Spies In The Civil War
...politics, and the brother versus brother mentality of the war, many people fail to realize another aspect of war, spies. Spies have played a critical role throughout all of history, regardless of wartime or not. The intelligence gained through spies helped generals and their armies make more intelligent moves, get into correct positioning, and enabled them to win battles that probably would not have been won without them. Let's take a look into some Union and Confederate spies.
From the Civil War, everyone has heard of General Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, and of course Abraham Lincoln, but have you ever heard of Sarah Emma Edmonds? Sarah Emma Edmonds, a Canadian, was a Union spy, who enlisted in the army as Frank Thompson. Before becoming a spy, she served on the battlefield and also in field hospitals. She would soon become a master of disguise within the Union Army. Many of her missions were through Confederate lines in Northern Virginia.
²Edmonds on several occasions would cut her hair extra short in order to be disguised as a male slave. Soon enough, she was digging trenches with a group of blacks near Williamsburg. Right outside of Williamsburg where Sarah was digging trenches, she was there to count guns and soldiers. Her very next mission was for her to disguise herself as a female peddler, following around the Confederate armies, and selling baked goods to them. Sarah had to end the plan due to a stream in which her baked goods fell. She soon came upon Captain Allen Hall in an abandoned farmhouse. He was very sick, soon to die. Hall gave her his gold watch and a message to deliver to headquarters. Thanks to this luck, she was able to infiltrate Confederate headquarters, and gain valuable information for the Union. This would be one of her last missions, and she soon went back to serving in the field hospital.
Another well known Union spy is Pauline...
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