Educational Media Reviews Online

There are two hundred and fifty documented cases of women serving as men in America’s Civil War. These women served in both the Union and Confederate Armies. Sarah Emma Edmonds is one of the most notable of these women soldiers as she wrote a best selling contemporary memoir of her military service called Nurse and Spy in the Union Army. The Unsexing of Emma Edmonds is a film biography of her remarkable life and military service.

Emma Edmonds was a New Brunswick “tomboy” farm girl, who loved riding fast horses, shooting shotguns, and climbing heights. Being independent minded, Emma didn’t much like her father’s plans for a loveless marriage to an older Canadian farmer. To escape this fate, she dressed as a man and began a lucrative career as a book salesman in the Maritime Provinces of Canada. Now know as Franklin Thompson, Emma Edmonds deliberately removed a distinguishing facial mark to conceal her identity. Moving to Michigan in 1861, where she initially continued her career as a successful interment book peddler, Emma enlisted in the Union Army’s Second Michigan, as “Frank Thompson.”

To those of us who have spent time out camping in the military or boy scouts, it seems inconceivable that a woman camper could keep her sex a secret. One’s privacy is greatly diminished living outdoors. However, we forget that women’s roles were more rigidly defined in the nineteenth century—women wore dresses and men wore pants. Who could even imagine back then that a woman would dress like a man? In any case, her deception apparently worked. “Frank Thompson” participated in Manassas, Antietam, and other major Civil War battles. At first, “Frank” carried water, and helped nurse the wounded, but later she become a mail carrier, a spy, and a general’s aide-de-camp. Finally, injured and sick with malaria, Frank Thompson deserted and became Emma Edmonds once again.

The Unsexing of Emma Edmonds uses both historical reenactments with an actress impersonating Emma Edmonds along with commentary by Civil War historians and different Canadian commentators. Both period wartime photographs and on location Civil War re-enactors are used to illustrate critical combat sequences.

Film editing is generally good, but not outstanding in this film. Frequently, images are kept intentionally blurry as to almost become an affectation. This technique appears to emphasize the clandestine nature of many of Emma’s actions. In addition, commentators were not seamlessly woven into the film’s narrative. Sometimes, there was some confusion as to who exactly is commenting on what? Sound was clear and the musical accompaniment was both interesting and well done. Color was vivid with blues predominating

This film is well made and interesting, yet left a feeling of dissatisfaction with the ending –perhaps too much time is spent on her early life and not enough on her post Civil War career. We learn very little about Emma’s later life, only that she died in poverty in Texas. It would be interesting to know how she adapted to civilian life. Did she marry?

Recommended for college level women’s studies, history and military history classes, The Unsexing of Emma Edmonds fills an interesting historical niche. I would welcome more films about the forgotten women soldiers of the American Civil War.