Sarah Emma Edmonds (1841–1898) was born in New Brunswick, Canada and in the 1850s emigrated to the United States because of her ‘insatiable thirst for education,’ in her own words. On the outbreak of war she organized a door-to-door appeal for hospital supplies from the householders of Washington. She enlisted in the Union army dressed as a man and saw a number of battles at first hand. Apart from serving as a field nurse, she joined the Union secret service after a number of tests including a phrenological examination to check her ‘organs of secretiveness.’ Disguised as an African American ‘contraband,’ she passed behind Southern lines to report on their fortifications, troop dispositions, etc. A further expedition involved disguising herself as an Irish peddler. She also served as a Union ‘detective,’ tracking and exposing spies in the Northern army. Fair Oaks, Virginia, was the site of two battles in 1862 during the Peninsula Campaign.

The following is taken from Edmonds’ Nurse and Spy in the Union Army: Comprising the Adventures and Experiences of a Woman in Hospitals, Camps, and Battle-Fields (Hartford, CT: W.S. Williams, etc. 1865). First published as The Female Spy of the Union Army (Boston: De Wolfe, Fiske, 1864).