'I don’t feel afraid to go' - Private Lyons Wakeman (a.k.a. Sarah Rosetta Wakeman)

 

Private Lyons Wakeman, (a.k.a. Sarah Rosetta Wakeman)
153rd New York Infantry

“I don’t know how long before I shall have to go into the field of battle. For my part I don’t care. I don’t feel afraid to go.”

She signed her letters “Lyons Wakeman,” but her real name was Sarah Rosetta Wakeman. Disguised as a man, she enlisted in 1862 for the bounty and the chance to serve. She marched, drilled, and fought alongside the men of the 153rd New York Infantry—guarding Washington, then enduring the brutal Red River Campaign in Louisiana.

She never revealed her identity. Not even when she fell ill from dysentery and was hospitalized in New Orleans. She died there on June 19, 1864, and was buried under her alias in Chalmette National Cemetery.

Her letters home—preserved by her family—are among the few firsthand accounts we have from women who fought in disguise. In them, she is steady, proud, and unflinching.

“I am as independent as a hog on the ice. If it is God’s will for me to fall in the field of battle, it is my will to go and never return home.”

There are millions of stories from the Irrepressible Conflict. This was just one of them.

Mac

Works Cited

[1] "Sarah Rosetta Wakeman" American Battlefield Trust. Retrieved June 29, 2025