Melverina Elverina Peppercorn

Melverina Elverina Peppercorn may sound like a silly name, but Melverina was a very serious soldier. She enlisted in the Confederate army in December of 1862, alongside her twin brother Alexander the Great, aka Lexie. She was 16 when she enlisted, “tall, big-boned” and what’s more, she could spit a stream of ambeer 10 feet.

When Melverina Peppercorn enlisted in the Confederate army, she could shoot as well as her brother and was ‘strong as a man’ ... no one in her family doubted that she could do the job. Whatever the Victorian restraints on women of the middle and upper classes, 19th century farm women were not creatures of the parlor, subject to the vapors. Of course, it may have helped that she had her brother to run interference for her, bunk with her and help her to keep her secret.

Melverina only fought in one major battle. When Lexie was wounded, she went with him to the hospital to nurse him. After he recovered, the twins wanted to re-enlist, but by then the war was almost over.