Civil War Spy

A Civil War Confederate spy, Rose O’Neal Greenbow,  using pillow talk was incredibly successful at her chosen profession.  She had been the undeniable queen of Washington Society during the Buchanan administration.  D.C has always had its share of gossip and then the sharp tongue linked her in intimacy with the President.  Nothing ever proven.

She was connected by marriage to the very powerful family of Senator Stephen A. Douglas who ran for the Presidency against Abraham Lincoln.

When John Calhoun died in her aunt’s boarding house, Rose heard him muttering predictions of civil war with his last breath. When war did come, she turned to espionage.

Her contribution to the South was to give Confederates accurate word of Union army movements before the Battle of Bull Run/Manassas.  She sent this word through the lines rolled in the hairdo of a young attractive woman named Betty Duvall. 

Betty got through the lines, and pass the lower grade officers and then unrolled her hair before a Confederate general producing information that gave them the advantages which made the difference.  

Two days latter she sent more detailed information laying out the route that General Irvin McDowell’s men would take.  She set up the scene for the Union to lose its first battle, and lose they did.  

For those who have read this far, more to come.