Clayton, Frances Louisa, approximately 1830-

Frances Louise Clalin Clayton
BIRTH
unknown
Illinois, USA
DEATH
unknown
Frances Clalin Clayton was a tall slim housewife with 3 children when she did the unthinkable. Frances disguised herself as a man, and using the pseudonym "Jack Williams" enlisted with the Union alongside with her husband during the fall of 1861.

Both Frances and Elmer were born and lived in the North, but despite living in the state of Minnesota they enlisted in a Missouri regiment.

Frances as "Jack Williams" was fighting near her husband Elmer when he was struck and killed. Reports are that she stepped over his body and continued the charge as that was the order. She drank, smoked, chewed, and gambled along with the men, none of them ever suspecting she was a woman.

After being discharged Frances tried to get back to Minnesota, and then decided to collect the bounty owed her deceased husband and herself, as well as to get some of Elmer's belongings.

Some thought that she may have wanted to reenlist, but she was unable to. Her train was attacked by a Confederate guerrilla party, and she was robbed of her papers and her money.

She then went from Missouri to Minnesota, then to Grand Rapids, Michigan, and on to Quincy, Illinois. In Quincy a fund was created to aid her quest for payment by former soldiers and friends. Frances was last reported to be headed for Washington, D.C.

Frances Louisa Clayton (c. 1830 – after 1863), also recorded as Frances Clalin, was an American woman who purportedly disguised herself as a man to fight for the Union Army in the American Civil war, though many historians now believe her story was likely fabricated. Under the alias Jack Williams, she claimed to have enlisted in a Missouri regiment along with her husband, and fought in several battles. She claimed that she left the army soon after her husband died at Stones River.[1][2] Clayton and her husband were from Minnesota.[4] Her husband's name is not clear; one newspaper story gives it as Frank Clayton, apparently a confusion of Frances' own name, while other sources name him John or Elmer.[5] Following the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, the Claytons decided to enlist in the Union Army, with Frances disguising herself as a man named Jack Williams.[6]

By most accounts, they enlisted in a Missouri unit in Saint Paul, Minnesota,[7] despite being from Minnesota.[6] Clayton is said to have fought in 18 battles In the service, she became an "accomplished horse-man" and a "capital swordsman".[10] She was reported to have fought in the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862.[11] In December 1862, she fought in the Battle of Stones River, where her husband was killed during a charge.[12] The news stories reported that she did not stop fighting, and stepped over his body to continue the charge.[6]

Clayton's story only became known after her service and was reported in several newspaper stories, though these accounts all contain contradictory information.[6] According to these stories, Clayton was discharged in Louisville in 1863, shortly after her husband's death. She told reporters that she was never discovered as a woman.