Described as a Southern belle, her politics shifted from pro-Union or neutral during the Civil War, after the Union seized her family's hotel to serve as the Mansion House Hospital.

[1] She grew up in the Carlyle House in Alexandria[2] along with her older sister Lydia, her mother Jane Muir Green, and her father James.

The family also owned the Green & Brother furniture factory, which when the Civil War reached the outskirts of Alexandria in 1860, was confiscated as a prison for Union deserters.

[4] Green's family initially had pro-Union sympathies due to their manufacturing background, but increasingly sided with the Confederates as the Civil War progressed.

[1] Green's own politics shifted from pro-Union or neutral during the Civil War, possibly influenced by the strong Confederate leanings of her fiance.

[6] Enlisting in the Confederate Army at the start of the war, in January 1862, Stringfellow was sent to spy in Alexandria under the guise of a dental assistant.

[3] At one point in April, in the dentist office[3] Green incidentally encountered him and called him by name, but they succeeded in not raising suspicions.

[1] In one story told by Morton, one day "Stringfellow proceeded to Emma’s house alone but discovered Union officers occupying the upper levels.

"[1] Stringfellow again returned to Washington in March 1865, and reports say that Green moved to live with family friends in an effort to be closer to him.

[11] A fictionalized version of Emma Green is a key character in the series, serving as a nurse, and is played by Hannah James.

[12] Through local friends, James contacted great-great-grandchildren of Green's, who shared relics, clothing, and stories that had belonged to her.