“Texas Tonk”

A Tonkawa woman called “Texas Tonk” served as a U.S. Army scout in 1872; she rode out with soldiers from Fort Griffin and was later found dead at King’s Creek off the Brazos River.

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“Ardala”

From BBC – “The story of female gladiators is largely unknown. Contemporary Roman writers, to whom we owe much of our historic knowledge, did not approve of women fighting in the arena. But ironically their outbursts against women gladiators give us indirect proof of their existence.
Based on hard historic evidence, we recreate the life of a fictional Roman gladiatrix we call Ardala. Through her dramatic journey, we discover how these young women survived desperate conditions, why so many were ready to die for the sake of public entertainment and the skills they needed to fight and survive in the arena.”

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“Harry Fitzallen”

US Civil War soldier – According to the Cincinnati Daily Press, a police officer “arrested a female yesterday who was dressed in a soldier’s uniform.” This woman, known as Harry Fitzallen stood before a judge who “let her go on promise to don her proper habiliments.”

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“Joseph Davidson”

US Civil War soldier who discovered to be a woman after enlisting in the “Veteran Army Corps” (presumably the Veteran Reserve Corps). Her previous discharge paperwork indicated she served three years in the 59th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. On May 24 1864, the Santa Fe Weekly Gazette reported, “Her father had been killed by her side at Chickamauga.” It was presumably her desire to remain with her father that had initially motivated her to enlist.

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