Behind Rebel Lines: The Incredible Story of Emma Edmonds, Civil War Spy

In Flint, Michigan, men joke while waiting in line to enlist in the Union Army. Among them is 21-year-old Emma Edmonds, silent, hoping her ruse works and grateful that the recruiters skip physical exams—so great is the need for soldiers. Recruitment posters everywhere call for 75,000 men—and milliners, miners, farmers, dockhands, and office clerks pour in. Emma knows women contribute to the war effort (making uniforms and flags or working in a hospital or canteen) but wants to do more.

Emma’s urge to join the military stems at least partly from her past. While growing up in St. John, Canada, she endured constant ridicule from her father (who’d always wanted a son) for what he perceived as constitutional weakness. She worked hard to please him, to no avail. When she was 16, her mother passed away, and his cruelty increased, so she fled. She immigrated to the US because she saw it as better supporting principles like freedom and liberty.

Now she wants to protect what her adopted country represents to her. While living in Flint, Michigan she struck upon the idea to dress as a man and enlist in the Union Army: “There was a kind of imp voice inside her, pushing her to take risks. It was the same voice that, years before, had dared her to climb the highest trees on the farm, to ride the most dangerous horses, to swim the river raging wild after the spring floods” (5). Emma is about to prove herself the match of any man. Fortunately, the Union recruitment supervisors don’t question her suspicious appearance and register her as a volunteer under the name Private Franklin Thompson.

Emma’s—that is, Private Thompson’s—volunteer group is now in Virginia for basic training. (To convey her transformation, the narrative begins using the male pronoun “he” to refer to her.) Although the Union has assigned Private Thompson to the hospital unit as a nurse, everyone must undergo the same training and learn how to handle weapons.

Emma is grateful for the privacy she gains because she sleeps in the hospital instead of in the barracks with the men. She’s developed a distant rapport with the other soldiers, and her false identity remains intact: “She would leave war strategy to others—she was content. Her disguise was working, the imp voice was silent, and she was having her moment in history” (17-18).

The next day, Emma learns that the Union has transferred an old friend of hers from Boston, James Vesey, to her company. She excitedly goes in search of him only to discover that he was shot the night before while on a routine patrol. Emma is devastated: “Until this morning she’d been satisfied being Frank Thompson, Union field nurse. Now it all seemed so trivial. She had a fierce need to do more, to strike a real blow for the cause. She wanted to avenge James’s death—she had to. But how?” (28).

Distraught, Emma wanders past the chaplain’s cabin, where she meets his wife, Mrs. Butler. The older woman is kind and sympathetic as Emma speaks of her dead friend. Emma then pours out the story of her false identity. Though shocked by the disclosure, Mrs. Butler is supportive and agrees to keep Emma’s secret. Later that night, Emma resolves to take a more active role in the war after hearing that the Union is looking for spies to work behind enemy lines.

Emma confides her scheme to Mrs. Butler. Surprisingly, the older woman agrees to help. She has her husband, the chaplain, recommend Emma for spy work. A senior officer panel questions Emma and clears her for the assignment.

She then devises an ideal way to fool the enemy—by posing as an enslaved person: “There were slaves everywhere—useful, but totally ignored. To rebel eyes, all slaves were faceless beings, invisible men who were hardly ever noticed. It was the perfect disguise” (33).

Emma buys a wooly wig from a minstrel show in Washington and tints her skin black with silver nitrate. When her disguise is complete, even her former boss in the hospital unit doesn’t recognize her. Under the cover of darkness, an officer escorts the disguised Emma out of the camp.

Once beyond the protection of the Union Army, Emma stands contemplating the enemy’s campfires across the open zone: “Emma felt a creeping fear. Up till now, she’d hardly had time to fret or even think. She’d been too busy fantasizing and playacting. Now it was different—now her survival was at stake” (42).