The War Between the States was also a war between brothers, fathers and sons, cousins, friends and neighbors -
and some of them were women. We know from certain military records, antique books, and lately
some newer books, that women served as nurses, as Union and Confederate
soldiers, and a number of them were even Union and Confederate spies. One woman served without pay as a physician, acted as a spy, and was a POW.
Emmeline Piggott became North Carolina's most famous spy and smuggler. She is said to have carried dispatches in the
large pockets located under her full skirts. She avoided capture many times but was finally caught, arrested and imprisoned. She
was eventually released and sent home.
Elizabeth C. Howland, trained in medicine by her father, was also highly successful as a Confederate spy. She often sent her young
son and daughter to carry dispatches. Appearing innocent, the children were allowed to pass through enemy lines undisturbed.
Pauline Cushman,
born in the South at New Orleans, had a brief career as a Union spy. She followed the
Confederate troops in
Kentucky and Tennessee, often reporting their activities to an advancing Union army.
Gen. Braxton Bragg of the Confederacy
discovered her true intentions and after a brief trial, she was ordered to be hung. She
escaped death after Union troops invaded
and she was abandoned during the Rebels escape.
Belle Boyd,
was the South's most colorful and famous female spy.
She was twice imprisoned and arrested six times.
Belle defied Union authorities by carrying important letters and papers across enemy lines.
Ironically, before the war ended, Belle Boyd married a Captain Harding,
a Union naval officer.
Nancy Hart,
served as a Confederate scout, guide and spy, carrying messages between the Southern
Armies. She hung around
isolated Federal outposts, acting as a peddlar, to report their strength, population and
vulnerability to General Jackson.
Nancy was twenty years old when she was captured by the Yankees and jailed in a
dilapidated house with guards constantly
patrolling the building. She gained the trust of one of her guards, got his weapon from him,
shot him and escaped.
Elizabeth Van Lew,
asked to be allowed to visit Union prisoners held by the Confederates in Richmond and
began taking them
food, bribe money and medicines. She realized that many of the prisoners had been
marched through Confederate lines on their way to
Richmond and were full of useful information about Confederate movements.
She became a Union Spy for the next four years, setting up a network of couriers, and
devising a code.
She was also against slavery where ever it might be found. Elizabeth's abolitionist
tendencies were learned from one of her teachers at the school she attended in
Philadelphia. After her father's death, she convinced her mother to free their nine slaves.
A plaque at her gravesite reads: "She risked everything that is dear to man -- friends,
fortune, comfort, health, life itself, all for one absorbing desire of her heart -- that slavery
might be abolished and the Union preserved."
Antonia Ford,
a
Fairfax, Virginia, resident impressed soldiers from North and South with her beauty, charm
and
conversation. Impressed with her ability to recall those conversations, Jeb Stuart awarded
her a written commission as
"my honorary aide de-camp."
Based on information provided by Antonia - on March 9, 1863, Confederate Colonel
John S. Mosby and 29 men entered the Union
encampment and captured Union General Stoughton, while he slept in the Gunnell House.
In addition, Mosby captured 2 captains,
30 privates, and 58 horses. Following Mosby's raid, Union officials searched Antonia's
house and found the commission. Union Maj.
Joseph C. Willard arrested and escorted "the spy" to the Old Capitol Prison. Along the
way, Antonia stole his heart, and 7 months
later Willard secured her release and they were married.
Harriet Tubman,
though best know for her work in freeing slaves, after the outbreak of the Civil War, also
served as a soldier, spy,
and a nurse, for a time serving at Fortress Monroe, where Jefferson Davis would later be
imprisoned. Her experience leading slaves
along the Underground Railroad was particularly helpful because she knew the landscape
so well. She recruited a group of former
slaves to scout the locations of rebel camps and report on the movement of the
Confederate troops.
Sarah Lane
was born February 11, 1838 in Greene County, Tennessee. In 1854, Sarah married
Sylvanius H.Thompson and
they had two children. Sylvanius later became a private in the 1st Tennessee Calvary
U.S.A., where he served primarily as a
recruiter for the Union Army. Sarah worked alongside her husband assembling and
organizing Union sympathizers in a
predominately rebel area around Greeneville, Tennessee. In early 1864, Sylvanius
Thompson was ambushed and killed
by a Confederate soldier.
Spurred by her husband's death, Sarah continued her work for the Union, delivering
dispatches and recruiting information to Union officers. When CSA General John Hunt
Morgan and his men spent the night
in Greeneville, Sarah managed to slip away and alert Union forces to his whereabouts.
Union troops invaded the area and
by her accounts, she personally pointed out Morgan hiding behind a garden fence to a
Union soldier who proceeded to kill
Morgan
Rose O'Neal Greenhow
was born in
Montgomery County, Maryland in 1817. "Wild Rose", as she was called from a young age,
was a leader in Washington society, a passionate secessionist, and one of the most
renowned spies in the Civil War. Among
her accomplishments was the secret message she sent to General Pierre G.T. Beauregard
which ultimately caused him to win
the battle of Bull Run. She spied so successfully for the Confederacy that Jefferson Davis
credited her with winning the battle of
Manassas.
