Male and female spies were essential sources of information during the Civil War. The best spies were people you would never suspect. Spies were brave, faceless and they knew the environment very well. Their presence was incredibly excepted. Whether they dressed as men and joined the army, posed as mindless slaves, or just kept their ears opens in collective circles, spies provided necessary information. It was even a woman spy who provided Union battle plans to Confederate Army, which allowed them to win the First Battle of Manassass (First Bull Run). Throughout history, men have been spies and the American Civil War was no exception. The finest spies are people you would never suspect. Spencer Kellogg Brown, George Curtis and Philip …show more content…
There he shared the information that he had gathered on his journey. It is not known why he was such a great spy but he was knoown as a sneaky man. On August 15, 1862, he was arrested, taken to Richmond for trial, and sentenced to hang. He was arrested after sinking the ferry supplying Fort Hudson, Georgia. On September 25, 1863 Spencer Kellogg Brown was hanged. Spencer once said before his dreadful death, "Did you ever pass through a tunnel under a mountain? My passage, my death is dark, but beyond all is light and bright."
George Curtis, another first-rate spy, was living in New York at the beginning of the Civil War, and he joined a New York Infantry Regiment. He then became a Pinkerton agent, and a tremendous spy. He was selected in 1862 to obtain information from Richmond. He made his way to the Confederate capital as a contraband merchant selling gun caps, ammunition, and the much-needed quinine. The day after reaching Virginia he was taken to the Confederate lines and to an audience with Lt. General Ambrose Powell Hill. General Hill gave him a pass to go on to Richmond and also asked Curtis if he would carry some dispatches as well. Curtis gladly agreed to carry out his chore. When Curtis reached Richmond he was introduced to Confederate Secretary of War Judah Benjamin where he negotiated for the delivery of his contraband goods and received a pass to move in and out of Richmond freely.
LaFayette Baker was an important union spy. In 1856, he joined the San Francisco vigilance committee. Which was a group that put effort into protecting the city from crime. In 1861, Baker found out the news of the burgeoning rebellion, that is when he went back to the east to help out the union forces. In 1864, he uncovered a plan by the conference called the “Northwest Conspiracy.” It would cause the war to move to the cities of the North. When Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865, baker planned to capture John Wilkes Booth. After the Civil War, Baker carried out some of his work and then
There is another woman you forgot to mention a courageous woman, Loreta Janeta Velazquez. Loreta was a Cuban born female that enlisted in the Confederate Army under the name of Harry T. Buford after she failed to convince her husband to let her enlist. During Loreta’s military profession, she gained the rank of Second Lieutenant, enlisted 236 men, fought at the Battle of Bull Run, at the siege of Fort Donelson and at the Battle of Shiloh. Moreover, after the Battle of Shiloh, Loreta became a Confederate spy, disguising herself as male and female as to the mission
The book Secret Missions of the Civil War, I find important in another way because I learned more about the American Civil War and what happened during that time. For example, I learned that the Confederate Army tried to go to Mexico to establish slavery, but failed because the leader of Mexico during that time was Maximilian 1 that they contacted died when they got there. I also learned that a Union spy named Charles P Stone who was veteran of the Mexican American. The spy Charles P Stone led an attack on the Confederate Army to gain control of their territory, but lost that battle and was eventually captured by the Confederate Army. Later, he was released by The congress of the Union States. The book teaches the history of the Civil War and
The book, Secret Missions of the Civil War, impacts me in my life today =because I know the stories of the missions that Confederate spies and Union spies did during the Civil War. I read Tthe book and it explains accounts of spies and the missions they did for the Confederate or the Union states in the Civil War. The book tells impacts me because I know the history of the country and how it became united like it is today. I it also explains what happened to them in the Civil War during their missions and gives information about their impact. F that they did for example, there was a spy whose named was Charles P. Stone who was a veteran of the Mexican-American Wwar. Stone led an attack onto the Confederate army to gain control of their territory,
The spy network laid the groundwork for some of the tactics used. Allan Pinkerton would only work for George B. McClellan and would go on various scouting missions for information. Pinkerton made an agency for spies and recruited Pryce Lewis. In 1861, Lewis was chosen to go scout enemy troops in West Virginia and did so with great accuracy. McClellan ordered Lewis to go to General Cox and give him the information. “Cox wasted no time in exploiting the new intelligence. ... Surprised, the Confederates fled south, abandoning Charleston to its fate” The information that Lewis had gotten to Cox proved vital in the strategy that he used.
Karen Abbott, a New York Times Bestselling author of “Sin in the Second City” and “American Rose”, Abbott reveal in her book “Lair, Temptress, Solider, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War” was published by Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins in 2014 contends that four major powerful women had endangered their lives to become a soldier spy during the Civil War. Karen Abbott analyzes based on a true story of how women 's roles are portrayed to accommodate political work, used primary sources including dairies, letters, newspaper. The author describes the individual women in varied personality in a way of lair, temptress, a solider and a spy who all shared the same challenges that involves in risk-taking decision in America history.
