What’s been largely lost to history is how remarkably influential women were to the course of the Civil War-from its beginning to its end. Without Rose O’Neal Greenhow’s masterfully run spy ring, the Union might have ended the months-old war with a swift victory over the Confederates in July 1861. Instead, the widow leaked Union plans to Confederate generals, allowing them to prepare and deliver a devastating Union loss at the First Battle of Bull Run, also known as the First Battle of Manassas, which caused the war to drag out for four more years. ![]() ![]() Elizabeth Van Lew, another woman running a brilliant spy ring who also happened to be a feminist and a “spinster,” was instrumental to the fall of the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, on April 1, 1865, leading to Lee’s surrender eight days later. “Elizabeth Van Lew was probably the most valuable spy of the Civil War-male or female, North or South,” says author and historian Karen Abbott. ![]() Grant, and it’s astounding that she’s not a household name.” “She basically won the war for Ulysses S. Top: Confederate spy Belle Boyd, 17, in her riding gear, with gun in her belt, circa 1861.
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