Although not nearly as discussed as the battles and generals of the war, both the Union and the Confederacy engaged in robust programs of espionage during the US Civil War. These nineteenth century spies engaged in cloak and dagger activities worthy of 007, including a brazen attack on November 25, 1864 on the Union’s largest city.
During the civil war, the manufacture of powder and explosives was often handled by the most vulnerable, young women and children, whose labor was needed when so many men had been sent off to war. On March 13, 1863, the confederacy experienced a munitions disaster, in the confederate capitol of Richmond.