In the early days of the Revolution many Philadelphia women passed key information along to General Washington at Valley Forge. Lydia Barrington Darragh spied on the British in Philadelphia and informed American officers.

Two Loyalists - a "Miss Jenny" and Ann Bates spied on the Americans for the British.

All up and down the east coast women spied for the cause. Ann Trotter Bailey carried messages across enemy territory in 1774.

Sarah Bradlee Fulton ,sometimes called the "mother of the Boston Tea Party," delivered dispatches through enemy lines.

Emily Geiger rode 50 miles through British and Tory enemy territory to deliver a message to General Sumter.

During the Civil War Belle Boyd spied for the Confederacy by carrying important letters and papers across enemy lines. She was imprisoned in a Union prison for her espionage activities. Ironically, before the war ended, Belle Boyd married a Captain Harding, a Union naval officer.


The story of Ginnie and Lottie Moon is a fascinating one - two sisters who cleverly and brazenly spied for the Confederates during the Civil War - and got away with it

Nancy Hart served as a Confederate scout, guide and spy, carrying messages between the Southern Armies. She hung around isolated Federal outposts, acting as a peddlar,to report their strength, population and vulnerability to General Jackson

Nancy was twenty years old when she was captured by the Yankees and jailed in a dilapidated house with guards constantly patrolling the building. Nancy gained the trust of one of her guards, got his weapon from him, shot him and escaped. After the war Nancy married Joshua Douglas and settled in Virgina

Elizabeth Van Lew asked to be allowed to visit Union prisoners held by the Confederates in Richmond and began taking them food and medicines. She realized that many of the prisoners had been marched through Confederate lines on their way to Richmond and were full of useful information about Confederate movements. She became a spy for the North for the next four years, setting up a network of couriers, and devising a code. For her efforts during the Civil War, Elizabeth Van Lew was made Postmaster of Richmond by General Grant. After she died, in appreciation of her loyalty to her country, the people of Massachusetts had a gravestone erected on her grave which read, "She risked everything that is dear to man - friends, fortune, comfort, health, life itself, all for the one absorbing desire of her heart- that slavery might be abolished and the Union preserved

Though best know for her work in freeing slaves, after the outbreak of the Civil War, Harriet Tubman also served as a soldier, spy, and a nurse, for a time serving at Fortress Monroe, where Jefferson Davis would later be imprisoned. Her experience leading slaves along the Underground Railroad was particularly helpful because she knew the landscape so well. She recruited a group of former slaves to scout the locations of rebel camps and report on the movement of the Confederate troops. In 1863, she actually went with Colonel James Montgomery and several black soldiers on a gunboat raid in South Carolina. Because Harriet Tubman had inside information from her scouts, the Union gunboats were able to surprise the Confederate rebels

Rose O'Neal Greenhow was a leader in Washington society and one of the most renowned spies in the Civil War. She is credited with helping General Pierre G.T. Beauregard win the battle of Bull Run. She spied so well for the Confederacy that Jefferson Davis credited her with winning the battle of Manassas. Rose O'Neal Greenhow was imprisoned for her efforts first on "house arrest" in her own home and then in Washington, D.C.s Old Capital Prison for five months. After her second prison term, she was exiled to the Confederate states where she received a heroines welcome by Confederate President Jefferson Davis