Who was Rosetta Wakeman and why did she make the unusual choices she did? Author and illustrator Joanna Lapati answers these questions in her uniquely illustrated children’s picture book, which introduces young readers to the life and letters of a woman who disguised herself as a man and enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War. Rosetta Wakeman’s letters are the only letters that remain today written by a woman who fought in the Civil War.
In 1862, 19-year-old Rosetta Wakeman lived on a farm in upstate New York with her family. She watched as men enlisted in the Union Army to fight the Confederacy as the women stayed behind. Rosetta was dissatisfied with her dull life. Lapati writes about Rosetta, “Every morning, she milked the cows stream by stream. She ground the coffee crank by crank. She mended her family’s clothes stitch by stitch. She dressed her siblings button by button.”
Driven by the desire for something more, for something beyond the tedium of her ordinary existence, one night Rosetta slipped away from her home, dressed like a man and took the name Lyons Wakeman as her own.
As Lyons, Rosetta knew the hardship, violence, exhaustion, and tediousness of war, fear of death, and more. But, filled with courage, the young soldier “did not falter under a storm of fire and lead. She held her position.”
In her letter dated April 14, 1864, Rosetta wrote, “I was under fire about four hours and laid on the field of battle all night. There was three wounded in my Co. and one killed. ... I feel thankful to God that he spared my life. ... I pray to him that he will lead me safe through the field of battle and that I may return safe home.”
Though Guts for Glory depicts the lives of soldiers and their experiences, the book is not foremost a retelling of Civil War events. It is, rather, a testimony to Wakeman’s courage and to the bravery of what historians estimate were hundreds of women who served as soldiers in that war. (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers)
About the Author
Sonya VanderVeen Feddema is a freelance writer and a member of Covenant CRC in St. Catharines, Ontario.