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1A melancholy, but romantic incident which occurred at this time, is thus related by Judge Rowe in his “Sketch of the Regiment: “Before we follow the regiment from Washington, a bit of romance connected with its history is to be chronicled. William Fitzpatrick, of Western Virginia, loved or was loved by Frances Day. Fitzpatrick enlisted in Company F, from Juniata county, and went to the war with the One Hundrecd and Twenty-sixth Regiment. In a short time he fell ill, and on the 24th of August, 1862, whilst the regiment lay at Cloud’s Mills, he died in the hospital at Alexandria. On the day he died, Frank Mayne, a Sergeant of Company F, unaccountably deserted. When he enlisted he was a stranger to all the men of that company, but in a few days he had so ingratiated himself with his comrades and officers, as to be promoted to Sergeant. He was not heard of any more while the regiment remained in service. But long after, in the far West, a soldier, wounded badly in a great battle, could not conceal her sex, and Frances Day then told how she had followed Fitzpatrick into the army, and became herself a soldier and a Sergeant in the One Hundred and Twenty-sixth Pennsylvania Volunteers; of her desertion upon her lover’s death, and the abandon and despair which led her again to seek the ranks of the army. To verify her story letters were written to the officers of Company F, at Mifflintown, and thus the mystery of the Sergeant’s desertion was dispelled.”
Source:Â Â Bates, Samuel P. History of the Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-1865 , Harrisburg, 1868-1871.