made the color-bearer of this company.
When the regiment went into camp in Maryland early in the summer of
1861, this Daughter of the Retilnent was resolved not to be a mere
water-carrier, nor an ornamental appendage. She would be effective
against the enemy, as well as a graceful figure on parade, and
applied herself to learn a11 the arts and accomplisliments of the
soldier. When the company went out to practise daily at the target,
shs carried her rifle, as well as the colors; and when her turn came,
the men seldom restricted her to the three shots which were allowed
