Wild Rose tells the story of Rose O'Neal Greenhow, the beautiful Southern socialite who became a spy during the Civil War, using her high-powered relationships in Washington to pass critical information from Union insiders to her allies in the Confederate Army. Friends with the nation's most famous and powerful politicians, including Senators Calhoun and Webster, James and Dolley Madison, Jefferson Davis and President Van Buren, Rose had incredible access to military intelligence and her secret communications to the Confederacy directly affected the war, and troop movements of both the Northern and Southern Armies.

In addition to chronicling Rose's dramatic career as a spy - revealing how she loosened tongues and strategically seduced important figures - Wild Rose paints a portrait of Washington D.C. during the Civil War. You feel you are walking around Washington, as this vivid work shows how upper-level political battles were played out in Washington social circles, and how the intense debate over slavery affected daily life in the capital. Blackman's portrayal of Rose's dramatic personal life enhances the chronicle of her wild career. From her earliest days on a Maryland tobacco plantation where her father was murdered by a slave, to her drowning at sea following a mission to Europe for the Confederacy, Rose's life was full of passion, inventiveness, and drama. In Wild Rose, Ann Blackman treats us to a superbly-researched and wonderfully readable portrait of a unique and influential woman, renowned for her beauty and her tenacity, who played an extraordinary role in this nation's early history.