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.
Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy contains 39
black & photos and 3 maps.
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