Antonia Ford Antonia Ford ( July 23 , 1838 – February 14 , 1871 ) was a volunteer civilian spy for the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War . Biography . Antonia Ford was born at Fairfax Court House , Virginia . She was a daughter of a prominent local merchant and ardent secessionist named Edward R . Ford . Before going to the Buckingham Female Collegiate Institute in Buckingham , Virginia , she attended nearby Coombe Cottage , a private finishing school for girls . As Union forces occupied the Fairfax region in mid - 1861 , Ford circulated among the officers and garnered valuable intelligence about troop strengths and planned movements , which she passed along to Brigadier General J . E . B . Stuart , in whose artillery her brother served . She also spied for John S . Mosby , a noted partisan ranger . Stuart , grateful for her service and appreciate of the information he had received , designated Ford as an honorary aide - de - camp on October 7 , 1861 . In early 1863 , Ford was betrayed by a Union counterspy named Frankie Abel , whom she had befriended and shown the document bearing Stuart ' s signature . Ford was subsequently arrested on March 13 and incarcerated in Washington , D . C . at the Old Capitol Prison . She was accused of playing a prominent role in the capture of Union general Edwin H . Stoughton , but Colonel Mosby and others later denied her complicity , and no evidence of her guilt could be found . She was released and exchanged seven days later . However , she was arrested in Fairfax by Major Joseph Willard ( 1820 – 1897 ) and sent back to Old Capitol Prison . She took the Oath of Allegiance and subsequently married her captor on March 10 , 1864 . The couple had three children . Antonia Ford Willard died in Washington , D . C . in 1871 as an indirect result of health issues stemming from her captivity . Her husband ( who later became Lieutenant Governor of Virginia ) never remarried . Film . The 2007 made - for - television docudrama , " Now & Forever Yours : Letters to an Old Soldier " , artistically recounts the courtship of Antonia Ford and Major Joseph Clapp Willard . It was written and directed by Steven Fischer . In the film , Ford and Willard recount from an ethereal netherworld the events of their two - year affair . This narrative is dramatically illustrated with scenes of the courtship filmed in and around Fairfax , Virginia , where the actual romance took place . " Now & Forever Yours : Letters to an Old Soldier " was a critical success , winning , among others , an Emmy Award nomination for cinematography . The dialogue between the lovers was taken directly from the couple ’ s surviving letters . The movie starred Katie Tschida and Winston Shearin . In 2009 , BLM Productions released a feature - length docudrama , " Spies in Crinoline , " which recounts the intersecting lives of spies Antonia Ford and Laura Ratcliffe . The screenplay , adapted from Karla Vernon ' s " The Spy in Crinoline " and numerous primary sources , intersperses dramatic sequences shot on - location in Fairfax County , Virginia , with period images , narration , and interviews with historians . Directed by Bert Morgan , it stars Emily Lapisardi as Antonia Ford , Gregory Labenz as Joseph Willard , Becci Varga as Laura Ratcliffe , and Joe Cain as General J . E . B . Stuart .