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Sam Blalock’s Secret
The bizarre story of a Watauga
couple's army career and its 1111-
lovely sequel.
By T. II.
РЕЛНСЕ
There have been a number of re¬
corded instances in which women
served in the armed forces of various
countries. They did this for ntany rea¬
sons, but as a rule they dressed and
passed for men. In most cases they
probably did it to be with a man they
loved, but in some cases they did it for
purely patriotic reasons.
One such case was described in this
magazine in the October 15. 1971 is¬
sue. Ora L. Jones wrote of the service
of Mrs. Linus H. Scclye. nee Emma
Edmonds, alias Franklin Thompson,
who served in the yankec army with
the Second Michigan Infantry Regi¬
ment during the War Between the
States, apparently without being dis¬
covered. This in itself is enough to
make the reader wonder, either about
Emma Edmonds or her fellow soldiers.
The fact remains, however, that
there have been numbers of authenti¬
cated cases of similar deceptions. At
least one of these occurred in a North
Carolina Regiment, the Twenty-Sixth,
while it was commanded by the great
Zebulon B. Vance.
It would be commendatory if we
could say (hat Malinda Blalock joined
the Confederate Army out of a desire
to serve the Confederacy, but that
would be far from the truth. The fact
of the matter is that both Malinda and
her husband. Keith Blalock, were
rather unsavory characters who joined
the 26th Regiment for ulterior motives.
George C. Underwood gave a couple
of pages to the Blalocks when he au¬
thored the history of the praise-worthy
26th regiment, back in 1901. John G.
Barrett also referred to them in his
The Civil War In North Carolina .
Keith and "Sam" Enlist
John Preston Arthur wrote a great
deal more about them, particularly
L. M.. or Keith as he was better known,
in his History of Watauga Comity, pub¬
lished in 1915. As a matter of fact he
stated on page 160 of this volume, "It
might seem almost as if the history of
the Civil War in Watauga were inex¬
tricably interwoven with the life and
adventures of L. M. Blalock, com¬
monly called Keith Blalock."
Underwood describes the service of
”L. M." and "Sam" Blalock as follows:
"While the Twenty-Sixth Regiment
was in camp in and around Kinston,
after the Battle of New Bern (March.
1X62». many recruits joined the com¬
mand. Among them were two young
men. giving their names as I.. M. and
Samuel Blalock. They enlisted in Cap¬
tain Ballcw's company (F> and were
brought to the regiment by Private
James D. Moore, of Company F.
"On the way from their home in
Caldwell County, to join the regiment,
Moore was informed in strict confi¬
dence by I.. M. (Keith) Blalock, that
Samuel was his young wife, and that
he would enlist only on condition that
his wife be allowed to enlist with him.
t his was agreed to by Moore, who was
acting as recruiting officer, and Moore
also promised not to divulge the secret.
Sam Blalock is described as a good-
looking boy. aged 1 6. weight about 1 30
pounds, height 5 feel 4 inches, dark
hair; her husband Keith was over 6 feet
in height. Sam Blalock’s disguise was
never penetrated. She drilled and did
the duties of a soldier as any other
member of the company and was very
adept at learning the manual and drill."
It was also reported that "Sam"
tented with Keith and even watched the
men when they went swimming al-
THE STATE. NOVEMBER 1974
21
