Maria Lewis | |
---|---|
Birth name | Maria Lewis |
Other name(s) | George Harris |
Born |
c. 1846 Albemarle County, Virginia |
Died | Unknown |
Allegiance | Union Army |
Years of service | 1863-1865 |
Rank | Private |
Unit | Company C of the 8th New York Cavalry |
Battles/wars | Battle of Waynesboro, Virginia, Battle of Gettysburg |
Maria Lewis, also known by the alias George Harris, was a Union Civil War soldier, and former slave, who gained distinction in the Eighth New York Cavalry. [1]
Lewis was born around 1846, in Albemarle County, Virginia, where she and her family were kept as slaves. [2] At the age of seventeen, she emancipated herself from slavery by disguising herself as a "darkly tanned" white man, and joining company C of the 8th New York Cavalry. [3] She adopted the name George Harris, after the character from Uncle Tom's Cabin, who similarly escaped by passing himself for a Spanish man. [4] She originally planned to use the identity to travel North, she decided to stay with the army, after finding she enjoyed the freedom life as a white man brought her. Lewis remained with General Philip Sheridan's cavalry unit in the Shenandoah Valley for an additional eighteen months. [4] While serving, she fought at the Battle of Waynesboro on the second of March. [2] Lewis distinguished herself amongst her fellow soldiers, and became a member of the honor guard assigned to present seventeen captured rebel flags to the Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton. [4] She became friends with an abolitionist family from New York, the Wilburs, and after her service, she came to them and confessed to being a woman. The family gave her skirts, and found her a place to work. Lewis later received "lessons" from Julia's sister, Frances, presumably learning to read and write, of which was barred to enslaved people prior to the civil war. [5] Little is known about her life after the war.
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