Being a fifth grade school teacher, we spend much of our history studying the Revolutionary War. In our studies of the role of women in the fight for independence, we always teach about Debra Sampson. Debra was a young woman who dressed as a man so that she could be an active soldier in the war. Her identity was not discovered until an injury where medical attention was needed.
Little did I know that Greensburg had its own "Debra Sampson." Her name was Elizabeth Cain Finnern. During the Civil War she posed as a Union soldier and fought on the front lines for 6 months before her identity was discovered. Even then she remained in the fighting unit, leaving only to nurse her wounded husband and other sick and wounded.
The Finnerns were natives of Germany and lived in Ohio when her husband, John, became a private in the 81st Ohio Volunteer Infantry in October of 1861. Elizabeth volunteered as a nurse-laundress. There are two versions of how she did this. One story is that her position as a laundress was abolished , but she was permitted to stay because of her value of her job and because General John A. Logan had noted the strong bond between the Finnerns.
The other more romantic story is that she was serving in a hospital in Tennessee and when she heard that her husband's unit was surrounded and outnumbered nearby, she grabbed a Union uniform that she found in a storeroom and headed to the battleground on the slopes of Lookout Mountain. She slipped through the Confederate lines and joined her startled husband.
Whichever story is true, she did perform like a soldier, carrying a musket, enduring long marches, going without food and even taking part in battles. At times she cared for the wounded, even at times helping with amputations. She reportedly was at the Battles of Corinth, Pocahontas, and Huntsville, Alabama and Harrison, Missouri. She also participated in battles at Pulaski, Fort Donaldson, and Chattanooga, Tennnessee.
When John was wounded in the Battle of Arkansas Post, Elizabeth reportedly went deep into enemy territory, shooting down the man who had wounded her husband. A fellow soldier in the 81st Ohio, who followed her, saved Elizabeth from death or capture. She followed her husband to the hospital, where he was among 700 wounded. Elizabeth, finding the unit disorganized and improperly directed, took over the supervision of scarce supplies. She was credited with renovating the hospital even while battling an outbreak of scarlet fever.
After John left the service, in September of 1864, the couple moved to Greensburg, Indiana. John died in 1905 at Greensburg and Elizabeth became a recluse, jeered at by children, but watched over by adults. Once she was ill, a doctor's wife nursed Elizabeth back to health. She also helped Elizabeth , destitute and in poor health, apply to President Theodore Roosevelt for a pension as a soldier's widow.
Elizabeth followed her husband in death in July 1907 with her pension largely unspent. It was used for a Bedford stone monument to mark the graves of the two battlefield buddies, John and Elizabeth Finnern.
The actual grave is at N39 19.785 and W85 29.031. It is very close to the cache "GAR". It is in a row of small white stone markers which honor war veterans. The Finnern stone is much larger. It stands out.
No night caching!