Mary Burns or John Burns was an American woman who disguised herself as a man in order to fight in the American Civil War. She enlisted in the 7th Michigan Volunteer Cavalry Regiment in order not to be parted from her lover, who was in the same regiment.DeAnne Blanton and Lauren M. Cook, They Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the American Civil War. LSU Press, 2002. , pp. 31 and 124. Her sex was discovered ten days after being recognized by an acquaintance, before her company had left Detroit. Mary Elizabeth Massey, Women in the Civil War. University of Nebraska Press, 1994. . p. 80, citing the Detroit Advertiser and Tribune, February 25, 1863. Available on Google books. Accessed 8 January 2008. She was arrested in uniform, held in the city jail, charged with masquerading as a man, and sent home. The account of the incident in the Detroit Advertiser and Tribune (February 25, 1863) described the defendant as "a very pretty woman".Cited in Michigan Women in the Civil War. Michigan, 1963. p. 33.
See also List of female American Civil War soldiers
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