Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy
Page 46
The wives of US officials: Blackman, Wild Rose, 255.
“a clever woman . . . equally at home”: Tidwell, April ’65, 58.
an example of Yankee vulgarity: Blackman, Wild Rose, 255.
“affords me every facility”: Rose Greenhow to Alexander Boteler, June 19, 1863, Greenhow Papers.
explaining why his services were no longer necessary: Evans, Judah P. Benjamin, 236. Judah P. Benjamin wrote a letter to Mason dated August 4, 1863, the day before Rose left for England: “Perusal of the recent debates in the British Parliament satisfies the President that the government of her Majesty has determined to decline the overtures made through you for the establishing by treaty, friendly relations between the two governments, and entertains no intention of receiving you as the accredited minister of this government and the President therefore requests that you consider your mission at an end, and that you withdraw with your secretary from London.”
the masses had held hundreds of meetings: Du Bois, Black Reconstruction in America, 80.
the Confederate government gave her: Gaddy, e-mail, November 2013.
calm, confident tone: Rose Greenhow to Jefferson Davis, June 16, 1863, Greenhow Papers, Duke University.
regiments composed entirely of Negroes: Daily National Intelligencer (Washington, DC), August 14, 1863; Charleston Mercury, August 7, 1863.
“Be assured that every body”: Rose Greenhow to Jefferson Davis, July 16, 1863, Greenhow Papers, Duke University.
“no printed paper could be kept secret”: OR, ser. 1., 32:487.
the Phantom: Description in Horner, Blockade-Runners, 44.
“There they go ahead of me”: Greenhow, “European Diary,” 16.
“Oh never mind”: Ibid.
At half past midnight a Union blockader spotted her: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies, ser. 1, 9:150–51.
bacon and turpentine-soaked cotton: Gragg, Confederate Goliath, 11.
“How my blood boils”: Greenhow, “European Diary,” 5.
“I can’t stand to have”: Ibid., 18.
“The negroes are lazy, vicious, and insubordinate”: Ibid., 8.
discussed how he might send her coded dispatches: Rose Greenhow to Alexander Boteler, December 10, 1863, Greenhow Papers, Duke University.
admit a pair of Confederate officers: Hall, e-mail, May 2013.
“These good men are tired of the war”: Ibid.
bearing gifts for Winder: Hall, e-mail, March 2013.
fifteen to twenty-five men died there: Ransom, Andersonville Diary, 15.
A servant would cover them with a tarp and pile horse manure: Hall, e-mail, May 2013.
a “most exciting” rumor: Wisconsin Daily Patriot, September 19, 1863.
La Belle Rebelle
“Take Me Back”: Boyd, In Camp and Prison, 238.
“Poor girl! You have the deepest sympathy”: Ibid., 239-40.
yielded to curiosity: Ibid., 240.
“The discomfited Yankee”; “These are the kind of men”: Graham and Torrance, “Running the Blockade,” np.
“She is a damn rebel”: Boyd, In Camp and Prison, 244.
“several official lovers”: Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, September 12, 1863.
“Had I been a queen”: Boyd, In Camp and Prison, 254.
She encouraged rumors: Coffin, Stories of Our Soldiers, 49.
a pair of field glasses she claimed: Boyd, In Camp and Prison, 261.
“annoying and ungentlemanly”: Ibid., 256.
Merchants sold chamber pots: Wilkie, Dixie, 289.
“Make like Butler”: Chesnut, Diary from Dixie, 177.
“I expect to be killed”: Aberdeen Journal, December 23, 1863.
“Ah, so this is Miss Boyd”: Boyd, In Camp and Prison, 257.
“rage depicted on every lineament”: Ibid., 258.
she dropped her face in her hands and wept: Ibid., 261.
a drunken rebel soldier once rode his horse: Dabney, Richmond, 164.
“being torn”: Boyd, In Camp and Prison, 273.
Women Make War upon Each Other
“a smoky chimney which had taken fire”: Froude, Thomas Carlyle, 246.
dressing gown and slippers: Blackman, Wild Rose, 269.
“What sort of looking animal?”: Greenhow, “European Diary,” 48.
“The flat nosed Negro of Haiti”: Ibid.
“I see him”: Ibid.
