Women played many roles in the Civil War. One of them: spying for the Union or the Confederacy. Assumptions about women's docility made it easier for some women to dare to spy and get away with it -- at least for a while.
Nancy Hart biography - profile of Nancy Hart, Civil War spy.
Belle Boyd, Antonia Forc, Rose O'Neal Greenhow, Nancy Hart, Laura Ratcliffe, Loreta Janeta Velazquez and more: here are some women who spied during the American Civil War, passing information to the Confederacy. Some were captured and imprisoned, some escaped detection.
Pauline Cushman, Sarah Emma Edmonds, Harriet Tubman, Elizabeth Van Lew, Mary Edwards Walker, Mary Elizabeth Bowser and more: here are some of the many women who spied during the American Civil War, helping the cause of the Union and the North with their information.
A profile of Belle Boyd, Confederate spy.
Biography of Antonia Ford, accused Conferederate spy during the American Civil War.
A profile of Laura Ratcliffe, Confederate spy in the American Civil War.
A four-part in-depth biography of Harriet Tubman, highlighting the four phases of her life: her life in slavery, her years as a conductor on the Underground Railroad, her service in the U.S. Civil War, and her later years working for reform and telling her story.
A profile of Loreta Velazquez, known as a spy in the American Civil War.
Dr. Mary Walker was an unconventional woman. At the start of the Civil War, Dr. Mary Edwards Walker volunteered with the Union Army and adopted men's clothing. She was at first not allowed to work as a physician, but as a nurse and as a spy. She finally won a commission as an army surgeon. She was awarded the Medal of Honor for her service -- it was taken away in 1917 and finally restored in 1977.
Sarah Emma Edmonds was a Civil War nurse, soldier (disguised as Frank Thompson), and spy. In this excerpt from her memoir, she recounts her experiences at the Battle of Bull Run (also known as First Manassas), July 21, 1861, the events leading up to the battle and her exploits after the battle, returning to Washington, DC.
Union sympathizer; after a Confederate soldier killer her husband, worked actively for the Union, as a spy and a nurse.
