Female Warriors, Vol. 2 (of 2): Memorials of Female Valour and Heroism, from the Mythological Ages to the Present Era.Clayton, Ellen C. (Ellen Creathorne)
History
Female Warriors, Vol. 2 (of 2): Memorials of Female Valour and Heroism, from the Mythological Ages to the Present Era.
Clayton, Ellen C. (Ellen Creathorne)
Amazons; Women -- Biography; Women soldiers
During the Austro-Italian war of 1866, a Florence journal related that,
after the battle of Custozza (June 27th), a surgeon of the Italian army
discovered among the wounded a young corporal of Bersaglieri still
alive, notwithstanding three severe injuries in the neck, left arm,
and right leg. When about to dress those wounds the surgeon perceived
that the sufferer was a young woman, who then declared her name to be
Herminia Manelli, and her age twenty. Just before the opening of the
campaign her brother, who was a corporal of Bersaglieri, had fallen
ill, and returned home to his family until his recovery. The sister,
whose parents had previously had some difficulty in preventing from
joining the Garibaldians, took advantage of that circumstance, and,
cutting short her hair, dressed herself in her brother's uniform,
and joined his regiment, her resemblance to him enabling her to pass
unnoticed. Four hours later her regiment was engaged, and she was
wounded on the field of battle. After the discovery of her sex by the
surgeon she was taken to Florence, where she died a few days later.
* * * * *
In the summer of 1868, there was a great deal of talk about an army
of women which had just been raised by the savage Lopez, Dictator of
Paraguay. A correspondent writing from Buenos Ayres under date May
14th, says:--
"An army of women confronts the allies! Lopez has enrolled the Amazons
of Paraguay, and we have entered upon what may be called for the sake
of distinction--the petticoat campaign? Brigadier-General Eliza
Lynch commands the main body of the female army, which is encamped
midway between the pass of the river and a small inland town. On the
road to Villa Rica her right wing, under Mrs. Captain Herrero, has
deployed to the left a little, to hang on the allies should they assail
the position of Tebiquary, held by Mrs. Lieutenant Colonel Margaret
Fereira and her fair brigade of womankind. Can 'stern-visaged Mars'
prove unpropitious?... According to authentic accounts, relays of
women and girls are constantly at the head-quarters of the feminine
commander-in-chief to whom has been entrusted the guerilla portion of
the campaign."
The Brazilian journals were of course indignant at what they termed an
outrage on civilization, and alternately sneered and railed at Lopez's
petticoat _corps d'armée_. Very little was afterwards heard of these
Amazons. Since their first formation, with the exception of a few
stray anecdotes related by travellers and adventurers returning to the
States or to this country, absolutely nothing transpired concerning the
movements of this female army.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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