Women as Spies in the Civil War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Women as Spies in the Civil War - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that although the role of espionage has been admitted to be a very important factor through the entire course of the American Civil War in most historical records, it has been denied the deserving respect in terms of detailed narratives elaborating upon the actual significance of the roles played by spies. This holds true even more in case of women who served as undercover agents.   The author has rightly presented that this unavailability of detailed mention in records results primarily from the nature of the job itself. Often, records would be destroyed to protect the identities of the agents by themselves or by other officials. So, the historian addressing this issue would have to seek out often intentionally obscured and carefully camouflaged tracks by the agents themselves, officials of both the governments and last but not the least, time. The paper tells that proper chronicling of Civil War intelligence activities is thus a strenuo us challenge due to the absence of records, the absence of access to records, and also the dubiousness of the available records. The confederacy’s state secretary, Judah P. Benjamin burned all records related to intelligence activities that he could find when the news of the Federal troops entering Richmond came. On the other hand, till 1953, Intelligence records belonging to the Union were kept sealed in the National archives.