US Army Military Intelligence History: A Sourcebook - Fort Huachuca ...

U.S. Army Intelligence History: A Sourcebookespionage mission to Richmond, he merely wrote, “I at once reported to General [Winfield] Scott, givinghim all the information desired respecting Manassas, Fredericksburg, and Richmond, the resources andplans of the rebel chiefs, and the blockade running of the Potomac.” 16The third point is that spies who wrote memoirs are invariably more famous, but were often lessimportant, than those who did not. Greenhow, who operated in Washington, and Belle Boyd, whoseexploits occurred in the Shenandoah Valley, published memoirs in 1863 and 1865 respectively. Theiraccomplishments were modest and Union counterintelligence quickly neutralized both of them, but theynonetheless became the war’s (not just the South’s) most famous female spies. 17 Having equal or evengreater claim to fame were Elizabeth Van Lew, a Union agent in Richmond, whose length of service andaccomplishments far exceeded Greenhow’s, and Rebecca Wright, a Unionist who, like Boyd, lived in theValley. But neither of them wrote memoirs, and they remain virtually unknown. 18 Two male Unionintelligence operatives, Allan Pinkerton and Baker, are much more famous--or perhaps that should beinfamous--than Samuel Ruth, who was the superintendent of the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and PotomacRailroad, which was of vital importance to the Confederacy. Ruth was also a Union agent who had accessto information about the movement of Confederate troops and supplies on Virginia’s railroads, but alas forhis historical reputation, he penned no reminiscences. 19Another useful distinction is between resident and itinerant spies. Van Lew and Ruth were theformer type, for they stayed in Richmond and sent information to Union authorities via secret couriers.By contrast, early in their Civil War secret service careers, both Baker and Pinkerton undertook personalespionage missions into the South and then came back to friendly soil. Disguised as an itinerant photographer,Baker walked from Washington to Richmond and then returned to give his report to General Scott. 20Pinkerton undertook a roving spy mission through Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi. He also claimedto direct a band of operatives who “moved in and out among the Rebel troops at all times and places,”including Pryce Lewis, who supposedly penetrated the South disguised as an English nobleman on apleasure tour. 21A third distinction is between ordinary spies and double agents. One double agent was RichardMontgomery who, using the alias James Thompson, served as a trusted courier between the Confederategovernment in Richmond and rebel agents in Canada. On the way he regularly stopped in Washington,reporting to Assistant Secretary of War Charles A. Dana to allow Union authorities to read the secretdispatches he carried. 22 Other Union double agents were Timothy Webster, who was Pinkerton’s favoritespy, and Philip Henson, whom Grenville Dodge considered “probably one of the best, if not the verybest, man in his stable of talented agents. 23As at least some spies realized, being a soldier was easier than being a spy. Soldiers enjoyed longperiods of relative safety while in camp or on the march and only occasionally confronted the dangers ofthe battlefield, where the comradeship that traditionally animates men in battle would sustain them. Onthe other hand, spies were usually alone and unarmed in the midst of their enemies, were dependent solelyon their wits and brains, and had to employ ceaseless vigilance lest the slightest misstep call forth thehemp. 24 Indeed, the most important distinction to the spies themselves was undoubtedly between thosewho survived and those who hanged. In at least one respect women spies had an advantage over males.Although General Orders No. 100, issued by the War Department in April 1863, decreed that the law ofwar “makes no difference on account of the difference of sexes, concerning the spy,” neither side hangeda female spy. 25 However, both sides occasionally resorted to the hangman’s noose when it came tomales. 26Judging the significance of spying is difficult, but surely the small, loosely coordinated, and somewhatoverlapping spy rings in Richmond headed by Van Lew and Ruth were a godsend to the Union.Several points about these two rings warrant special notice. First, although Van Lew and Ruth bothcommenced their pro-Union activities early in the war, their contribution to Northern victory reached itszenith during the siege of Petersburg. With the Union armies essentially stationary so close to Richmond,intelligence steadily seeped through the Confederate lines. Sometimes Union generals sent agents into32