Rose was imprisoned for her efforts first in her own home and then in the Old Capital
Prison. Despite her confinement, Greenhow
continued getting messages to the Confederacy by means of cryptic notes which traveled in
unlikely places such as the inside
of a woman's bun of hair. After her second prison term, she was exiled to the Confederate
states where she was received warmly
by President Jefferson Davis.
Dr Mary Walker,
a surgeon in the Civil War, was awarded our nation's highest honor by President Andrew
Johnson
The citation (seen in photo above) reads, in part: "Whereas it appears from official reports
that Dr. Mary E. Walker, a graduate of medicine,
has rendered valuable service to the government, and her efforts have been earnest and
untiring in a variety of ways,
and that she was assigned to duty and served as an assistant surgeon in charge of female
prisoners at Louisville, KY.,
under the recommendation of Major-Generals Sherman and Thomas, and faithfully served
as contract surgeon in the
service of the United states, and has devoted herself with much patriotic zeal to the sick and
wounded soldiers, both in
the field and hospitals, to the detriment of her own health, and has endured hardships as a
prisoner of war four months in
a southern prison while acting as contract surgeon...."
Susie Baker, was born a slave in 1848 in
Georgia. She learned to read and write while living with her grandmother.
Susie gained her freedom in 1862 as contraband of war and was appointed laundress of the
33rd U.S. Colored Troops. In 1862,
Susie married Sergeant Edward King, one of the members of this regiment.
In January 1863, Susie King began to nurse the
wounded men who returned to camp from a raid up the St. Mary's River. She also learned
to clean, load and fire a musket.
For four years Susie nursed the wounded soldiers, until she and her husband were mustered
out of the regiment in 1866.
Some historical records verify the fact that over sixty women were either wounded or killed
at various battles during the Civil War.
It is estimated that over 400 women served in the Civil War on both sides, not counting the
thousands who served as nurses.
Perhaps one of the the most poignant stories about women in the Civil War is told in
Women in War, by Frank Moore.
"In 1863, at age 19, a woman known only as Emily, ran away from home and joined
the drum corps of a Michigan Regiment.
The regiment was sent to Tennessee and during the struggle for Chatanooga a minie ball
pierced the side of the young soldier.
Her wound was fatal and her sex was disclosed. At first she refused to disclose her real name but as she lay dying she consented
to dictate a telegram to her father in Brooklyn. "Forgive your dying daughter. I have but a few moments to live. My native soil drinks
my blood. I expected to deliver my country but the fates would not have it so. I am content to die. Pray forgive me . . . Emily."
Many stories have been written about unique Civil War women, including
Sarah Emma Edmonds,
alias Franklin Thompson. In
Nurse and Spy in the Union Army, 1865, which is subtitled The Adventures and
Experiences of a Woman in Hospitals, Camps,
and Battle-Fields, the author chronicles her adventures and escapades as she gathers
information and nurses the wounded.
Historians have verified that Emma Edmonds, as Franklin Thompson, did serve in the
units she mentioned at the times she said.
Another fairly well known story is that of
Jennie Hodgers
who served and fought for the Union for three years as Albert Cashier.
Her identity wasn't revealed until 1913.
Lt Harry T. Buford,
Confederate Officer, later found to be Madam Loreta Velazquez,
recorded her trials and tribulations in her book - "Loreta Janeta Velazquez The
Woman in Battle: A Narrative of the Exploits, Adventures and Travels of
Madame Loreta Janeta Velazquez, Otherwise Known as Lieutenant Harry T. Buford,
Confederate States Army." Richmond, Va:
Dustin, Gilman & Co., 1876. There is much controversy on all sides in regards to her story.
Florena Budwin, wife of a Pennsylvania
soldier of the Civil War disguised herself as a man and enlisted in the Union Army to
be near her husband. They were captured and imprisoned at the infamous Andersonville
Prison where her husband died.
She was then transferred to Florence, S.C., where her identity was revealed. She remained
at the prison to care for Union
soldiers, finally dying of illness in 1865. She was buried at Florence National Cemetery and
is believed to be the first woman
buried in a National Cemetery.
We can never really know the extent to which women enlisted in the Civil War and subsequently died upon the field of battle. Lost forever are thier names and thier unique stories, effectively sealed away in some unmarked grave from family, friends and history for all time.
After the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1863, the bodies of two Confederate
women, in uniform, were found. A Union flag bearer, also a woman in uniform,
was killed on the hill near Picketts Charge. And a young woman named Frances Day
was mortally wounded while serving as Sgt Frank Mayne in the Western Theater.
Please click on the musket below
to return to the main site navigation menu.