Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy | Summary

By Summary Station

It is easy to feel an overwhelming sense of empowerment while reading Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in The Civil War. In a time where women were considered the weaker or fairer sex, before they were given the vote, and in a time where they were expected to maintain a certain air of etiquette. These four women chose their own fates, involving themselves in a war which pitted neighbors against one another. Women of the time were expected to back their men up while remaining ignorant of the realities, from knitting and crocheting, to sewing socks, and making blankets for Confederate Soldiers, women were expected to remain in the background. However, with the men away and some eventually being killed, women had to take over running homes, farms and businesses. They had to make sure the slaves they owned carried on working in the fields, often using the threat of violence and sending men off to join the armies, humiliating those who said no, 'Sending a skirt and crinoline with a note saying “Wear these, or volunteer.”'
From Emily, who posed as a man for two years to get away from an overbearing father, to Belle the fiery young woman who did virtually anything she pleased without a care for the consequences. From Rose, who openly flaunted the rules in a tight lipped Union society, to Elizabeth, who conducted her undercover activities in the violent south (admittedly with a somewhat more covert attitude than Rose) Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in The Civil War leads you through the war from beginning to end. Charting how these women steered the fates of both the Union and Confederate armies, from individuals broken out of hell like prisons, to mass troop movements which helped one side or the other.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Summary Station
• Release date: Apr 17, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310450822

Summary Station

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Summary and Analysis of Karen Abbott’s

Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War

By Summary Station

Copyright © 2015 by Summary Station

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever

without the express written permission of the publisher

except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Printed in the United States of America

First Printing, 2015

Smashwords Edition

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

The Fate of Each Spy

Rose

Emma

Belle

Elizabeth

Analysis

Chapter 1

The first shots to be fired in the American Civil War took place in April, 1861 when Confederates fired on the federal Fort Sumter. Two months later, Bell Boyd (17) waited for the war to reach her home town of Martinsburg, situated at the lower edge of the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia. Around three and a half thousand Union Soldiers broke away from the larger, fifteen thousand man force and worked their way through the Blue Ridge Mountains. They then marched through the Shenandoah Valley to a place called Falling Waters where they were met by a small force of Confederates led by Colonel Thomas Jackson. He had just three hundred and eighty men and four cannons.

Belle's father, a forty five year old tobacco farmer and shop owner had volunteered as a private in Jackson's brigade, so she had a vested interest in how the battle and war were going. Jackson's small force was overwhelmed and beat the retreat, leaving only twenty one Yankees wounded and three dead. In Berkeley County, seven companies of soldiers, some for either side, had joined the war and now neighbors were fighting each other.

Initially Belle joined the other women in Martinsburg, supporting their soldiers by making clothing and fund raising activities to buy supplies. However, Belle took it one step further by taking groups of women to Confederate camps where they socialized with the soldiers who might be dead the