Special Edition: The Blalocks, a Civil War Love Story (March 20, 1862)
Approximately 750 women served in the Union and the Confederate armies during the Civil War. However, Sarah Malinda ‘Linda’ Pritchard Blalock is the only woman known to have fought on both sides. She was born in the Appalachian Mountains of western North Carolina in 1839, as the sixth of nine children. In 1856, she married William ‘Keith’ Blalock, despite a decades long feud between the Blalocks and the Pritchards. As Union sympathizers, they feared that Keith would be conscripted and formulated a plan in which Keith would enlist in the Confederate Army and then desert to the Union side at his first opportunity.
On March 20, 1862, Keith joined Company F of the 26th North Carolina. Unbeknownst to Keith, Linda cut her hair, dressed in her husband’s clothes, and also enlisted as ‘Sam’, a brother to Keith Blalock. She was described as "a good looking boy aged 16, weight about 130 pounds, height five feet four inches." For the next few months she "did all the duties of a soldier," and was reportedly "very adept at learning the manual and drill." She tented with her "brother" Keith at the regimental camp near Kinston, and her identity was never questioned by the other men serving beside her. An Assistant Surgeon of the 26th N.C. wrote, "Her disguise was never penetrated. She drilled and did the duties of a soldier as any other member of the Company, and was very adept at learning the manual and drill."
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