Perspective: Historic legislation that paved the way for women in the armed forces is turning 75, but an earlier chapter is crucial to understanding our past.
in July 1863. Tubman’s commitment, bravery and patriotism during the war even earned her the nickname of “General Tubman” among Black soldiers, as well as at least one medal and a hard-fought-for military pension. Upon her death in 1913, she was buried with military honors.
Mary J.R. Richards, who was often referred to as Mary Bowser, is another unsung heroine of the Civil War. She served as a Union spy in the Confederate Senate and smuggled supplies to Union soldiers held inRichards was born into slavery in Virginia in 1840. Upon the death of her enslaver, John Van Lew, his daughter Elizabeth, an abolitionist, freed Richards and paid for her to be educated.
she, as a Black woman, was illiterate. This enabled her to read Confederate documents and eavesdrop on Senate meetings, even sneaking into the Confederate White House as a laundress to gather intelligence on rebel army movements. But her mistaken identity, and how she is remembered in the historical record, is indicative of how Black women veterans have been forgotten. Years after her service, in 1911, Harper’s Magazine published a story that incorrectly identified her as “Mary Elizabeth Bowser.” Through that report, the legend of Mary Bowser — rather than Mary Richards — was born.Richards lived a fragmented public life that’s been obscured by the legend of the woman who became known as Mary Elizabeth Bowser.
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