Carlyle promised to consider it: Rose O’Neal Greenhow to Alexander Boteler, February 17, 1864, Greenhow Papers, Duke University.
split the profits for all sales: Blackman, Wild Rose, 271.
“Men may not war on women”: London Standard, December 2, 1863.
“She boasts that she made herself as obnoxious”: London Morning Post, November 27, 1863.
“as bitter as a woman’s hate can make it”: New York Times, December 5, 1863.
“All the accounts come through the Yankee press”: Rose O’Neal Greenhow to Alexander Boteler, December 10, 1863, Greenhow Papers, Duke University.
“the greatest evil”: Greenhow, “European Diary,” 36–37.
“O, Mama”: Ibid., 38.
“She fell 4 times”: Ibid., 42.
“My little one is very shy”: Greenhow, “European Diary,” 44. The convent is now the site of the Rodin Museum.
“directly or by implication”: Long and Long, Civil War Day by Day, 444.
“the crisis which threatened to divide”: Ibid.
“Why is the attitude of European Powers”: Richmond Whig, December 19, 1863.
Please Give Us Some of Your Blood
thought the whole episode great fun: Hall, e-mail, May 2013.
“Would you be free?”: Varon, Southern Lady, Yankee Spy, 109.
He wouldn’t be the first prisoner: Speer, Portals to Hell, 229; Chambers McKean, Blood and War, 1166.
“Follow me at a distance”: H. S. Howard, Deposition, Secret Service A counts, RG 110, National Archives.
gray uniforms made of rebel blankets: Connecticut Courant, January 2, 1864.
abandoning their ranks in growing numbers: OR, ser. 4, 2:674.
including revoking draft exemptions: Woodworth, Davis and Lee at War, 302.
“The ‘dead’ Yankee has arrived”: Richmond Examiner, January 23, 1864.
fourteen locally organized groups of citizen spies: Fishel, Secret War for the Union, 1.
“My Dear Boutelle”: Butler to Charles O. Boutelle, December 19, 1863, Private and Official Correspondence of General Benjamin F. Butler, 3:228–29. Elizabeth’s original note to Butler has not survived.
“My Dear Aunt”: Butler to Elizabeth Van Lew, January 18, 1864, Private and Official Correspondence, 3:319.
“S.S. Fluid”: Fishel, Secret War for the Union, 423.
“They are coming at night”: Van Lew Papers, NYPL. The note is undated.
That Unhappy Country
improbably grand spaces: De Vooght, Royal Taste, 150.
“His majesty will receive you”: Greenhow, “European Diary,” 47.
“final adieu”: Cooper, Jefferson Davis, American, 8.
“Entrez, Madame, dans la cabinet de l’Empereur”: Greenhow, “European Diary,” 47. I corrected any grammatical or spelling errors in Rose’s French.
wearing a large diamond eagle: Baguley, Napoleon III and His Regime, 132.
It was rumored that he had: Ibid., 26.
finding the whole business “disgusting”: Ibid., 220.
“the terror of ugly husbands”: Hartje, Van Dorn, 308.
“Vous parlez français, madame?”: Greenhow, “European Diary,” 47.
“Yes sir, from that unhappy country”: Ibid.
He was a nationalist who sympathized: Blackburn, French Newspaper Opinion, 6.
“large, hairy hands”: New York Times, August 2, 2011.
“was dressed in the French mode”: Ibid.
“evaded or rejected”: Greenhow, “European Diary,” 48.
“Tell the Pr
esident that I have thoughts”: Ibid.
“The President is fully convinced”: Ibid.
“I wish to God I could”: Ibid., 49.
“So much for my interview”: Ibid., 50.
“like so many petrified steel clad warriors”: Ibid., 51.
“very like the emperor”: Ibid., 52.
“fat and vulgar looking”; “thin with sharp features”; “not at all pretty”: Ibid., 51.
“no desire to enter further”: Ibid., 52.
“I think things are looking better”: William B. (unintelligible surname) to Rose O’Neal Greenhow, February 7, 1864, Greenhow Papers, Duke University.
every rat, mouse, and pigeon: Wixson, From Civility to Survival, xxxix.
A single hotel meal cost: Chesnut, Diary from Dixie, xiv.
One woman sold her hair for $100: Duvall, Recollections of the War by Grandmama.
then he had best resign: Hartfort Daily Courant, January 13, 1864.
he urged passage of a law: Thomas, The Confederate Nation, 260.
