Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy
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“did them more good than the preaching”: Williamson, Prison Life in the Old Capitol, 51.
one rebel soldier in particular: Mahony, Prisoner of State, 278.
“I have no objection”: Boyd, In Camp and Prison, 199.
“I’ll break every bone in your body”: Ibid., 200.
She rolled up her sleeve: Atlanta Constitution, September 2, 1900.
The Still, Small Voice
eaten by hogs: Wright, e-mail, November 2013.
Army of the Potomac swore: Edmonds, Nurse and Spy, 255.
“I think I begin to see his wise purpose”: Sears, Young Napoleon, 235.
rebels were courteous: Robbins, journal.
and a $5 note: Ibid.
“She slept in the tent with us”: Haydon, For Country, Cause and Leader, 276.
ordered instead by General Samuel P. Heintzelman: It’s uncertain whether Emma was being truthful about this order. She claims that during this mission she stole crucial battle plans from the unattended jacket of a Confederate officer, but there is no record of such plans being discovered under such circumstances. Her story, however, is similar to a widely (but not entirely accurately) reported incident in which a group of Union cavalry surprised Confederate general J. E. B. Stuart while he rested at a farmhouse before the main engagement. Stuart fled without his coat, which contained a letter from Robert E. Lee. If she did go on a mission behind Confederate lines, it was before the main engagement on August 29, when she was involved in a well-documented riding accident. Fishel, Secret War for the Union, 191–93.
one day teach them: Edmonds, Nurse and Spy, 73.
“preferred to live in bondage”: Ibid., 262.
“coosh”: Fisher and Fisher, Food in the American Military, 75.
strained to listen: Edmonds, Nurse and Spy, 263.
same small voice : Ibid., 264.
only a half dozen barrels of hard bread: New York Times, August 31, 1862.
The cars were pierced with rifle shots: Haydon, For Country, Cause and Leader, 133.
the reflection of the flames lighting the sky: New York Times, August 31, 1862.
One piece swiped the cap clear: Haydon, For Country, Cause and Leader, 279.
The mail! she thought: Fort Scott Monitor, January 17, 1884.
The surgeon wanted to examine her: Ibid. After this accident, for the rest of her life, Emma’s foot was so deformed that she had trouble wearing shoes.
“more like a butcher’s shambles”: Strother, Virginia Yankee, 79.
lawmakers had to navigate carefully: Furgurson, Freedom Rising, 197.
“How long did it take you to come back”: Mahony, Prisoner of State, 276.
“Hush up, you damn bitch”: Ibid.
“Go meet men, you cowards”: Ibid., 277; Leech, Reveille in Washington, 157.
A steam warship was anchored: Dannett, She Rode with the Generals, 187.
“Here is a paper with which”: Davis and Pritchard, The Battlefields of the Civil War, 76.
“here are the dreadful details”: Samuels, Facing America, 71.
“Federal buried, Confederate unburied” and “Bloody Lane, Confederate Dead, Antietam”: http://www.nps.gov/anti/photosmultimedia/Historic-Photogaphs.htm.
“I feel some little pride”: Furgurson, Freedom Rising, 201.
“decided this question in favor”: McPherson, Crossroads of Freedom, 139.
Elizabeth celebrated by arranging for the private purchase: “Receipt for Purchase of Louisa,” January 1, 1863, Van Lew Album.
“I stooped down”: Edmonds, Nurse and Spy, 271.
“I can trust you”: Ibid., 272.
Richmond Underground
wrapping them around marbles: Mahony, Prisoner of State, 279.
as per Southern custom: Church, Weddings Southern Style, 9.
“All you rebels get ready”: Boyd, In Camp and Prison, 197.
“I forward likewise”: OR, ser. 2, 4:461.
Superintendent Wood . . . shopped for her: Sigaud, Belle Boyd, 87.
including a young mother who threw kisses: Washington Star, August 30, 1862.
She had two gold saber knots: Boyd, In Camp and Prison, 198.
“Three cheers for the Devil!”: Ibid., 204.
her next-door neighbor, R. J. White, who was hoping to patent a machine: 1860 census; Confederate patent office files, R.J. White and George Lehner, August 25, 1863.
There Mary Jane was waiting with the seamstress: Hall, e-mail, June 2013.
leaving the roads strewn with the bodies of bloodhounds: Ward, Slaves’ War, 216.
through kind words and sacred hymns: Ibid.