Espionage at the commencement of the American Civil War was not an organized system; however the war necessitated the development of more structured intelligence systems for both the Union and the Confederacy. By the middle of the war the dimensions of the espionage system had augmented significantly. Thus espionage came to play a critically important role that affected general’s decisions in both the North and the South, ultimately affecting the outcome of the Civil War as a whole.
The United States during the Civil war was a divided nation and filled with gruesome fighting. It hit all parts of the country and brought the fighting right to the back yards of families. While the men of the nation fought the combat war, woman fought different wars in the shadows. Fighting split millions of families up, and it affected woman in multiple ways. Challenges differed for woman from North and South. While some woman’s homes were turned into hospitals, other woman had to learn how to tend to their plantations while their husbands were away fighting. Many women disguised themselves as men to fight in the war because in the 1860s, a woman fighting in the war was not allowed yet. Numerous enslaved
Now you may be wondering about who these spies were, well one successful spy was Mary Bowser. There is not a lot of records on Mary, not even her actual birthday. However Mary was a Union spy and known as the best civil war spy. She had her own spy network and got a job as a servant in the confederate white house. She would clean the desk of Davis and was always had one eye our for information. She would use the same bakery man that Miss Van Lewis would use to transfer information. After the civil war Mary became a teacher for the free slaves and all of her records were disposed so she doesn't get
All agencies working together to maintain peace and provide the government with the knowledge to make informed decisions. In hindsight, the nation realized what a huge impact espionage had on war and attempted to use it to their full advantage. Spies now have countless new technologies and scientific breakthroughs to allow them to succeed in many more ways than the women during the Civil War. The Cold War was one event where new espionage techniques were crucial and immigration was limited to try to block Soviet spies from entering the United States. During World War II, Japanese internment camps were set up to try to prevent espionage within the Asian community along the West Coast. The fear of enemy spies tended to consume the American public because of the enormous damage they can inflict. The brave women who served as soldiers during the Civil War had to live in constant fear of superiors learning their true gender. Their courage allowed for women to eventually become integrated into the American Army. Now women are being recognized as war heroes and continue to fight for their
There are trustworthy people and there’s also manipulative people who’ll lie and deceive you. There was plenty during the Civil War, people who chose to side with the enemy and the only way to do so was to be deceitful. Some people did it because they felt strongly about it, while others done it for selfishness. The Liar, Temptress, Solider, and Spy by Karen Abbott, depict all sides of people during the civil war. Specifically focused on four women named Belle Boyd, Rose O’Neal Greenhow, who both worked for the Confederacy, and Elizabeth Van Lew and Emma Edmondson, who sided with the Union.
The Impact Of Spies in the Civil War Levi A. King Global Impact STEM Academy The Impact of Spies in the Civil War Throughout the entire American Civil War, spies and scouts play a major war in winning key battles. Both the Union and Confederacy used spies to gather information. Spies could make reports based off information they gathered from field agents, prisoners of war, refugees, newspapers, articles, and documents retrieved from corpses found on the battlefield. Both sides used spies and started agencies and networks to gather intelligence. Spies in the Civil War had a profound effect in winning major battles for their countries.
Some people argue there should not be statues honoring “traitors” such as Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis, who fought against the Union. Victors of wars get to write the history, and the history they write often does not reflect the facts. Let us look at some of the facts and ask: Did the South have a right to secede from the Union? If it did, we cannot label Confederate generals as traitors.
Throughout the entire war, there were many individuals and groups that sent information all around, mostly in the New York and New Jersey area. Perhaps the most well-known spy is Nathan Hale. After graduating from Yale at age 18, Nathan was given the rank of 1st Lieutenant when he joined the Continental army. A few months later, he was promoted to captain and was given a command of Rangers to secure New York City. On September 6, 1776, Hale enlisted to become a spy. Hale is not remembered for being a spy, though. He imitated a school teacher, his previous job before the war. Hale’s mission was to collect intelligence behind enemy lines before the Battle of Harlem Heights. He slipped behind enemy lines on Long Island and successfully gathered information about British troop battle
It is speculated that there were hundreds of women that served as spies for both sides during the Civil War. What these women would do was gather valuable information from the military by flirting with male soldiers. They smuggled supplies, medicine, and ammunition across enemy line by hiding everything underneath their skirts. A Confederate spy named Emeline Pigott would gather information by entertaining Union soldiers at parties she held in her own home. She would pass this information along to the Confederate army by leaving secret messages in hiding spots or by crossing enemy lines and delivering messages by hand. However, not many women spies would get away with it, and were quickly caught and arrested. It was their “unladylike” acts of