Little is known about Frances Clalin Clayton’s childhood as her life was mainly reported on in print, although it is known she was born in Illinois, a Northern state in which slavery had been legally abolished by 1804. Of course, the barring of women from the military spanned both the North and the South, thus even the idea of a woman in combat, and the only way in which a woman could successfully enter into the armed forces was in male disguise. In some, but few prior wars, such as the Revolutionary War, women were called in as medics to the male soldiers. One would expect that a chaste, woman of the 1800s that wished to aid in "the man's battle" would be enrolled in the field of caretaking. 

 

    What can be gathered from the decision that Clayton made to commit to fighting for the Union performing “as a man” is that as any other woman entering the military at the time, Frances Clalin Clayton possessed a perseverant, headstrong and self-sufficient character, defying the typical characteristics which were attributed to white women during the post Victorian age.