Greenhow, Rose O'Neal, 1814-1864

Rose O'Neal Greenhow (1817-1864) was a famous spy for the South during the Civil War. Her nicknames were Wild Rose and Rebel Rose. She was born in Port Tobacco, Maryland, in 1817. Her father, John O'Neal, was a planter and was murdered when Rose was an infant. Around 1830 she moved into her Aunt Mrs. A. V. Hill's boarding house at the Old Capitol building in Washington, DC, where she met many politicians who also boarded there. Rose was a popular belle known for her beauty, charm, and wit. In 1835 she married Dr. Robert Greenhow with whom she had four daughters, Florence, Gertrude, Leila, and Rose. During the 1850s in Washington, DC, Rose became a popular socialite and hostess and counted many political figures among her social circle. Her friends included South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun, who privately tutored her and whom she nursed on his deathbed, and President James Buchanan. Dr. Robert Greenhow's work brought him to California during the 1850s, and he died there in 1854. As a widow Rose's social influence in the nation's capital continued to grow.

Once the Civil War began Rose overheard and collected war secrets from her friends and acquaintances. Her admirers included Senator Henry Wilson, then chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs, and Senator Joseph Lane of Oregon. A passionate secessionist and Southern sympathizer, Rose was recruited as a spy for the South by U.S. Army officer Thomas Jordan, who soon left the Union to join the Southern forces. Jordan provided her with a 26-symbol cipher for encoding messages. Rose enthusiastically pursued her mission, passing encoded (or ciphered) messages to the Confederates and running a spy ring in Washington, DC. Confederate President Jefferson Davis, along with some biographers and historians, credited her with providing the South with information that led to the Confederacy's victory at the First Battle of Bull Run. She provided the Confederates with intelligence about Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell's advance in time for Brig. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston and Brig. Gen. Pierre G. T. Beauregard's troops to unite and defeat the Union forces on July 21, 1861. On August 23, 1861 the head of the Union Intelligence Service, Allan Pinkerton, captured Rose, and the Union placed Rose under house arrest at her home on 16th Street. A search of her house revealed letters from friends, family, and lovers; encoded messages; notes on military movements; and singed scraps of writing found in Rose's stove that she had attempted to destroy. The documents were seized and are now held by the National Archives. Because she continued her clandestine activities during her home confinement, in January 1862 she and her daughter "Little" Rose were transferred to the Old Capitol Prison, which was in the same building her aunt had previously run as a boarding house. She continued her spying activities and cryptic message writing during her imprisonment. In March 1862 Rose Greenhow was given a hearing on the charge of espionage but no trial was later held. In May 1862 the Union deported Rose to the South, and residents of Richmond welcomed her warmly.

In August 1863 Rose Greenhow ran the blockade to travel to England and France, where she served as an official courier for Confederate President Jefferson Davis and promoted the South's cause to British and French aristocrats. While in Europe she wrote and published a memoir, My Imprisonment and the First Year of Abolition Rule at Washington (1863). In London in 1864 she was engaged to the second Earl of Granville. That same year she embarked on a return trip to the South on the blockade runner the Condor, carrying secret dispatches for the Confederates. Off the coast near Wilmington, North Carolina, the ship encountered Union forces and ran aground. Afraid of being captured and re-imprisoned, Rose requested to be placed in a smaller boat to try to make it ashore. Her rowboat capsized in the stormy weather, and Rose drowned on October 1, 1864. She was forced under by the weight of the gold she carried - her memoir royalties intended for the Confederate treasury. Her body was found washed up on the shore by a Confederate soldier. The Confederate government honored her with a military funeral, and she was buried in Wilmington, North Carolina.