April showers bring May flowers, as the saying goes, but here in Kansas March had its fair share of rainy days too. On one of those rainy, chilly days, I bundled my two little ones into our van and drove to meet my husband for a lunch and library date.

As I pushed the stroller along the surprisingly long walkway from the parking lot to our lunch spot, my toddler soon reported tired legs. Mustering my strength, I gathered her up in one arm and pushed the stroller with the other through the soaking rain, all the while wondering if I should have suggested our lunch and library adventure on a nicer day.

But time with my husband and a warming chai latte soon cured me of any regret and chills, and we made our way to the library. My husband gifted me with a few moments alone to peruse stack after stack of history books.

The library’s holdings thrilled me, but I walked away with only two books (shocking!), one of which was a collection of letters written by an Army wife named Emily McCorkle FitzGerald. 

Emily FitzGerald: The Doctor’s Wife

Once we were back home, I glanced at a few of Emily’s letters and soon found myself deeply interested in her story. Emily lived from 1850-1912, and when she was only twenty-two she married Jenkins (John) A. FitzGerald, an Army doctor (FitzGerald, 3-4, 352).

As an Army wife, Emily lived in remote and sometimes dangerous places, all while raising two small children. It is thanks to her eldest child that Emily’s letters, most of which were written to her mother, were published (Foreword by Joan I. Biddle, ix).

These missives reveal Emily’s close bond with her mother through her emotional, honest, and loving tone. Moreover, as a new mother writing to her own mother, Emily’s letters expose the hardships and vulnerabilities military parents have faced in navigating life without the support of grandparents.

As April is the month of the military child, it seems fitting to reflect on the challenges and joys that Emily, John, and their children experienced on the frontier. 

Emily and John welcomed their first child, Elizabeth (Bess), almost exactly one year after their marriage (FitzGerald, 4). In 1874, the small family was sent from West Point to the West Coast (FitzGerald, 4).

The journey to Fort Vancouver was difficult for Emily, as she was in her second trimester of pregnancy and had Bess to care for, with the help of a nurse named Mary (FitzGerald, 4).

Sitka, Alaska

When they arrived in Portland in July, 1874, Emily was distressed to learn that the Army was sending them to Sitka, Alaska (FitzGerald, 22).

In her letter in which she shared this news with her mother, she tried to reassure herself as much as her mother with the knowledge that Alaska really would not be so dreadful of a post after all (FitzGerald, 22).

She told her mother that the weather was supposedly excellent for children’s health, even though mail would only arrive once every month (FitzGerald, 22).

She consoled herself and her mother with the knowledge that the assignment would last only two years at most (FitzGerald, 23). Still, she could not help but worry about her pregnancy.

Emily later confided to her mother her hope that she had counted correctly “the time to be sick. As it is, I have just about time to get to Sitka and fixed up” (FitzGerald, 29).  

Childbirth on the Frontier 

Thankfully, Emily’s calculations were correct, though her recovery from birth demonstrates the vulnerability that new mothers and children experienced on frontier Army posts.

A little more than two months after her arrival in Sitka, Emily gave birth to Herbert (Bert) on October 30, 1874 (FitzGerald, 66). Unfortunately, an illness shortly afterwards nearly took Emily’s life.

John wrote to Emily’s mother of Herbert’s birth and Emily’s illness, of his own fears that she might die – which his letter indicates was a distinct possibility for more than twenty-four hours – and of her recovery (FitzGerald, 66-67). Once Emily was well enough to write on her own, she confessed to her mother her fears for her children as well as her heartfelt need for her mother’s support. In raw honesty, she wrote: 

“It makes me about sick now to think of my poor little babies if I had not gotten well. … what would my poor little babies do? Here there is actually no one that could have been gotten to take care of them. … I got to wishing the other night it was possible you might walk in and got to feeling as if I could not do without seeing you any longer” (FitzGerald, 68).

Childhood on the Frontier

Sadly for Emily, four more years passed before she would see her mother once again and before her mother would even meet Bert. During those long years, Emily steadfastly mothered Bess and Bert and formed deep friendships with the other Army wives in Sitka.

Together, Emily and these other women birthed and raised their children and discussed how to prevent themselves from having more children while in such a remote posting (FitzGerald, 165). 

Fort Lapwai

In 1876, John was transferred from Sitka to Fort Lapwai in Idaho Territory and then to Fort Boise in late 1877 (FitzGerald, 187-188, 191, 317).

Though they were not as far from their family as when they were in Sitka, the Nez Percé War caused considerable distress and fear (FitzGerald, 195).

Indeed, Bess later recalled the frenzy and terror of war. As she wrote in the preface to her mother’s letters, she remembered “the report that the Indians would attack the Post with its pitifully few defenders” and the “hours spent in the darkness of a cellar with frightened mothers and weeping children” (Heistand, xv).

Despite these trying times, Emily’s letters demonstrate how she persevered in caring for Bess and Bert and in creating a safe and happy childhood for them to the best of her ability.  

As a mother myself, I am so thankful that most military posts are not so remote as Sitka was, and that most are not in a war zone, as was Fort Lapwai.

However, though times have changed, young military mothers and their children still endure hardships because of the military. Motherhood has personally awakened me to the challenges that military children experience, particularly since they often have no say in choosing this lifestyle.

Emily’s letters, her own experiences as a mother, and her children’s experiences all serve to remind me to appreciate the sacrifices that spouses and children make every day.

This month, I want to try to bless military children in my community and their mothers as a way of honoring their sacrifices and of remembering the sacrifices of previous generations in this amazing military community. 

*For more from Anna, check out her M:M Author Page.

*FitzGerald, Emily McCorkle. An Army Doctor’s Wife on the Frontier: The Letters of Emily McCorkle FitzGerald from Alaska and the Far West, 1874-78. Edited by Abe Laufe. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1986.