Rose Greenhow
Rose Greenhow. Courtesy of the Library
of Congress.
of Congress.
Rose O'Neal Greenhow was born in Montgomery County, Maryland in 1817. Her family was rather poor and she had little education. However, this did not stop her ascent up the social ladder. She went to Washington, D.C. with her sister to stay at their aunt's boardinghouse in the Old Capitol building (later to become the same Old Capitol Prison that Belle Boyd was imprisoned in). She soon developed a taste for the social milieu and led an active social life. When she was 26 she married Dr. Robert Greenhow, who was wealthy and of high social standing. She resolved to leave her dull country life behind.
She established strong connections with the political and social elite of Washington, wielding significant social influence herself. She later moved West with her husband and four daughters for a few years, before her husband died and she returned to Washington to renew her connections. With the start of the war, she openly acknowledged her Southern sympathies and began exploiting her relationships with prominent Unionists. With the use of a cipher and an elaborate system of communication through the raising and lowering of shades on her house, she and a Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Jordan assembled a ring of Confederate spies.
In the First Battle of Bull Run in 1861, Greenhow sent a cohort to bring General P. G. T. Beauregard news of the Union advance, helping the Confederates win a victory. Jefferson Davis himself sent her an expression of gratitude for her aid. This accomplishment made her famous. After this, however, it soon became apparent that she was a key player in the Confederate spy network in Washington. She was placed under house arrest and her home was searched. Greenhow managed to destroy many incriminating papers, but several others were discovered, revealing her involvement. Her youngest daughter and two of her female couriers were confined with her in "Fort Greenhow." The fact that she was a prominent Confederate in Washington itself and a woman at that made her instantly famous. Because she still somehow managed to correspond with co-conspirators despite her imprisonment led to her being transferred to the Old Capitol Prison-the same place where she had acquired her taste for the social life as a teenager.
She was then freed and sent South in the hopes that she would do less damage. Instead, she became a blockade runner and traveled to England and France to raise support for the Confederates. In 1864 Greenhow decided she wanted to return to America, but the blockade runner she was a passenger of was sighted by a Union ship, and when it tried to outrun the gunboat it was grounded on a sandbar. Despite inclement weather, she boarded a lifeboat with a few other passengers and rowed for shore. Their boat capsized and she drowned.
She established strong connections with the political and social elite of Washington, wielding significant social influence herself. She later moved West with her husband and four daughters for a few years, before her husband died and she returned to Washington to renew her connections. With the start of the war, she openly acknowledged her Southern sympathies and began exploiting her relationships with prominent Unionists. With the use of a cipher and an elaborate system of communication through the raising and lowering of shades on her house, she and a Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Jordan assembled a ring of Confederate spies.
In the First Battle of Bull Run in 1861, Greenhow sent a cohort to bring General P. G. T. Beauregard news of the Union advance, helping the Confederates win a victory. Jefferson Davis himself sent her an expression of gratitude for her aid. This accomplishment made her famous. After this, however, it soon became apparent that she was a key player in the Confederate spy network in Washington. She was placed under house arrest and her home was searched. Greenhow managed to destroy many incriminating papers, but several others were discovered, revealing her involvement. Her youngest daughter and two of her female couriers were confined with her in "Fort Greenhow." The fact that she was a prominent Confederate in Washington itself and a woman at that made her instantly famous. Because she still somehow managed to correspond with co-conspirators despite her imprisonment led to her being transferred to the Old Capitol Prison-the same place where she had acquired her taste for the social life as a teenager.
She was then freed and sent South in the hopes that she would do less damage. Instead, she became a blockade runner and traveled to England and France to raise support for the Confederates. In 1864 Greenhow decided she wanted to return to America, but the blockade runner she was a passenger of was sighted by a Union ship, and when it tried to outrun the gunboat it was grounded on a sandbar. Despite inclement weather, she boarded a lifeboat with a few other passengers and rowed for shore. Their boat capsized and she drowned.