Home » Education & Career » History For Children » The Moon Sisters

The Moon Sisters

© Mary M. Alward

Ginnie and Lottie Moon were born in Virginia. Their father, Robert S. Moon, was a prominent physician. His family tree dated back to Colonial Virginia. The family moved to Oxford, Ohio when the girls were still quite young.

As a young woman, Lottie was courted by Ambrose Burnside, a young man from Indiana. The couple parted ways, but would meet again during the Civil War.

Lottie married Jim Clark, a young man who would later become Judge Clark. Ginnie went to live with them when she left Oxford Female College.

When the Civil War broke out, it was a well-known fact that the Clarks were loyal to the Confederacy. The Moon sisters were southern to the core and sided with Jim.

Jim Clark, (now a judge) along with other loyal Confederates, were very active in the Knights of the Golden Circle - a southern spy ring. One day a courier (messenger) brought secret messages to the Clark household. The messages were to be delivered to Confederate General Kirby Smith.

Lottie told her husband she would deliver the messages to General Smith, in Kentucky. She dressed as an elderly woman, boarded a boat and was on her way. In Lexington, she gave the messages to Colonel Thomas Scott, who promised to get them to General Smith. Lottie boarded a train and made her way home.

Lottie began to deliver a lot of messages into the South. Her escapades were so successful that she was invited to Toronto by Canadian Confederate sympathizers. (Canadians who supported the South.)

At the time, Ginnie was in Memphis tending to their sick mother. Ginnie began passing through Union lines to deliver messages to the Confederates.

Ginnie and her mother eventually traveled to Ohio to take an urgent message to the Knights of the Golden Circle. They delivered the dispatch and picked up papers to take to the Confederates in Tennessee. When confronted by a Union Captain, Ginnie held him at gunpoint while she literally ate the message.

Ginnie and her mother were taken to a hotel and put under house arrest. When searched by a maid, medical supplies for the Confederate Army was found on her person.

When Lottie found out that her mother and sister had been arrested for spying, she dressed in disguise and went to General Ambrose Burnside, her old beau, and tried to convince him to release them. Instead, he arrested her.

The Moons sisters and their mother could have faced a firing squad, had they been found guilty of spying for the Confederacy, but instead, all charges were dropped.

The copyright of the article The Moon Sisters in History For Children is owned by . Permission to republish The Moon Sisters in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.