Bladen County NcArchives Military Records.....Kenny, Lucy Matilda 
Civilwar - Enlistment 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Sam West sam.west.1@gmail.com February 12, 2011, 9:40 am

Source: The Robesonian, Lumberton, N. C.                
Mon 5/4/1914

BLADEN COUNTY WOMAN SOLDIER IN CIVIL WAR
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Fought As a Man Beside Her Husband Until He Was Killed – Was a Mrs. Gauss of 
Bladenboro – Now More Than 100 Years Old.

Savannah, Ga., Dispatch.

   Mrs. John Kenny, a widow, who has lived in Savannah for many years, and 
whose husband died a short time ago, aged more than 100 years, tells a 
remarkable story of service in the Civil war disguised as a man.  Mrs. Kenny 
is quite old now, and it is not expected that she will live long.  She has 
kept her experiences in the war a secret until this time.  She told the story 
to her pastor on Tuesday and asked that it be made public through him.  When 
the war began Mrs. Kenney was a young married woman.  Her husband enlisted in 
the service of the South, and she could not bear to part with him.  So she 
enlisted, too.  She cut her hair close, donned a uniform, and entered the 
service of the Confederacy as Bill Thompson.  She served in Company D of the 
18th North Carolina regiment for several years of the war and until her 
husband was killed.  He met his death during the coldness of the winter, and 
his comrade in arms, who was no less than his wife, brought his body back to 
Georgia and buried it here.  After the war she married Mr. Kenny.
   The old lady does not seem to think that her experience masquerading as a 
man and warrior for so many years was a very unusual thing.  She is only one 
of the women of the South, who served in the trenches, fighting the Yankees, 
she says.
   The lady at the outbreak of the war was the wife of a man named Gauss, and 
she lived at Bladenboro, N. C.  After the war she married Mr. Kenny.  Her name 
is Lucy Matilda Kenny.  She talks interestingly, but not boastfully of her 
exploits under the flag of the Confederacy.  She had to come home at one time 
because of illness, but as soon as she could get back to the front she 
returned.  Her story has attracted great attention in Savannah since it became 
known.  She is an illiterate woman, but is as brave as any Southern soldier 
who ever shouldered a musket.  Her experiences read like romance more than 
anything else, but she has the records to bear out the truth of her statements.


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