On a bitterly cold morning
in January of 1870 a sentry patrolling the grounds around Fort Gibson
discovered the body of an enlisted man lying across the grave of an officer
that had been shot and killed just weeks before. The body was taken to the
infirmary and when the surgeon examined the body he found that this enlisted
man, who had enlisted only a few weeks earlier, was a woman.
As the doctor and the
commanding officer pondered just how she had managed this charade, the chaplain
told one of the strangest stories in American military history. Thomas had
given her secret to the priest in a confession a few days before her death.
This story starts in Boston.
Born in 1840 to a wealthy
Boston family, Vivia Thomas grew up attending the finest schools. She was presented to Boston’s elite society
and, at one of thes elaborate affairs, she met a handsome Union officer. Vivia
and the Lieutenant (his name lost in time) courted for several months. Soon her
family was happy to announce their daughter engagement, elaborate wedding plans
were made.
But, shortly before the
wedding, she found a note he had left for her. He stated he was not sure he was
ready for marriage and it would have been unfair for him to expect a wife to
travel with him to a frontier army outpost. Therefore, he was breaking off
their engagement.
Heartbroken and embarrassed
and humiliated, she decided to leave Boston and go in search in of her
Lieutenant. Once she found he was
stationed at Fort Gibson, she left home and headed west. As she traveled by river raft, the journey
took several months traveling down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and then up
the Arkansas River. To conceal the fact that she was a woman traveling alone,
she cut her hair, started to dress as a man and roughened her face with dirt
and coal. She rarely spoke and never looked anyone in the eye. The disguise proved so successful she decided
to use it to get close to the Lieutenant by enlisting in the Army. She joined the Army’s 6th Infantry. No one
suspected she was a woman and she
performed duties as ordered including patrolling for Indians.
She spent every chance she
had watching him from afar; she never approached him. He did not even recognize her as she walked
past him. Initially she just wanted
revenge for being jilted. But soon she
fantasized being back in his arms.
She knew he left the fort
almost every night and decided to follow him.
She discovered that he was meeting with an Indian girl and realized her
fantasies would not be realized. She needed to confront him and as he headed
back to the fort she hid behind a rock.
She raised her rifle and fired. Shot in the chest, he fell from his
horse. She approached his body and found him dead. She returned to the fort. The next morning a passerby discovered his
body and took it to the fort. At first it was assumed that Indians must have
killed him but when no clues were found the case was closed.
Overcome by grief and regret
Vivia spent the next 2 weeks by his grave at night weeping and praying for
forgiveness. She finally confessed her
story to the chaplain.
Two nights after her confession,
on January 6, 1870, she returned to his grave; the temperature dropped below
zero. At reveille the next morning, a soldier walking his post found her body;
she had frozen to death.
For some reason, Vivia’s
lieutenant was not liked at the fort, his rendezvous with the Indian girlfriend
was not a secret. When Vivia’s story became known most of the men at the fort
including the commanding officer admired her courage and fortitude. In their
quiet way they showed this by where they buried her. She is buried in a
circular plot at Fort Gibson, called the “Circle of Honor”. It is here where
soldiers were buried who distinguished themselves in some way. Among the graves there is one stone that
simply reads "Vivia Thomas, January 7, 1870".
It is at this gravesite that
an apparition of a “delicate” soldier is seen. This figure is seen kneeling
near Vivia Thomas’ grave weeping softly. Her ghost is also seen and heard near
the old fort’s barracks area as well.
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