Sarah Emma Edmonds (1841-1898) was born in Canada to a mother who seems to have doted upon her and a father who may have resented her for not being a boy. When she was 15 years old her abusive father tried to marry her off, so she decided to run away to hide from her family. She went to USA all by herself and then she turned into Franklin Thompson, at first pretending to be a bible salesman and then a bookseller from Michigan.
However, Sarah Emma was a strong supporter of the Union, so she made use of her male "pseudonym", Franklin, and joined the army, at first as a nurse, but later on as a spy.
In order to infiltrate the Confederate camp she once more changed her identity and became Cuff, a black man, by using silver nitrate to blacken her skin. People from the camp soon picked her up for work, but what they didn't know was that "Cuff" was all ears and spying eyes. In a few days she found out a lot about the Army, it's decoys and plans. When she escaped and returned to those she supported she had a lot of useful information, thus proving her worth as a spy. All in all she took part in eleven spy missions, some in new disguises, and at the end of the war (1865) she published a popular fictional account of her exploits as a spy.
In 1867 she married. At that time she had achieved full recognition and, as the only woman, was grafted a military pension from the Civil War. When she died in 1898 she was buried with honors at Washington Cemetery in Texas.
Wikipedia
Ingen kommentarer:
Send en kommentar