There is a woman I learned of here on Mastodon a few months ago named #SarahEmmaEdmonds whose story is absolutely AMAZING!
She dressed up as a man to be in the Union Army. She was soldier, a spy, a double agent spy against the Confederate Army, and an army nurse. She even went as far as to darken her skin with silver nitrate to go undercover into Confederate territory disguised as a male slave.
"When a Union agent was hanged for spying, she volunteered to take his place. Though interviewed by a panel of high-ranking officers for the dangerous work, she still managed to conceal her true sex. Ever resourceful, she shaved her head, blackened her skin with silver nitrate, donned a plantation suit and a curly black wig, and passed into the Confederate camp at Yorktown as a slave answering to the name 'Cuff'."
At age 48, decades after her service, she moved to Texas and lived in LaPorte. Eight years later she passed away, was buried with military honors and is the only #woman buried in the Grand Army of the Republic section of Washington Cemetery in #Houston, Texas.
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