Pauline Cushman
Pauline Cushman. Courtesy of the Library
of Congress.
of Congress.
Pauline Cushman was born in 1833, and had a reputation of beauty and charm. Though her early years were spent in New Orleans, her family later moved to Michigan, where Cushman enjoyed the outdoors and discovered skills and interests such as horseback riding, hunting, canoeing, and other unladylike sports.
Her desire for adventure later led her to New York, where she became an actress. In 1863 at Wood's Theater in Louisville, Kentucky, she took up a dare to interrupt one of her performances to toast Jefferson Davis. She was kicked out of her Northern theater company and sent to federally occupied Nashville, Tennessee. She had already informed a Union officer of her plan, and she now had a smokescreen to cover her spying. While people thought she was a Confederate sympathizer, she began spying for the Union.
She is not tied to any specific military victory, but her counterespionage was crucial to the overall success of the North. As an actress, she found it easy to assume a variety of disguises to help her in her new line of work. Despite her outward pro-secessionist sentiments, she eventually aroused suspicion and was arrested by General John Hunt Morgan, and interrogated by General Nathan Bedford Forrest who sentenced her to hanging. It is doubtful that Cushman would have been executed considering the generally mild treatment of women in the Civil War. In any case, the timely arrival of Union troops saved her from this possibility. After her arrest, however, her fame made it impossible to continue pursuing counterintelligence.
She brought the story of her exploits to the stage after the war, but when interest in er tales faded, she turned to alcohol and morphine. She had married once before the war, although her two children and husband had died. She married twice more. Her second husband died shortly after their marriage, and she and her third husband separated. She turned to sewing to make money, along with a small pension for her first husband's military service. On December 2, 1893 she died of a morphine overdose.
Her desire for adventure later led her to New York, where she became an actress. In 1863 at Wood's Theater in Louisville, Kentucky, she took up a dare to interrupt one of her performances to toast Jefferson Davis. She was kicked out of her Northern theater company and sent to federally occupied Nashville, Tennessee. She had already informed a Union officer of her plan, and she now had a smokescreen to cover her spying. While people thought she was a Confederate sympathizer, she began spying for the Union.
She is not tied to any specific military victory, but her counterespionage was crucial to the overall success of the North. As an actress, she found it easy to assume a variety of disguises to help her in her new line of work. Despite her outward pro-secessionist sentiments, she eventually aroused suspicion and was arrested by General John Hunt Morgan, and interrogated by General Nathan Bedford Forrest who sentenced her to hanging. It is doubtful that Cushman would have been executed considering the generally mild treatment of women in the Civil War. In any case, the timely arrival of Union troops saved her from this possibility. After her arrest, however, her fame made it impossible to continue pursuing counterintelligence.
She brought the story of her exploits to the stage after the war, but when interest in er tales faded, she turned to alcohol and morphine. She had married once before the war, although her two children and husband had died. She married twice more. Her second husband died shortly after their marriage, and she and her third husband separated. She turned to sewing to make money, along with a small pension for her first husband's military service. On December 2, 1893 she died of a morphine overdose.