“As soon as General Butler has a sufficient force”: Milwaukee Sentinel, January 11, 1864.
“hope deferred”: Greenhow, “European Diary,” 151.
Despicable Remedies
“The condition of our servants”: Ross, First Lady of the South, 193.
“loud-talking, violent”: Furgurson, Ashes of Glory, 241.
who used the code name “Quaker”: Stuart, “Of Spies and Borrowed Names”; Stuart, “Colonel Ulric Dahlgren and Richmond’s Union Underground.”
requiring 1,304 laborious strokes: Fishel, Secret War for the Union, 553.
“They do a great deal of harm”: OR, ser. 1, 33:519–21.
“make a dash”: Ibid.
“To arms! To arms!”: Hartford Daily Courant, February 10, 1864.
“corruption and faithlessness”: Butler, Private and Official Correspondence, 3:408.
there was to be an exit: Van Lew, “Occasional Journal.”
“We were so ready for them”: Ibid.
“damned Yankees”: Moran, “Colonel Rose’s Tunnel at Libby Prison.”
two or three at a time: Wheelan, Libby Prison Breakout, 163. (Of the 109 men who escaped, 59 reached safety, 2 drowned, and 48 were recaptured.)
imprinted with the word coward, or were branded on the cheek: Arnold and Weiner, American Civil War, 66.
Jefferson Davis begged the women: Coulter, Confederate States of America, 468.
“this one horse barefooted naked”: Ibid., 469.
“greatly distressed”: Van Lew, “Occasional Journal.”
Desperate situations sometimes require despicable remedies: Ibid.
he was especially pleased when a fourteen-year-old boy: Blakey, General John H. Winder, 139.
“of a delicate appearance”: Varon, Southern Lady, Yankee Spy, 285.
“Bring him to me tomorrow”: Furgurson, Ashes of Glory, 246.
he could board temporarily at her home: National Tribune, April 20, 1893.
to live with relatives in Hillsborough: Blakey, General John H. Winder, 48.
The Sanctuary of a Modest Girl
“You knew my Father”: There is a copy of this note in the Sigaud Papers.
“great attention as one of the heroines”: Alexandria Gazette, February 9, 1864.
bearing $500 in gold: Foreman, World on Fire, 627; Sigaud, “More About Belle Boyd,” 174–81.
“Captain Henry”: OR, ser. 1, 10:42.
“E. A. Parkinson”: Sigaud, Belle Boyd, 152.
“Steady”; “Cut off your smoke!”: Pollard, Observations in the North, 10.
“Unless Providence interposes”: Boyd, In Camp and Prison, 281.
“There’s another they shall not get”: Ibid., 283.
“More steam!”: Ibid.
“I declare to you”: Ibid.
“act without reference to me”: Ibid.
“It is too late to burn her”: Ibid., 284.
“Good day to yourself, sir”: Ibid., 287.
He wore lavender kid gloves: Horner, Blockade-Runners, 156.
“An officer as unfit for authority”: Boyd, In Camp and Prison, 287.
“That man, whoever he may be”: Ibid., 291.
“what a good fellow”: Ibid., 293.
“I am now in command”: Ibid., 296.
You Are Very Poor Company
“would not by itself remove the blockade”: Fitzmaurice, Life of Granville George Leveson Gower, 443.
“Our people earnestly desire recognition”; Greenhow, “European Diary,” 119.
“Took my child back to the convent”: Ibid.
“showed that he was utterly ignorant of everything”: Ibid., 58.
“the best diplomatist”: Ibid., 61.
“The most interesting object”: Ibid., 112.
“They are all stupid”: Ibid., 107.
“The place assigned for ladies”: Ibid., 57.
“no conversation going on”: Ibid., 66.
“What trifles color life”: Ibid., 65.
“Sir, if you accept the scientific weight”: Ibid., 80–81.
“What about the massacre”: Ibid., 81.
one man nailed to the boards: Massachusetts Spy, May 11, 1864.
Negro children as young as seven: New York Herald Tribune, May 6, 1864.
“If I were a Negro”: Greenhow, “European Diary,” 82.
“Never! Either extermination”: Ibid., 82.
Be Prudent and Never Come Again
“Some I know to be Unionists”: Van Lew, “Occasional Journal.”
