Civil War Spies Facts
Civil War Spies Facts
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Interesting Civil War Spies Facts: |
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The Confederate Secret Service was the name for all of the espionage operations conducted by the Confederacy, both official and non-official, over the course of the war and included missions of intelligence gathering and sabotage. |
The Union Army created the Bureau of Military Information in 1863 as its official espionage organization. |
Spies and scouts were two different categories: scouts wore military uniforms and if captured were imprisoned, while spies dressed as civilians and were often executed if captured. |
Alan D. Richardson (1833-1869) was a journalist who covered the war while subsequently giving intelligence to the Union Army. He was imprisoned for twenty months by the Confederacy for spying. |
John Wilke's Booth, President Lincoln's assassin, worked as a Confederate spy toward the end of the war, most likely as a courier. |
The Confederates developed elaborate and effective spy rings in Alexandria, Virginia in order to collect intelligence in Washington. |
The Union Army often used slaves and former slaves for intelligence, which were called "black dispatches." |
Virginia and Charlotte Moon were two sisters who were recruited by Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest to spy for the Confederacy in Union occupied Memphis, Tennessee. |
Lottie Moon left Union General Ambrose Burnside at the altar, but he latter imprisoned her for several months for spying. |
Southern Belle spies would sometimes smuggle messages or supplies in their large hoop skirts. |
Pinkerton agent and British born Union spy Timothy Webster was the first spy to be executed during the Civil War. He posed as a Confederate sympathizer and was able to collect important intelligence, but was caught and executed by the Confederacy in April 1862. |
Union spy and espionage activities were aided by the Pinkerton Detective Agency. |
Harriet Tubman (1822-1913), who is best known for being one of the primary operators of the Underground Railroad, worked as a spy for the Union Army. |
A Confederate spy named Zora Fair nearly exposed the plans for General Sherman's "March to the Sea" when she disguised herself as a black servant by rubbing crushed walnuts on her skin and then sneaking into his office: although she got the plans, she was captured before turning them over to the Confederate forces. |
The Confederate Signal Corps was an organization created in 1862 within the Confederate Secret Service to intercept, decipher, and send secret messages. |
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