cover image Stealing Secrets: How a Few Daring Women Changed the Fate of the Civil War

Stealing Secrets: How a Few Daring Women Changed the Fate of the Civil War

H. Donald Winkler, Cumberland, $18.99 (352p) ISBN 978-1402242748

In this breezy overview of 36 women who spied for the Confederacy and the Union, Winkler (Lincoln's Ladies) tells "stories of women spies…filled with suspense and seduction, treachery and trickery, romance and bravery." Divided into chapters on each woman, Winkler finds his heroines equally appealing, no matter what side they spied for. He strongly sympathizes with Mary Surratt, who became the first woman executed by the U.S. government; although many female spies were caught, their gender saved them (it was not considered moral to hang women). Winkler argues that Surratt "was not a spy and played no role on the night of [Lincoln's] assassination," but was hanged, along with three male collaborators of John Wilkes Booth, "primarily because of the dogged determination, vindictiveness, and unforgiving actions of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton." Winkler also includes an account of Harriet Tubman's services organizing slaves into a guerilla force behind enemy lines, but most of his stories are in a lighter vein, showing women using their charms to wheedle secrets from officers and soldiers. Although Winkler could have delved more deeply into gender issues in the 19th century, this effort entertains. (Sept.)