First Edition LIFE OF PAULINE CUSHMAN. The Civil War Women Spy, FIRST EDITION. 1865

Pauline Cushman

First Edition

[Civil War] [Women History] [Biography] LIFE OF PAULINE CUSHMAN. THE CELEBRATED UNION SPY AND SCOUT. Carefully Prepared from Her Notes by F. L. SARMIENTO, ESQ. FIRST EDITION. Original, Bright, Clean, Solidly Bound,Handsome Cover Design with Gold Gilded Background Lettering and Frontispiece and Facsimile Signature of Cushman and Numerous Other Illustrations. PUBLISHED BY JOHN E. POTTER AND COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA, IN 1865. first edition biography on this extraordinary, female spy from the Civil War. 374 pages plus 10 pages of publisher advertisements.

Pauline Cushman (Born Harriet Wood) was a spy for the Union Army. While touring with a theatrical troupe in Union-controlled Louisville, Kentucky, she was paid to toast Confederate President Jefferson Davis after a performance. The theatre fired her, but she had other ideas. She had decided to ingratiate herself with the rebels by making the toast, while offering her services to the Union as a spy. By fraternizing with the rebel military commanders, she managed to conceal battle plans and drawings in her shoes. This book outlines here activities as a spy, active in the western theater. She eventually was caught and tried by a military court, and sentenced to death. It is said that she was saved three days before her hanging by the invasion of the area by Union troops. She was awarded the rank of Brevet-Major by General Garfield, commended by President Lincoln for her service to the union cause.

Item #16040

Price: $225.00