Cotton dresses were constructed: Details about dress construction, Wright, e-mail, March 2012.
“a friend to be trusted”: McNiven, “Recollections.” Historians have long debated the veracity of McNiven’s “recollections” and his role in Elizabeth Van Lew’s spy ring. Van Lew’s descendant Bart Hall believes (and I agree) that he was a peripheral player whom Elizabeth occasionally used as a liaison.
“General Limpy, the food fop”: Lowry, Story the Soldiers Wouldn’t Tell, 157. In January 2011 Lowry, a psychiatrist turned historian who is the author of several Civil War–related books, confessed to altering the date on a Lincoln document in the National Archives. A month later he recanted, claiming on his website that the National Archives had “coerced an innocent man into a false confession.” In his endnotes to The Story the Soldiers Wouldn’t Tell, Lowry explains that he himself had never seen the diary but that he obtained these excerpts from the now-deceased Robert K. Waitt, who had served as the executive secretary of the Richmond Civil War Centennial Commission. Lowry told me he doesn’t know the current whereabouts of the diary, and I was unable to track down descendants of Waitt and three others who claimed to have seen it.
“the bravest of the brave”: Elizabeth Van Lew to Ulysses S. Grant, October 2, 1869, Van Lew Papers, NYPL.
the adults created a recognition system: McNiven, “Recollections.”
“trusty Union man”: Parker, Chatauqua Boy, 54–64.
by certain tombstones in the graveyard: McNiven, “Recollections.”
“to be placed in cipher”: Gaddy, e-mail, June 2013.
“scattered broadcast over the land”: Woodworth, Davis and Lee at War, 206–7.
“deceiving the guards and evading the scouts”: Ibid., 196.
“the army will melt away”: Davis, Virginia at War, 1862, 146.
Mary Jane transcribed pages of information: Hall, e-mail, June 2013.
she hung a red shirt on the laundry line: Statement from Annie Randolph Van Lew Hall, Box 2K394, “Correspondence, 1910,” Beymer Papers.
Certain quantities of items corresponded: Hall, e-mail, June 2013.
stuffed cotton into her cheeks: John Albree notes on interview with Annie Whitlock, Van Lew Papers, College of William & Mary.
at her elbow; strange faces: Van Lew, “Occasional Journal.”
accompanying her and Little Rose to Richmond’s hospitals: Alexandria Gazette, October 9, 1862.
Stonewall had chosen to camp on the lawn: Chambers, Stonewall Jackson, 242.
“not altogether assured”: Ibid., 246.
“share his dangers”: Washington Star, August 2, 1862.
“If I ever catch you in Martinsburg”: Sigaud, Belle Boyd, 105–6.
“God bless you, my child”: Belle recounts this alternative version of her meeting with Stonewall Jackson in her memoir, 208. It’s unclear whether this encounter occurred after the general’s initial refusal to see her, or if it never occurred at all.
Playing Dead
in fine condition: Edmonds, Nurse and Spy, 289.
“hemorrhaging from the lungs”: Dannett, She Rode with the Generals, 192.
“irregular fighters”: New York Times, August 23, 1862.
shoot any Yankees: Stevenson, History of the 78th Regiment, 169.
“by the heat of his beautiful head”: Edmonds, Nurse and Spy, 293.
&nb
sp; a group of Confederate guerrillas: Incident described ibid., 294–96.
“unprofitable life”: Ibid., 296.
“delaying on little pretexts”: McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 570.
“had no confidence in the ability of General Burnside”: Fishel, Secret War for the Union, 255.
“political cabal at Washington”: Pinkerton, Spy of the Rebellion, 579.
“To the Army of the Potomac”: New York Times, November 14, 1862.
“In parting from you”: McClellan, Civil War Papers, 521; Williams, 93.
“Have been somewhat busy”: Robbins, journal.
the hand’s perfect condition: Edmonds, Nurse and Spy, 299.
“short petticoats and bare knees”: Don Troiani’s Regiments, 42.
three-year-old George and one-year-old William: US Census, 1860.
“It looks rather dismal”: Haydon, For Country, Cause and Leader, 294.
“If you make the attack as contemplated”: Hawkins, in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, 126.
“The carrying out of your plan”: Ibid.
“If it rests his poor feet”: Sigaud, Belle Boyd, 107.
