Nurse and Spy in the Union Army; The Adventures and Experiences of a Woman in Hospitals, Camps, and Battle-Fields

Hartford, CT: W. S. Williams & Co, 1865. Presumed First printing thus. Hardcover. fair. [2], 384, [2] pages. Frontis. Illustrations. Boards worn, top and bottom edges of spine threadbare, foxing to text. Sarah Emma Edmonds (December 1841 - September 5, 1898), was a Canadian-born woman who is known for serving as a man with the Union Army during the American Civil War. A purported master of disguise, Edmonds exploits were described in the bestselling Nurse, Soldier, and Spy. In 1992, she was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame. During the Civil War, on May 25, 1861, she enlisted in Company F of the 2nd Michigan Infantry, also known as the Flint Union Greys. On her second try, she disguised herself as a man named "Franklin Flint Thompson," the middle name possibly after the city she volunteered in, Flint, Michigan. She felt that it was her duty to serve her country and was truly patriotic towards her new country. Extensive physical examinations were not required for enlistment at the time, and she was not discovered. She at first served as a male field nurse, participating in several campaigns under General McClellan, including the First and Second Battle of Bull Run, Antietam, the Peninsula Campaign, Vicksburg, Fredericksburg, and others. In 1864, Boston publisher DeWolfe, Fiske, & Co. published Edmonds' account of her military experiences as The Female Spy of the Union Army. One year later, her story was picked up by a Hartford, CT publisher who issued it with a new title, Nurse and Spy in the Union Army. It was a huge success, selling in excess of 175,000 copies. Edmonds donated the profits from her memoir to "various soldiers' aid organization." Edmonds became a lecturer after her story became public in 1883. In 1886, she received a government pension of $12 a month for her military service, and after some campaigning, was able to have the charge of desertion dropped, and receive an honorable discharge. In 1897, she became the only woman admitted to the Grand Army of the Republic, the Civil War Union Army veterans' organization.