Mollie Bean was a North Carolina woman who, pretending to be a man, joined the 47th North Carolina, a unit of the Confederate States Army in the American Civil War. She was wounded twice, and, given the regiment's history, may have served at the Battle of Gettysburg. She was captured in February 1865, and subsequently imprisoned as a spy. The press of the day insinuated that her comrades had to know her gender, and that she probably engaged in sexual intercourse with several.
This article is a stub. You can help Turtledove by expanding it.
Literary Comment[]
In his afterword, Harry Turtledove acknowledged that he was not able to find Bean's company.[1] He also admits that her career as a prostitute is fictional.