First published in 1865, Belle Boyd’s memoir of her experiences as a Confederate spy has stood the test of time and interest. Belle first gained notoriety when she killed a Union soldier in her home in 1861. During the Federal occupations of the Shenandoah Valley, she mingled with the servicemen and, using her feminine wiles, obtained useful information for the Rebel cause.

In this new edition, Kennedy-Nolle and Faust consider the domestic side of the Civil War and also assess the value of Boyd's memoir for social and literary historians in its challenge to our understanding the most divisive years in American history.

Sharon Kennedy-Nolle is completing her Ph.D. at the University of Iowa.Drew Gilpin Faust is Annenberg Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of several books.

Drew Gilpin Faust is professor of American civilization at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the editor of The Ideology of Slavery: The Proslavery Argument in the Old South, 1830-1860 and author of James Henry Hammond and the Old South: A Design for Mastery, which received the Charles S. Syndor Award and the Jules F. Landry Award.