Celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month: Lola Sanchez, Confederate Spy

Lola Sanchez, born in 1844 in Armstrong, Florida, and her two sisters became spies for the Confederate Army during the Civil War.  Their father had been falsely accused being a Confederate spy and imprisoned by the Union Army.  Officers from the Union Army occupied the Sanchez residence.  

On May 21, 1864, Lola overhead the officers planning a raid on the Confederate forces.  After telling her sisters what she heard, she decided to notify Captain John Jackson Dickison, a commander of Confederate force 2nd Florida Cavalry in Camp Davis, only a mile and a half from their home.  Lola's sisters covered for her in her absence that night.  

Lola met with Capt. Dickison and told him what she heard.  She returned home, having been gone for only an hour and a half.

Capt. Dickison set a trap and waited for the arrival of a Union transport and gunboat. On May 22, they ambushed the Union forces when they arrived.  The confrontation became known as the Battle of Horse Landing.

Lola and her sisters continued spying for the Confederate army throughout the Civil War.