Not much has been deciphered about Sarah Wakeman's early life. However what is known is that Sarah Wakeman was born on January 16, 1843 in Bainbridge, New York. She was the eldest of nine children in a poor farming family. Her father was in debt, leaving Sarah with more responsibility to help support her large family.
Growing up poor and the eldest of nine siblings, Sarah had a great responsibility to help support her family. Her father was in debt and Sarah had only a domestic job, so she was not able to make much from her job to support her family. At the time, women did not have many opportunties, when they worked they did not have the same work nor did they recieve similar pay as men. Due to this, Sarah Wakeman disguised herself as a man and joined to the Civil War where she would be offered $13 a month and $152 for joining: an offer she could not resist. Sarah decided to be drafted because she believed that she would be able to help support her family better if she went away and provided them money from the war than staying home, not having much to offer. Scholars also believe that she did not have prospects of getting married.
Sarah Rosetta Wakeman went under the name Lyons Wakeman. She was forced to march hundreds of miles through swampy bayou country. Water and food sources were scarce, soldiers would drink water from anywhere they could. Due to poor nutrition and unclean water, many many people around Wakeman were dying. However Wakeman conserved her clean water and avoided the contaminated water.
Wakeman was one of hundreds of women who disguised themselves as men to fight in the Civil War. No one knew that she was a woman, she was able to hide her identity very well. Not even her friends who came from where she came from recognized her as a woman. Her identity was so well concealed, that not even her own doctor or officials identified her as a woman. She would boast to her friends about her work on her father’s farm by describing the physical work she did there.
During the war the most common killers were infections due to poor hygiene. Soldiers would drink water contaminated by nearby rotting animals, dirt, bacteria, and much more. People were vulnerable to many kinds of diseases and deadly bacteria. Two years after joining, Wakeman became very ill around May, she suffered chronic diarrhea and was transferred from Regimental Hospital to a hospital in New Orleans. She died a month later (June 19, 1864). She was buried as Private Lyons Walker.
