Sarah Emma Edmondson was born in December of 1841 in New Brunswick, Canada. She was the fifth daughter of a farmer named Isaac. Isaac wanted a son that could help with the family farm and was disappointed to have another daughter. As a result, Sarah was emotionally and psychologically abused throughout her childhood. She fled home at age 15 in order to avoid an arranged marriage. Sarah was working in a millinery shop in Moncton, New Brunswick when her father found her, and she left Canada for the United States. Because of limited job opportunities Sarah adopted a male identity, Franklin Thompson, and took a job selling bibles door-to-door working for L.B. Crown in Boston and then Hulburt and Company in Hartford, CT. In 1856 she left for Flint, Michigan and was boarding with Charles Pratt when the Civil War broke out.

She joined Company F of the 2nd MI on May 25th for an initial 3 months and then 3 years as Franklin Flint Thompson. Franklin was entered on the muster roles as a nurse with the rank of private. The 2nd MI reached Washington, D.C., in the first week of June 1861 and Franklin reported to Dr. Alonzo Palmer. The 2nd MI was not involved directly in the first Battle of Bull Run but did help cover the retreat and Franklin worked as a nurse at a hospital in Centreville at the Old Stone Church.

In an excerpt from her book she authored after the war, From Nurse and Spy in the Union Army: The Adventures and Experiences of a Woman in Hospitals, Camps and Battle-Fields, she wrote “Our surgeons began to prepare for the coming battle, by appropriating several buildings and fitting them up for the wounded- among others the stone church in Centreville- a church which many a soldier will remember, as long as they live. The first man I saw killed was a gunner. A shell had burst in the midst of the battery, killing one and wounded three men and two horses. Now the battle began to rage with terrible fury. Nothing could be heard but the thunder of artillery, the clash of steel, and the continuous roar of musketry. I was sent off to Centreville, a distance of seven miles, for a fresh supply of brandy, linen, etc. When I returned, the field was literally strewn with wounded, dead, and dying. Men tossing their arms wildly calling for help; there they lie bleeding, torn and mangled; legs, arms and bodies are crushed and broken, as if smitten by thunderbolts; the ground is crimson with blood.”

Shown below is a Civil War Trails marker outside the Old Stone Church.

Franklin Thompson subsequently served at Yorktown, and during the Seven Days battles where in her book she claimed to have worked as a spy and on the staffs of several generals, although there is no record of her performing these activities. At Yorktown she served as a stretcher bearer and saw combat. At the battles of Fair Oaks and Malvern Hill she saw duty as a mail carrier. At the Battle of Second Manassas, while carrying mail, Sarah was thrown from her mount and suffered a fractured leg. Her unit served at Antietam, and during the Battle of Fredericksburg she was a courier for her commander Colonel Orlando Poe. In the spring of 1863, the 2nd MI was transferred to Louisville and while in Kentucky Sarah contracted malaria. After a furlough request was denied, she was ordered to be report to the regimental hospital due to her illness. Fearing that she would be discovered as a female during the medical examinations in the hospital, Sarah deserted and checked herself into a hospital in Cairo, Illinois as Sarah Edmonds. After recovering and having resumed female attire she traveled by train to Washington, D.C. and worked as Sarah Edmonds for the U.S. Sanitary Commission. After the war she published her memoirs as quoted above and donated the profits to soldiers aid groups. The book was very successful and sold over 175,000 copies.

On April 27, 1867, Sarah married Linus Seelye. They had three children, but they all died in their youth and the couple subsequently adopted two sons. She was able, with the help of some of her old comrades, to get the desertion charge against her dropped and secure a pension by an Act of Congress on July 5, 1884, of $12 per month.

Sarah Edmonds Seelye is one of only two women ever inducted into the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union Civil War veterans in April of 1897. The other was Kady Brownwell in 1870. Sarah died on September 5, 1898, at the age of 56 in LaPorte, Texas of complications from malaria. She was subsequently reburied with full military honors in 1901 in Washington Cemetery (2911 Washington Avenue) in Houston, Texas.