I first started researching female spies when
writing Sam’s Legacy, book 4 in my MacLarens of Boundary Mountain series. The
subject was so fascinating, I decided it deserved a blog post of its own.
During the turbulent, bloody years of the Civil War,
1861 to 1865, hundreds of daring ladies risked their lives as spies. Here are a
few of their stories.
Rose O'Neal Greenhow
Confederate
spy, Rose O'Neal Greenhow, nicknamed Wild Rose, was a darling of Washington,
D.C. society. As a charming hostess to politicians and diplomats, she made a
great spy and became the ringleader of a network of anti-Union spies, who forwarded
coded messages. Rose even hid one message in her courier’s hair. This intel
enabled Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard to gather enough forces to win the First Battle
of Bull Run.
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| Rose O'Neal |
In 1861,
Allan Pinkerton, who was head of the secret service, raided Rose’s home and
held her and her eight-year-old daughter, little Rose, under house arrest.
Later, Rose went to prison, but after her release in 1862, Jefferson Davis sent
her on a diplomatic mission to Europe. While there, Rose not only charmed
Napoleon III and Queen Victoria, she became engaged to a British aristocrat,
and also published her memoirs.
As she sailed
back to America in 1864, Rose's ship encountered Union forces and her boat went
down off the coast of North Carolina. She tried to escape in a rowboat but it was
weighed down by gold for the Confederate treasury. Rose drowned when her
lifeboat capsized.
Harriet Tubman
Union spy,
Harriet Tubman started an espionage ring of former slaves, who sneaked behind
Confederate lines, posing as servants or slaves to gather military
intelligence. Tubman was also the first woman in US history to lead a military
expedition. In 1863 Tubman and several
hundred black soldiers traveled upriver in gunboats, destroyed a Confederate
supply depot, and freed over 750 slaves.
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| Harriet Tubman |
Later, Tubman
was a key figure in the suffrage movement. Tubman tried to collect $1,800 for
her spy services but the government only paid her $20 a month.
Pauline Cushman
Pauline
Cushman was the stage name of actress Harriot Wood, who became a Union spy. In 1863,
while she was on tour in Kentucky, some Confederate officers dared her to
interrupt her show to toast Jefferson Davis and the Confederacy.
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| Pauline Cushman |
Pauline
contacted the Union’s local provost marshal and offered to perform the toast as
a type of initiation for spying for the Union. The marshal agreed. Pauline gathered
intel on enemy operations, identified Confederate spies and served as a federal
courier before she was caught with General Braxton Bragg’s battle plans tucked
in her shoe. Pauline was sentenced to hang but was saved by the arrival of
Union forces at Shelbyville. She received commendations and the rank of
Brevet-Major from President Lincoln and James Garfield, a Union general at the
time.
After the war, Pauline
returned to her acting career, performing monologues on her exploits during the
war.
Belle Boyd
Confederate
spy, Belle Boyd was born to a prominent Virginia family in 1843. At the age of
17, she was arrested for shooting a drunken Union soldier who broke into her
family home and insulted her mother, but she was cleared of all charges. Belle
used her beauty and charm to beguile union officers into divulging information she
then passed on to the Confederacy. To put a stop to her covert activities,
Union officials sent Belle to live with relatives in Front Royal, Virginia in a
hotel taken over by Union officers. She eavesdropped on the officer’s meetings
through a hole in a door. The intel she provided enabled Stonewall Jackson to win
battles in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1862.
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| Belle Boyd |
Belle was
arrested by Union forces and sent to Old Capitol Prison, but she was released a
month later and was deported to Richmond. Soon, she was caught behind federal
lines and imprisoned for three more months. Belle then tried to sail for
England in 1864 to serve as a Confederate courier, but she was intercepted by Union
naval officer, Samuel Hardinge, who fell in love with the alluring spy. He
helped her escape to London, where they wed, but he died shortly afterward. Belle
remained in England to compose her memoirs and launch a successful acting career.
She later returned to America, where she continued acting, married twice more,
and delivered lectures across the country on her clandestine experiences.
Elizabeth Van Lew
Union spy, Elizabeth
Van Lew, was raised in a wealthy slave-holding family in Richmond, Virginia.
She developed strong abolitionist sympathies after attending a Quaker school in
Philadelphia. When her father died in 1843, Elizabeth convinced her brother to
free their slaves. When war broke out, Elizabeth and her mother visited Union prisoners
of war in Richmond’s Libby Prison. She helped men escape, smuggled letters for
them, and gathered valuable information about Confederate strategy from both
prisoners and guards.
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| Elizabeth Van Lew |
In late 1863,
Union General Benjamin Butler recruited Elizabeth as a spy. She ran an entire
espionage network based in Richmond. With the help of her servants, Elizabeth sent
coded messages using invisible ink and hid the dispatches in hollowed-out eggs and
vegetables. When the war ended, General Ulysses S. Grant appointed Elizabeth postmaster
of Richmond. She had spent her family’s entire wealth on espionage activities,
so the family of a Union officer she’d assisted during the war, the grandson of
Paul Revere, provided for her until her death.
Antonia Ford
Confederate
spy, Antonia Ford, was born to a wealthy Virginia family. At 23, Antonia
gathered information from Union soldiers occupying her hometown. She provided intel
to Confederate general J.E.B. Stuart, who rewarded Antonia with an honorary
commission as aide-de-camp.
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| Antonio Ford |
In 1863, Antonia
was accused of spying for John Singleton Mosby, whose rangers captured Union General
Edwin H. Stoughton in his headquarters. The Secret Service suspected that Antonia
was involved in planning the attack because she and Stoughton had spent time
together. The Secret Service sent a female operative, pretending to be a
Confederate sympathizer, to meet with Antonia, who showed her Stuart’s
commission. Antonia was arrested and they found smuggled papers on her.
After several
months in prison, Antonia was released due to the petition of Union Major
Joseph C. Willard—one of her captors. Willard resigned from the Union Army and married
Antonia, who took an oath of allegiance to the United States. The couple’s son,
Joseph Edward Willard, later became lieutenant governor of Virginia and the US ambassador
to Spain.
Sam’s Legacy, book 4 in the MacLarens
of Boundary Mountain series is available at these online retailers.
You may also buy direct from Shirleen before
the formal release date at:
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