“Truly your friend”: Boyd, In Camp and Prison, 213. This note, which has never been found, was also possibly destroyed in a postwar fire; Sigaud, Belle Boyd, 212.
Six thousand citizens were suddenly homeless: Ward, Burns, and Burns, Civil War, 137.
posing as a Union telegraph operator: Dannett, She Rode with the Generals, 209.
“zeal and energy”: Fishel, Secret War for the Union, 257.
“The work went steadily on”: Edmonds, Nurse and Spy, 301.
Dead rebels lay strewn: Haydon, For Country, Cause and Leader, 297.
“I wish my friends could see me”: Edmonds, Nurse and Spy, 301.
“A chicken could not live in that field”: Eicher, Longest Night, 401.
“grass before the scythe”: O’Reilly, Fredericksburg Campaign, 318.
“It is well that war is so terrible”: Ward, Burns, and Burns, Civil War, 141.
“with a fearlessness that attracted the attention”: Dannett, She Rode with the Generals, 213.
an officer who lay writhing in agony: Emma describes this incident in her memoir (p. 306), but does not explicitly mention Reid’s name.
When You Think He May Be Killed Tomorrow
revealed more of herself: Boston, Diary. Emma never explicitly described the nature of her relationship with James Reid.
“friend Frank”; “extremely fond”: Robbins, journal.
“Have not had a very long chat”: Ibid.
“individuals who repose”: Ibid.
“one of nature’s noblemen”: Ibid.
“Dear Jerome”: Robbins Papers.
“Charles Norton”: Blanton and Cook, They Fought Like Demons, 108.
“While out on the foraging expedition”: Ibid., 108–9.
Two women serving with the 95th Illinois Infantry: Ibid., 109.
“a quick jerk of her head”: Ibid.
A recruit in Rochester: Ibid.
“complained of feeling unwell”: Ibid., 103.
“of barroom and brothel”: Gold, Studies in Etymology, 113.
“Beware of rashness”: Burlingame, Inner World of Abraham Lincoln, 81.
“The weather department is in perfect keeping”: Edmonds, Nurse and Spy, 311.
Confederate forces under General John Pegram: OR, ser. 1, 23:168.
young widow: Edmonds, Nurse and Spy, 313.
“Having made up my mind”: Southern Literary Messenger 38, no. 4 (April 1864): 124.
“the blockade don’t keep out babies”: Diary of Miss Emma Holmes, 266.
“One looks at a man so differently”: Wayne, Women’s Roles, 8.
“See here, my lad”: Edmonds, Nurse and Spy, 313.
rebel forces at Danville: OR, ser. 1, 23:168.
“Well, you will not have to wait long”: Edmonds, Nurse and Spy, 314.
“to cancel all obligations”; “graceful curve of his mustache”: Ibid., 316–17.
Bread or Blood
On March 27 Jefferson Davis declared: Portland Daily Advertiser, March 9, 1863.
better dinner than usual: Van Lew, “Occasional Journal.”
In Atlanta a dozen women: Fowler and Parker, Breaking the Heartland, 161.
his wife and children were emaciated: Jones, Rebel War Clerk’s Diary, 381.
“the luxury of mule meat and fricasseed kitten”: John Wright, Language of the Civil War, iv.
remains of the girl’s pet bird: Loughborough, My Cave Life, 137.
“Alas for the suffering of the very poor!”: Van Lew, “Occasional Journal.”
“That’s all there’s left of me!”: Furgurson, Ashes of Glory, 193.
“catch something from them poor white folks”: Ibid.
“Bread or blood!”: Davis, Virginia at War, 89.
“abstain from their lawless acts”: Varina Davis, Jefferson Davis, 375.
“You say you are hungry”: Ibid.
“The Union!”: New York Times, April 5, 2013.
“We do not desire to injure anyone”: Varina Davis, Jefferson Davis, 375.
“order your men to load”: Richmond Dispatch, December 16, 1888.
“if this street is not cleared”: Ibid.
“This demonstration was made use of”: Brock Putnam, Richmond During the War, 209.
“devilish and secret motives”: Varon, Southern Lady, Yankee Spy, 104.
“glaringly incongruous”; $500 cash: Richmond Examiner, April 13, 1863. Thomas McNiven boasted that “a lot of American dollars went into organizing the riots,” but Elizabeth Van Lew remained discreet, never referring to any of the defendants by name; McNiven, “Recollections.”
