Civil War Spies

Changing the Course of War

Female Spies During the Civil War

Tammy Maxwell

2/22/2011

I had never given to much thought to the role played by women during early wars in the United States. That is until my fifth grade daughter had to do a school project on a Civil War era lady named Belle Boyd. While helping her research this person I discovered that women had a great deal to do with the outcome of the Civil War. Women from both the Union and Confederacy joined the war effort as nurses, aid workers, camp followers, and spies.

The most famous of the confederate civil war spies would have to be Rose O’Neal Greenhow. Rose was heavily involved in politics, she helping to arrange meetings between interested parties and helped others receive favors from legislators. She was a close friend of President Buchanan; he visited her at her home once a week. Rose was recruited not only to be a spy but to lead a spy ring located in Washington. The spy ring included; a clerk form the Senate Military Committee, a clerk from the Department of the Interior, a clerk for the provost Marshall for Washington, a banker, a dentist, a clerk for an adjunct general, a clerk for Col. Thomas, and several couriers (usually pretty young ladies). Rose created the largest network of spies to exist during the Civil War reaching as far as New Orleans and Boston (Stealing Secrets, p. 6). Mrs. Greenhow managed to get information from Colonel E. D. Keyes who was the secretary to General Winfield Scott, General-in-Chief of the Army and Senator Wilson of Massachusetts. This information that she passed on to General P. Beauregard, prior to the first battle of Bull Run enabled General P. Beauregard to win the battle. With her success came arrogance, Rose became even more active in her spy activities and more obvious, bringing herself to the attention of Allen Pinkerton. Pinkerton and his agents arrested Rose right in front of her house, this led to most of her associates knowing...