Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War

Karen Abbott illuminates one of the most fascinating yet little known aspects of the Civil
War: the stories of four courageous women—a socialite, a farm girl, an abolitionist, and a widow—who were spies.

After shooting a Union soldier in her front hall with a pocket pistol, Belle Boyd became a courier and spy for the Confederate army,
using her charms to seduce men on both sides. Emma Edmonds cut off her hair and assumed the identity of a man to enlist as a Union private, witnessi…