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

Summary (from the publisher): Karen Abbott, the New York Times bestselling author of Sin in the Second City and “pioneer of sizzle history” (USA Today), tells the spellbinding true story of four women who risked everything to become spies during 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 farmgirl, 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, witnessing the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. The beautiful widow, Rose O’Neale Greenhow, engaged in affairs with powerful Northern politicians to gather intelligence for the Confederacy, and used her young daughter to send information to Southern generals. Elizabeth Van Lew, a wealthy Richmond abolitionist, hid behind her proper Southern manners as she orchestrated a far-reaching espionage ring, right under the noses of suspicious rebel detectives.

Using a wealth of primary source material and interviews with the spies’ descendants, Abbott seamlessly weaves the adventures of these four heroines throughout the tumultuous years of the war. With a cast of real-life characters including Walt Whitman, Nathaniel Hawthorne, General Stonewall Jackson, detective Allan Pinkerton, Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, and Emperor Napoleon III, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy draws you into the war as these daring women lived it.

 

Review: I received an uncorrected proof copy of this book from HarperCollins.

 

In this work of non-fiction, Abbott tells the story of four women who served as spies during the Civil War. Belle Boyd was a teenager when work broke out, and a hotheaded one at that. Belle became a spy for the Confederacy, seducing men to get them to tell all. Emma Edmonds ran away from home to avoid a forced marriage. To survive, she dressed as a man and joined the Union army, where she was eventually recruited to serve as an undercover spy. Rose O'Neale Greenhow was a widow who seduced Unionists to gain intelligence for the Confederacy. She and her young daughter were imprisoned for their crimes against the United States. And finally, Elizabeth Van Lew, a well-to-do Richmond spinster with Union loyalties, served as bath a Union spy and a safe house for Union soldiers escaping from the Southern prison.

 

This account was fascinating, but that's largely because Abbott has cherry picked four of the most fascinating stories from the Civil War to include. These women did not know one another and never met, yet Abbott has done an excellent job of weaving the four disparate stories together into one chronological tale. However, at times I had a difficult time to keep the four women separate in my mind, and to even remember for which side which woman was spying.

 

I couldn't help but have my favorites among the four women portrayed. Emma Edmonds fascinated me because she successfully pulled off serving as a female in a male army. Emma was one of around four hundred women who posed and fought as men during the Civil War. Perhaps even more impressive, once recruited to be a sspy Emma posed as a man posing as at times as a black man, and at times as a woman in order to infiltrate into the Southern army - which surely must have been confusing. Yet she was never caught and exposed as a woman. Many years later after the end of the war, she did reveal her gender to her fellow soldiers.

 

Additionally, I developed great respect for Elizabeth Van Lew, who was much hated in Richmond for her abolitionist beliefs, yet stood firm by them. Elizabeth managed to install her black servant Mary Jane in the Confederate president's house. Little did President Davis know that Mary Jane was "highly educated and gifted with an eidetic memory, capable of memorizing images in a glance, and recalling entire conversations word for word" (83). Additionally, Elizabeth successfully hid escaped Unionists in a secret room in her house, even when Southern army officers were staying with her. She was adept at aiding the Union army, and did so at considerable personal expense.

 

All four women in this book were willing to risk their life for their beliefs. All four sacrificed in numerous ways, including in bodily comfort, health, finances, and safety. Abbott has done an excellent job of locating four fascinating stories of women involved in the Civil War and compiling them in an easy to read and well researched narrative. 

 

Stars: 4