Union spy

Civil War Women: Harriet Tubman, Union Spy

/ sandramervillehart

Born into slavery on a Maryland plantation, Araminta Ross’s parents nicknamed her “Minty.” Minty later took her mother’s name, Harriet, to honor her.

At age twelve, she stepped between an overseer throwing a heavy object at a fugitive slave. It struck Harriet instead, breaking her skull. The injury caused headaches and narcolepsy that lasted all her life. She fell deeply asleep at random.

She married a free black man, John Tubman, around 1844.

Learning that she and two of her brothers were about to be sold, they escaped on September 17, 1849. Her brothers returned to the plantation, but Harriet pushed on, following safe houses on the Underground Railroad. She walked about 90 miles to freedom in Pennsylvania. Over the next few years, she rescued about 70 people, including her parents and other family members. Her husband had remarried and chose to stay in Maryland.

When the Civil War began, Harriet worked as cook, nurse, and laundress at Fort Monroe, Virginia. She assisted fugitive slaves there.

In May of 1862, soldiers and fugitives were dying of diseases when she arrived in Port Royal, South Carolina. Her knowledge of local roots helped significantly in treating their illnesses.

In 1863, Harriet, reporting directly to General David Hunter and General Rufus Saxton, commanded a team of espionage scouts searching for escape routes for slaves.

She found warehouses and ammunition and reported the locations to Colonel James Montgomery.

Late on June 2, 1863, Harriet led 150 black men, soldiers of 2nd South Carolina Battalion, on the Combahee River Raid. The surprise attack freed over 750 slaves.

After the war ended, Harriet and her family settled in Auburn, New York, and she continued to help folks in need.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Biography.com Editors. “Harriet Tubman,” A&E Television Networks, 2019/03/30 https://www.biography.com/people/harriet-tubman-9511430.

“Harriet Tubman,” History.com, 2019/03/30 https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/harriet-tubman.

“Role in the Civil War,” Harriet Tubman Historical Society, 2019/03/30 http://www.harriet-tubman.org/role-in-the-civil-war/.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Harriet Tubman: American Abolitionist,” Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2019/03/30 https://www.britannica.com/biography/Harriet-Tubman.

 

 

Civil War Women: Major Pauline Cushman, Actress to Spy

/ sandramervillehart / 2 Comments

Harriet Wood became an actress a few years before the Civil War began and changed her name to Pauline Cushman, touring the country for various plays.

While Civil War battles raged early in 1863, a role led her to Wood’s Theater in Union-controlled Louisville, Kentucky. There were paroled Confederate officers in the area. Pauline’s beauty captured their attention and one asked her to toast Confederate President Jefferson Davis from the stage.

Her adventurous spirit aroused, Pauline met with Union Colonel Moore, Louisville’s provost marshal. The colonel, seizing the opportunity for her to gain the Southerners’ trust, advised her to accept the challenge.

While on stage the next evening, Pauline raised her glass in a toast. “Here’s to Jeff Davis and the Southern Confederacy. May the South always maintain her honor and her rights.”

Her impromptu toast appalled Union supporters in the crowd and thrilled Southern sympathizers. Pauline was fired and sent to the South.

Pauline traveled to Nashville where she met with Union Colonel William Truesdail, the Chief of Army Police. Truesdail asked to her to learn what she could about the Confederates, though he warned that, if caught spying, she’d be hanged.

She soon gained the trust of the Southerners. While at Confederate General Braxton Bragg’s army camp, she found his battle plans. The Southerners became suspicious of her. Pauline’s quick thinking and acting skills nearly saved her—until the battle plans were discovered in her shoe.

At a trial, she was found guilty and sentenced to death. Pauline then became seriously ill—or employed her acting skills to seem so—delaying her hanging. Then, at the end of June, she heard a loud commotion outside. The Confederates abandoned the camp, leaving Pauline behind. To her great joy, the sound of Union bugles blared in the camp and she was rescued.

Both President Abraham Lincoln and General James A. Garfield (future President) praised Pauline. General Garfield gave her the rank of major as thanks for her suffering while in secret service.

Before the Civil War ended, Pauline began touring as Miss Major Cushman, speaking about her adventures and performing one-woman plays about them.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Biography.com Editors. “Pauline Cushman Biography,” Biography.com, 2019/03/17 https://www.biography.com/people/pauline-cushman.

Moore, Frank. Women of the War: True Stories of Brave Women in the Civil War, Blue Gray Books, 1997.

“Pauline Cushman,” NPS.gov, 2019/03/17 https://www.nps.gov/people/pauline-cushman.htm.