• Dressed as a man to become a CIVIL WAR SPY
• As a child she learned how to do jobs that were typically reserved for boys, like hunting and riding, because her only brother suffered from epilepsy
• Escaped home by WALKING to Connecticut -- from CANADA!! -- when her father wanted to marry her off to their neighbor who was many years her senior
• Assumed the identity of a man, Franklin Thompson, and reveled in her freedom as a man, moving about unescorted and earning her living selling Bibles
• Still in her male disguise, she joined the United States Army when the Civil War began, serving as a nurse and mail carrier
• When a Union spy was killed in the line of duty, she volunteered to take his place, but her superiors didn't think she would be good enough at disguising herself (LOL), so she proved her abilities by leaving camp and returning a few days later, portraying herself as a Black man so effectively that no one recognized her
• Assumed many personas during her time as a spy, bringing crucial information about the Confederate army back with her
• No one guessed her true identity, although she did reveal herself to one soldier with whom she'd fallen in love; he refused her affections, but didn't betray her trust
• Finally, in need of medical attention and unwilling to let the on-site physician know her secret, she was forced to abandon her unit and go to a civilian hospital
• Franklin Thompson was labeled a deserter and would have been killed if "he" had returned to duty, so Edmonds resumed her true identity and wrote a successful memoir about her experiences in the war, donating much of the profits to the war effort (including the United States Sanitary Commission, founded by Emily & Elizabeth Blackwell)
• Desiring to clear Franklin's name, as well as collect the pension she deserved, she arrived at her division's reunion as herself and confessed her disguise. With their testimonials praising her courage and dedication, she was awarded a monthly pension, with back pay, and an honorable discharge, with the desertion charge removed from Franklin Thompson's record.
• ONLY woman admitted to the Grand Army of the Republic (a Civil War Union Army veterans' organization), and the ONLY woman buried in a Civil War veterans cemetery

Public Domain Photo via Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography: Maggs, Sam. Wonder Women: 25 Innovators, Inventors, and Trailblazers Who Changed History. Philadelphia: Quirk Books, 2016. Print.

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