Maria Lewis, also known by the alias George Harris, was a Union Civil War soldier, and former slave, who gained distinction in the Eighth New York Cavalry.[1]
Biography
Lewis was born around 1846, in Albemarle County, Virginia, where she and her family were kept as slaves.[2] At the age of seventeen, she emancipated herself from slavery by disguising herself as a "darkly tanned" white man, and joining company C of the 8th New York Cavalry.[3] She adopted the name George Harris, after the character from Uncle Tom's Cabin, who similarly escaped by passing himself for a Spanish man.[4] She originally planned to use the identity to travel North, she decided to stay with the army, after finding she enjoyed the freedom life as a white man brought her. Lewis remained with General Philip Sheridan's cavalry unit in the Shenandoah Valley for an additional eighteen months.[4] While serving, she fought at the Battle of Waynesboro on the second of March.[2] Lewis distinguished herself amongst her fellow soldiers, and became a member of the honor guard assigned to present seventeen captured rebel flags to the Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton.[4] She became friends with an abolitionist family from New York, the Wilburs, and after her service, she came to them and confessed to being a woman. The family gave her skirts, and found her a place to work. Lewis later received "lessons" from Julia's sister, Frances, presumably learning to read and write, of which was barred to enslaved people prior to the civil war.[5] Little is known about her life after the war.
See also
References
- ^ Schulte, Brigid (29 April 2013). "Women Soldiers Fought, Bled, and Died in the Civil War, then were Forgotten". The Washington Post. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
- ^ a b Wilbur, Julia (4 April 1865). "Julia Wilbur Diary" (PDF): 497. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ "Harris, George W." www.nps.gov. National Park Service. 2018. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
- ^ a b c Monson, Marianne (2018). Women of the Blue and Gray. Shadow Mountain. p. 21. ISBN 9781629724157.
- ^ Cordell, Melinda (2016). "She Rode in the Front Ranks". Courageous Women of the Civil War: Soldiers, Spies, Medics, and More. Chicago Review Press. ISBN 978-1613732038.