Rose O’Neal Greenhow, nicknamed “Wild Rose”, used her political and social contacts in Washington, D.C. to carry out assignments as a Confederate Spy. When Rose was a young woman, her refined manners, educated demeanor, beauty and charm made her the romantic target of many military, political and power brokers in the Capitol.
Rose married Dr. Robert Greenhow, a pillar of Washington society, in 1835. The doctor taught his new wife history and shared sensitive intelligence, from his work at the U.S. Department of State. Through her husband, Rose cultivated a circle of influential men that included Presidents, Senators, Representatives and high-ranking members of the military.
After Dr. Greenhow’s death, in 1854, the widow Greenhow, in her late forties, sought the companionship and love of several of her suitors, dating to her days as a single woman. Among these rumored paramours, before the Civil War, include President James Buchanan, Jefferson Davis, P.G.T. Beauregard, Senator Henry Wilson and Senator John C. Calhoun.
Rose O’Neal Greenhow was influenced in her southern sympathies by Senator Calhoun and it was his secessionist passion that inspired Rose to engage in conspiracies and intrigue benefiting the Confederate cause. Greenhow’s sentiment was not a secret in Washington and did not impede her social functions in the Capitol. Even as the southern states contemplated hostilities, the social butterfly continued her stealthy liaisons and continued to gather intelligence regarding Federal troop status and armament stores.
Greenhow used her charm and wiles to recruit additional respected citizens to gather military intelligence, including obtaining a 26 symbol cipher, to code and transmit sensitive status to Confederate operatives in Virginia. She also coerced, a young and comely woman, named Betty Duvall, to act as a currier, her trademark was to transport ciphered messages in the bun of her hair.
“Wild Rose” also developed a close relationship with former Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Jordan(alias Thomas John Rayford), who had recently held the post of Quartermaster in the United States Army. Jordan, from Virginia, and Greenhow organized a complex network of informants in the Capitol, that included both men and woman.
In July of 1861, Greenhow gleaned information on General McDowell’s preparation to attack the Confederates at Bull Run. She immediately dispatched this information to General Joseph E. Johnston and General P.G.T. Beauregard by her most trusted courier, Betty Duvall. President Davis transmitted his gratitude to Greenhow the day after the battle and recognized her diligence, loyalty and intelligence, as being the key to the Confederate victory.
Late in July of 1861, a Capitol security detachment led by Allan Pinkerton, placed Rose O’Neal Greenhow under house arrest and a search of her home revealed numerous incriminating documents, including a stash of love letters from Massachusetts Senator Henry Wilson. Rose and her youngest daughter were sequestered and guarded in their home until transferred to the Old Capitol Prison in January of 1862. Even in prison, Greenhow managed to communicate sensitive information to her operatives and southern loyalists.
The government decided that the “Wild Rose” could do less harm if she was banished to the Confederate States, the New York Times recorded her release on June 2, 1862. She relocated to Richmond, where Jefferson Davis suggested that she travel to England and France in an attempt to drum up support for the Confederate cause.
Rose O’Neal Greenhow spent nearly two years in Europe, writing a memoir that sullied the reputations of several prominent government officials in Washington. In 1864, Rose became homesick and boarded the blockade runner, Condor, in an attempt to return to the Confederacy. Off the coast of Wilmington, North Carolina, the Condor was intercepted by a Union gunboat and tried to escape up the Cape Fear River. The Condor ran aground and Greenhow boarded a life boat to continue her escape. The craft capsized and “Wild Rose” drowned with $2000.00 in gold tied around her neck. When her body was eventually recovered, she had in her possession a copy of her memoir and a note addressed to her daughter “Little Rose”;
London, Nov 1st 1863
“You have shared the hardships and indignity of my prison life, my darling; And suffered all that evil which a vulgar despotism could inflict. Let the memory of that period never pass from your mind; Else you may be inclined to forget how merciful Providence has been in seizing us from such a people.”
Rose O’Neal Greenhow
Bummer can only surmise that the reason “Wild Rose” and her treasonous acts, did not result in her being hung, was because Rose O’Neal Greenhow knew which closets contained the secrets and skeletons of the power elite in Washington.
Bummer
