Civil War Spies
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| Thomas Jordan |
Spies like: Rose O'Neal Greenhow, Betty Duvall, and Elizabeth Van Lew, played key roles in the information battle during the Civil War. They were able to get information and send it to their side. Rose O'Neal Greenhow and Timothy Webster were just two of many captured and imprisoned spies during the Civil War.
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| Rose O'Neal Greenhow |
Rose O'Neal Greenhow was just one of Thomas Jordan's spies, that used the "Secret Line" to pass information to the Confederates. She pasted information, about the First Battle of Bull Run, to the Confederates lines, using another spy named Betty
Duvall, who dressed as a farm girl to pass the Union sentinels. However, after a baffling win at First Bull Run, Allen Pinkerton put Rose under surveillance and later arrested her. She was held at Old Capitol
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| Elizabeth Van Lew |
Prison, until June 1862 when she was released and sent to
Richmond.
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| Betty Duvall |
Another female spy during the Civil War was Elizabeth Van Lew. She was an Union spy, who ran espionage operations out of her farm house. She became a spy in December of 1863, after two soldiers, she had helped, told General Benjamin Butler about her aid. From there she became head of Butler's spy network and his chief source of information. Her first dispatch was on January 30, 1864, to inform General Butler that the Confederates were planning to move prisoners to Andersonville Prison from Richmond's overcrowded prisons. However, the Confederates were warned by a Union soldier on their payroll. Throughout the war, she send other warnings to the
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| Timothy Webster |
Union generals, including: Ulysses S. Grant and George B. McClellan.
Timothy Webster, an English born immigrant, was the first US double spy. In February of 1861, Timothy got his first test of being a spy. While, he and Abraham Lincoln were in Baltimore, Maryland, Timothy learned of an assassination plot of the soon to be President Lincoln by the secessionist group, "Sons of Liberty". Later that year, McClellan hired Timothy as a Union Spy. He was sent to the Confederate states of Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Kentucky to report gathered information. While in these states, he made valuable relationships with several prominent individual. He also reported about the Confederate's preparations. Soon after he had to make an exit, saying he needed to go to Richmond. Before he went to Richmond, he went back to Baltimore to get even more information from his "friends" in the "Son of Liberty". From Baltimore Timothy when to Richmond to ingratiate into the the Richmond society. His seamless ingratiation allowed Timothy to attract the attention of Confederate Secretary of War, Judah P. Benjamin. Soon after, Benjamin recruited Timothy as a courier for the Confederate's "Secret Line". This allowed Timothy to forward information to Pinkerton and the Union generals as he rode, about Confederate spies in/around Washington and Confederate movements/plans. Then in February 1862, Timothy fell ill with inflammatory rheumatism. This lead to the mistakes that would eventually cost Timothy Webster, his life. He would latter be tried and convicted of being a Union spy. His sentence was death by hanging. Timothy Webster died on April 29, 1862, after the first rope broke.
