Spy & Intelligence - American Civil War

Category: Spy & Intelligence - American Civil War --- See latest Civil War news here

Civil War trial of the 17yo confederate spy David O. Dodd re-enacted
On Jan. 5, 1864, David O. Dodd told a 5-member Union Army military court that he had little notion of the "great drama" of the Civil War being waged around him, much less a hand in it. But, having been captured by Union soldiers on a road outside Little Rock with an encoded message, the 17-year-old was being tried as a spy for the Confederacy and hanged. Before Dodd's hanging, a Union general Frederick Steele, asked Dodd to disclose the source of the letter. Dodd replied: "General Steele, I don't blame you for what I am about to suffer. ... I will not betray a friend to save my own life; and my only regret is I have but one life to give to my country."
by nwanews :: 2008-01-14 :: Spy & Intelligence - American Civil War

Confederate States Army scout Dewitt Jobe died horrible death
Sam Davis, "the boy hero of the Confederacy," was a member of Coleman's Scouts, a unit that worked behind Union lines collecting information and disrupting Union operations in Middle Tennessee. Davis was executed after refusing to divulge the source of the information he was carrying. His last words: "If I had a thousand lives to live, I would give them all, rather than betray a friend or my country." Less glamorous is the story of another Coleman Scout, Dewitt Smith Jobe and his cousins Dee Smith and Thomas Benton Smith (a 'boy' general with the 20th Tennessee). Each met a horrible end at the hands of Federal troops.
by murfreesboropost :: 2007-10-09 :: Spy & Intelligence - American Civil War

Lecture to focus on slave turned spy - Abraham Galloway
Southerners fought for the Confederacy, northerners fought for the Union, Abraham Galloway fought for the slaves. The North Carolina slave-turned Union spy played the role of double agent and often felt neither side fighting the Civil War was protecting the interests of blacks. "Very quickly, he starts to feel like he's fighting a war against both sides. Galloway was fighting the Union in some ways as hard as the South. Galloway is a good story - he sort of breaks all the molds," said Dr. David Cecelski.
by havenews :: 2007-09-21 :: Spy & Intelligence - American Civil War

Discovery suggests York's rebel helper - Civil War mystery
One of York County's whodunits now appears to have an ending. Who was that young girl who handed a bouquet of flowers to the Confederate general as his rebel brigade marched through York in June 1863? This story has been told and retold since Gen. John B. Gordon recounted the tale of the anonymous floral gift in his 1904 autobiography. Military historians writing about the famed Confederate general often tell the tale. Now they have a name to attach to the story: 12yo Margaret Small. It wasn't the flowers that made the moment important: The bouquet hid a note showing Union troop defensive positions.
by ydr :: 2007-01-22 :: Spy & Intelligence - American Civil War

Pauline Cushman: Dramatic espionage career of Yankee spy
In March 1863 in Louisville... To create a disturbance, paroled rebel officers offered actress Pauline Cushman $300 if she would drink a toast to Jeff Davis and the Confederacy while on stage. She hid the $300 in her shoe and reported the offer to federal authorities. Colonel Truesdale recruited Cushman as a Yankee spy. He told her to go ahead with the toast - She would be a heroine in the south. Her career in espionage lasted less than a year. She was used as a courier, contacting loyal groups in the south, and collecting information on Confederate plans. In early l864 she was captured by scouts from General Nathan Bedford Forrest's cavalry.
by dailytidings :: 2006-08-25 :: Spy & Intelligence - American Civil War

Cuban woman as confederacy soldier in the Civil War
Loreta Janeta Velazquez sounded like a mythical figure: a Cuban-born woman raised in New Orleans, where she masqueraded as a male soldier and fought in the Civil War. With a fake mustache and a soldier's uniform, the Latina enlisted in the Confederate Army as Lieutenant Harry T. Buford. Velazquez didn't just fight as a soldier in the historic battles of Bull Run and Shiloh, but posed as a spy after she was wounded. Velazquez chronicled her adventures as a soldier in a 600-page memoir called "The Woman in Battle: The Civil War Narrative of Loreta Janeta Velazquez, Cuban Woman and Confederate Soldier." It features rare images of her as both a woman and a man.
by boston :: 2006-08-23 :: Women during Civil War

Breaking The Confederate Code (137 Years Too Late)
Dr. Kent D. Boklan: In the spring of 1999, I received a catalogue for a sale of Fine Books and Manuscripts, lot 79 was: "A letter of intelligence, partially written in confederate code. The first 11 lines of this document are in undeciphered code, but the last paragraph provides pertinent information regarding the Union army and its movements." I visited Sotheby's and expressed my desire to break the code. I realized that accurately transcribing the very deliberate penmanship of the cipher clerk was going to be a challenge. Not only had a few letters faded but there was a very unusual looking character that resembled a spermatozoon.
by rz1 :: 2006-06-06 :: Technology and Development - American Civil War

Civil war cross dressers - Female combatants and spies
Of the thousands of brave women who served as nurses (including Florence Nightingale), some 400 "others" - Northerners, Southerners, free, slave, and citizen - also served as combatants or spies. Two well-known cross dressers received high honors for valor: Dr. Mary Walker, and Flint's neglected hero(ine), Sarah Emma Edmonds, aka Frank Thompson. Dr. Walker, a surgeon, lived in drag most of her long life, and spent four months undetected in a Confederate prison. She received a Medal of Honor from President Andrew Johnson.
by pridesource :: 2006-05-26 :: Women during Civil War

Civil War women are hailed as heroines
Military museum exhibit traces their military and home front roles during nation's great conflict. Women served as nurses, activists, educators, spies and even impersonated men to fight as soldiers during the Civil War, according to a new exhibit at the State Military Museum. "Lost Ladies" details two dozen women who contributed significantly to the nation's Civil War effort but are rarely mentioned in classrooms. It also features several mid-19th century dress styles, interpretive panels, pictures, stationery, jewelry, hand fans, purses and other female belongings of the time.
by timesunion :: 2006-05-12 :: Women during Civil War

Black American Contributions to Union Intelligence
"Black Dispatches" was a common term used among Union military men for intelligence on Confederate forces provided by Negroes. This source of information represented the single most prolific and productive category of intelligence obtained and acted on by Union forces throughout the Civil War. Black Dispatches resulted from frontline tactical debriefings of slaves--either runaways or those having just come under Union control. Black Americans also contributed, however, to tactical and strategic Union intelligence through behind-the-lines missions and agent-in-place operations.
by cia :: 2006-01-25 :: Black - Coloured troops - American Civil War

American Civil War in the News is a edited review of American Civil War related news and articles, providing collection of hand-picked 1861-1865 era history.