“drearily”: Varina Davis, Jefferson Davis, 369.
“secession had made havoc of all female charms and graces”: Cincinnati Daily Enquirer, June 27, 1862.
“respond to the call of patriotism”: New York Times, April 17, 1863.
lost to convalescent camps: Bill Lewis, “Horses and Mules: Gap in Civil War Research,” Civil War Talk, May 1959.
“the present immobility of the army”: OR, ser. 1, 2:725.
mounted diminutive slaves: New York Times, May 8, 1864.
sending her nieces with baskets of fresh apples: Hall, e-mail, April 2012.
“thoroughly understood matters”: Van Lew, “Occasional Journal.”
A Wean That’s Born to Be Hung
“rejoice in the beauty”: Edmonds, Nurse and Spy, 317.
“I would not be permitted to go out again”: Ibid., 318. The conclusion of this mission is dubious; if a Union officer did recognize Emma, his first thought would probably have been that she was a Confederate double agent, not a Union spy.
“It is an auld saying”: Ibid., 129.
“far worse than death”: Hall, Patriots in Disguise, 92.
A shell had exploded randomly: Edmonds, Nurse and Spy, 358.
“soldierly qualities”: Fort Scott Monitor, January 17, 1884.
“a poor, cowardly, nervous”: Ibid.
“I passed most of the day with Frank”: Robbins, journal.
“A young woman wearing soldier’s apparel”: Louisville Daily Democrat, April 16, 1863.
around the night of April 17: By April 19, Frank Thompson was officially listed as a deserter on the regimental muster rolls.
A Dreadful Blow
“All my wounds are by my own men”: Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 19, 1863.
“If it was in my power to replace”: Chase, Story of Stonewall Jackson, 520.
A week later pneumonia had set in: Some historians argue that Jackson already had pneumonia before he was shot; there are accounts of him shivering and huddling near the fire, despite the reasonably mild weather.
“unable to think of anything”: Woodworth, Davis and Lee at War, 225.
“How is he?”: Ibid.
just as he’d always wanted: Selby, Stonewall Jackson, 209.
> “You must excuse me”: Woodworth, Davis and Lee at War, 225.
striking across the Potomac: Cooper, Jefferson Davis, American, 468.
“It is not for me to trace”: Boyd, In Camp and Prison, 217.
“She was a brilliant talker”: Avary, Virginia Girl in the Civil War, 52.
“Like General Johnston, I can fight”: New York Herald, February 24, 1863.
the wound was minor: Boyd, In Camp and Prison, 216.
“Please telegh if Gen. Jackson”: Robertson, Civil War Virginia, 757.
“The last scene in a stupid farce”: Richmond Whig, July 3, 1863.
“Was Property of Belle Boyd”: Martinsburg Evening Journal, December 26, 1916.
“’Tis said Belle Boyd is in town”: Buck, Sad Earth, Sweet Heaven, 209.
“Oh, here comes de Yankees”: Boyd, In Camp and Prison, 225.
“General Kelly commanded me”: Ibid., 226.
“Good morning”: Ibid., 227.
bothered again: Ibid., 227.
“abdominal binding”: Selin and Stone, Childbirth Across Cultures, 210.
“Doctors are gentlemen”: Hager, Demon Under the Microscope, 119.
“Know who that is?”: Coffin, Stories of Our Soldiers, 47.
“send a dagger”: Boyd, In Camp and Prison, 228.
“room for distinguished guests”: Ibid., 231.
she loosened a brick from her windowsill: Diary of Henry T. Bahnson, Bahnson Papers.
“I never for a moment considered myself”: Hall, Patriots in Disguise, 92.
“Do you know I have learned”: Robbins, journal.
“We are having quite a time at the expense”: Boston, Diary.
female friends: Emma Edmonds to Jerome Robbins, Robbins Papers.
“Dear Jerome”: Ibid.
Anna had told him she intended: Gansler, Mysterious Private Thompson, 185.
“I received a letter from my friend”: Robbins, journal.
No One Ignorant of the Danger
“the instincts of cows”: Davis, The Man and His Hour, 428.
casualties stretching fourteen miles: Blackman, Wild Rose, 254.
“foolish and disastrous”; “utter want of generalship”: Thomas, Robert E. Lee, cxvi.