BUFFALO, N.Y. — There are many stories that can be told from the battlefields of the Civil War. And there are just as many that have never been told as the ones we know.

When he’s in uniform, Bill Tojek lives and breathes the Civil War.

“I portray a bugler in our reenactment group,” said Tojek, commander of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, Camp 44. “It's important because you have to remember how we started.”

Finding out more about the men and women who served is a big deal for him.

“We have a lady who started with the 44th in New York. Her name is Lora Hudson Bissell,” Tojek said.

Bissell grew up an orphan, put herself through school, and became a teacher. It was then she was inspired by the 44th Regiment, the Ellsworth Avengers, named for Col. Elmer Ellsworth, the first Union officer to die in the Civil War.

“She was a very patriotic woman,” Tojek added.

“Here the oath of our lips no utter, those our nation's pride. By our hopes of yon bright heaven, by the land we love, by the God who reigns above us, we'll avenge thy blood," read Tojek.

Bissell wrote that poem in their honor, which eventually became the 44th’s regimental song.

“It was to brighten up the regiment for fighting," Tojek explained. "It does make them stronger and makes them fight harder.”

Soon after, she was asked to become a daughter of the regiment, serving as a nurse.

“You're talking Antietam, which was a big battle. She went through Gettysburg; the seven days battle," said Tojek, "And she's the only woman, as far as I know, with a name in Gettysburg on the 44th New York monument.”

Beyond this, not much is known about Bissell's service.

“Some of these other nurses that did so much work for the regiments [...] unless they did something out of the ordinary, they're always forgotten,” said Tojek.

Tojek says historical accounts could put Bissell at some amazing points in time, like General Daniel Butterfield’s memoirs, that may place her in the same room as President Abraham Lincoln as he visited the sick.

“That was the field hospital. That's the only place he went," said Tojek. "She was there; she had to meet him.”

She was even potentially part of the creation of an iconic military song.

“General [Butterfield is] whistling some notes, the bugler picked up some notes. They wrote them down [...] and that was 'Taps,' " said Tojek. "Writing the song for Ellsworth Avengers, it's possible that she also helped write the songs for 'Taps.' ”

While nobody can be sure of her contributions there, what we do know is she served her country well.

“Never lost her love for her boys, as she always called the men of the 44th, and they were as loyal to her as to them,” read Tojek.

She has a story for the history books.

“I give her a lot of credit. I think she's a brave woman," said Tojek. "She's one of the unknown heroes of our nation.”

Bissell did end up meeting her husband while serving. Tojek says it appears after he moved to another unit, she stayed with the 44th.

After the war, they moved to Buffalo, where she died, and was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery.