Panchita Sánchez Miot, Confederate Spy
During the US Civil War at the Battle at Horse Landing on May 22, 1864, Confederate soldiers were assisted by Cuban-born immigrant Panchita Sánchez Miot. Sánchez and her sisters spied for the Confederacy, and the local Union intelligence never suspected that the little brown women were outwitting them. On a balmy night in May, Union officers visited the Sánchez family home in Palatka, Florida. Sánchez overheard them discussing a raid against the Confederacy. She hiked over to the Confederate camp, and warned Captain John Jackson Dickison of the raid. The Confederates defeated the Union soldiers in a surprise attack, and also captured the USS Columbine, a Union ship. The Confederates named a pontoon for Sánchez and her sisters, christening the vessel as “The Three Sisters”. After the Civil War, Sánchez married a Confederate officer and lived in South Carolina.
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