During the Civil War, Julia Marcum and her family sided with the Union—a decision that resulted in repeated sieges against the family by Confederate troops.  In one such attack on their home in Scott County, Tennessee, Julia Marcum, a teenager at the time, used an ax to fight off a Confederate soldier.  She wounded him and her father shot him, but not before she lost an eye and a finger.  The Marcums were forced out of Tennessee and made Casey County, Kentucky, their temporary home.

  After the war Julia Marcum returned to Tennessee and taught school, but eventually the wounds she had suffered during the war proved disabling.  She fought for and obtained a soldier’s pension from the United States government in 1885, making her the only woman to be recognized as a combatant in the Civil War.  She returned to Kentucky and lived there  for the last 50 years of her life.  Upon her death in Williamsburg,  Kentucky, she received military honors at her funeral.

  View a hand-written portion of Julia Marcum’s account of the September, 1861 attack on the Marcum home or click here to read the entire text.

Read portions of diaries kept by two Kentucky women during the Civil War.

Learn more about women in the Civil War at the 
Civil War Women On-line Archival Collection at Duke University

Visit  American Slave Narratives:  An Online Anthology.