She never identifies the company or the regiment of which it was a part and, in fact, no Confederate company at Ball's Bluff came remotely close to losing all of its officers. Her story falls apart right there.

But she also had claimed to have simply shown up in the Confederate camp some weeks before and obtained rations and quarters though she had no orders and no particular justification as an officers for being there.

No army works that way. The first thing the Confederate commander would have done is get some ID and ask for orders. He also would have checked on their legitimacy. Yet she claims simply to have been accepted and to have made herself a part of the Confederate brigade at Leesburg.

If the Ball's Bluff part of her story is so easily demolished, one must wonder how much truth there is in any part of it. In short, she was a liar and a fraud and may well have been crazy to boot.

As the review says, the meetings with all the top figures are too neat and tidy. She claims to have spotted Grant at Shiloh, but he had only been famous for about a month – certainly not an iconic face recognisable by Confederate troops. The battle scenes are vivid, but do not suggest the team-effort of regimental life. She sounds like a soloist.

The espionage sounds more believable, though it is hard to imagine real women falling in love with the little drag-artist behind her huge black moustache and beard.

A good spy is a good liar. So is a good fiction-writer.

Thank you, Loretta for adding to the mythology of the Civil War, if not to the authentic history.