Rose O’Neal Greenhow lived in Washington D.C. when the Civil War began. When many other Southerners left, the widow remained with her eight-year-old daughter, Rose. Union Colonel Thomas Jordan had decided to resign the U.S. Army and fight for the South. Before he left the city, he asked Rose to be an agent. Spying to uncover troop movements and government communications gave her a significant way to serve the South. She agreed to send messages based on a cipher he provided.

Coded messages were sent on a “Secret Line,” which involved several couriers in a chain that passed on messages in common places such as docks, taverns, and farmhouses.

Rose’s spy network from Boston to New Orleans was the largest in the war—48 women and 2 men. She learned battle plans for Bull Run and passed this vital information to Confederate General Beauregard, leading to a Confederate victory at the First Battle of Bull Run.

Several other messages about Washington’s defenses and troop information were sent from Rose to Beauregard. Thomas A. Scott, Assistant Secretary of War, asked Allan Pinkerton, head of Lincoln’s Intelligence Service, to find Confederate spies and put Greenhow under surveillance.

About a month after the Battle of Bull Run, Pinkerton discovered incriminating evidence. The home was searched. Rose and her daughter were placed under arrest at her home. Because she still managed to get other secret messages out, they were moved to Washington’s Old Capitol prison. The Federals then decided to send her South.

On June 4, 1862, she arrived in Richmond, where she was taken to the best hotel. Confederate President Jefferson Davis called her the next day, saying, “But for you there would have been no battle of Bull Run.” Rose wrote that his words made up for all she’d endured.

The following year President Davis sent her to Europe. She took letters from him to France and England. She received money from them to aid the South.

In October 1, 1864, Rose returned on the Condor, a blockade runner. Unfortunately, the USS Niphon, a Union gunboat, came close to the Condor’s position on Cape Fear River. While Confederate soldiers from nearby Fort Fisher fired on the Union gunboat, Rose asked the captain for a lifeboat for herself and two other Confederate agents. Two hundred yards of rough waters were between the boat and the shore. Despite his initial refusal, she finally convinced the captain to provide a boat.

A powerful wave overturned the lifeboat. They swam for shore. Unfortunately, Rose had a bag of gold sovereigns tied around her waist underneath a heavy silk dress. Though she was a good swimmer, she drowned due to the extra weight while her companions made it to safety.

Her body washed ashore the next day. A Confederate soldier found the bag of gold and took it. A search party later found the body. When the soldier discovered Rose’s identity, he returned the sovereigns.

She was buried in Oakdale Cemetery in Wilmington with full military honors.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Monson, Marianne. Women of the Blue & Gray, Thorndike Press, 2018.

Winkler, H. Donald. Stealing Secrets, Cumberland House, 2010.

Zeinert, Karen. Those Courageous Women of the Civil War, The Millbrook Press, 1998.