| Anna Etheridge was born in 1839 in Wayne County, | | | | or pay of a sergeant. |
| Michigan, christened Lorinda Anna Blair. At the age of | | | | When the 2nd Michigan was sent to Tennessee after |
| 16, she married one Mr. Etheridge but the marriage | | | | the battle of Antietam, Annie enlisted with the 3rd |
| was unsuccessful and Anna returned to Detroit. | | | | and 5th Michigan regiments, electing to stay with the |
| She was one of 20 women who enlisted as | | | | Army of the Potomac. She was on the field at both |
| Vivandieres, or Daughters of the Regiment, in the | | | | the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. At |
| 2nd Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment at the | | | | Chancellorsville, she and her horse were wounded |
| outbreak of the American Civil War. Her first battle | | | | when a Union officer tried to hide behind her. The |
| experience was at Blackburn's Ford, Virginia. On the | | | | officer was killed. It won Anna the Kearny Cross for |
| battlefield she nursed the wounded and relieved the | | | | her bravery under fire. She was in the thick of most |
| final minutes of the dying with drinking water. She | | | | battles for the remainder of the war and a familiar |
| was very nearly captured at the Battle of the | | | | sight on the battlefield. |
| Second Bull Run. Her actions were noticed by General | | | | She worked in the Treasury Department after the |
| Phillip Kearny who sent up a recommendation that | | | | war and was discharged in favor of a replacement. |
| she be awarded with the rank of sergeant for her | | | | She requested a pension of $50 per month for |
| bravery and given a horse. Before this could come | | | | wartime service but in 1887 Congress approved $25 |
| through, Kearny was killed in a rearguard retreat. She | | | | only. She died in 1913 and is buried in Arlington |
| was awarded the horse but without either the rank | | | | National Cemetery. |