“irritate and inflame”: Ibid. Preeminent Civil War historians, including Stephen Sears, have concluded that the Dahlgren papers were authentic.
he seemed to have a soft spot: Hall, e-mail, March 2013.
the pantaloons of a Confederate: Memoir of Ulric Dahlgren, 227.
his prosthetic wooden leg had been sent: Chesnut, Diary from Dixie, 389.
nor treated with carbolic acid: Dammann, Images of Civil War Medicine, 45.
“fair, fine, and firm”; “The comeliness of the young face”: Van Lew, “Occasional Journal.”
the “good death”: Faust, This Republic of Suffering, 6.
“Every true Union heart”: Van Lew, “Occasional Journal.”
affection of his company: Ibid.
“clear case of personal animosity”: Furgurson, Ashes of Glory, 247.
he recognized her as a true patriot: Hall, e-mail, July 2013.
from Eliza’s home: Ibid.
“nothing in Richmond except Home Guards”: Varon, Southern Lady, Yankee Spy, 149.
“My Dear Niece”: Butler, Private and Official Correspondence, 3:485.
“muff of the latest style”: Feis, Grant’s Secret Service, 238.
“only those you know to be faithful”: Butler, Private and Official Correspondence, 3:564–65.
chief aide and “pet”: Blakey, General John H. Winder, 144.
copies of orders issued from Winder’s office: Baltimore Sun, April 19, 1864.
importance as a Confederate official: Varon, Southern Lady, Yankee Spy, 150.
“a contemptible ass”: Blakey, General John H. Winder, 144.
“deadly pale”; “Be prudent”: Van Lew, “Occasional Journal.”
three Union soldiers, just escaped from Libby: Richmond Sentinel, May 2, 1864.
There they hid in dank, dark corners: Bart Hall, interview with author, July 2013.
whose costume of men’s pants: Richmond Sentinel, May 2, 1864.
“I am a lady, gentlemen”: Buhk, True Crime in the Civil War, 15.
“this disgusting production of Yankeeland”: Richmond Whig, May 2, 1864.
the transportation of a hundred Libby prisoners: Richmond Examiner, May 7, 1864.
“your ordering your underlying officers”: John Albree notes, Box 1, Folder 7, Van Lew Papers, College of William & Mary.
a cup and a half of flour: Northrop, Diary of a War Prisoner in Andersonville, 179.
“talk Southern Confederacy”: Van Lew, “Occasional Journal.”
Good-Bye, Mrs. Greenhow
“sick with anxiety”: Greenhow, “European Diary,” 83.
stuffing their nostrils with leaves: Ward, Burns, and Burns, Civil War, 252.
“handsomely driven back”: OR, ser. 1, 36:974.
“Thank God it is good”: Greenhow, “European Diary,” 83.
“I am going to propose”: Ibid., 84.
“Thank you all”: Ibid.
“Yes Missis, them deep ones”: Van Lew, “Occasional Journal.”
“Confederate loss is heavy”: Greenhow, “European Diary,” 95.
“Grant intends to stink”: Foote, Red River to Appomattox, 295.
“God grant that those vandals”: Greenhow, “European Diary,” 111.
“The very person we want”: New York Times, September 9, 1864.
“holy saint and martyr”: Greenhow, My Imprisonment, 190.
“He was a traitor”: Ibid.
“Poor fellow”: Ibid., 114.
She spent many of the rest of her days with Fighting Joe: Commentary from John O’Neal, descendant of Rose O’Neal Greenhow, in Greenhow, European Diary, 55–56.
hurt the South: Ibid., 124.
“Does it never occur”: Ibid.
“O how sad has been”: Ibid., 96.
“Alas, inexorable destiny”: Ibid., 123.
“A sad sick feeling”: Ibid., 128.
capturing or destroying nearly 92 percent: Fonvielle, Wilmington Campaign, 13.
using deadly force: Daily Constitutionalist (Augusta, GA), June 29, 1864.
This Verdict of Lunacy
“endeavored to paint the home”: Boyd, In Camp and Prison, 302.
“If he felt all that he professed”: Ibid.
“They must be in the lower cabin”: Ibid., 319.
“It is impossible!”: Ibid., 321.
“the ill-used South”: Ibid., 316.
“sufficiently persuasive”: Daily National Republican (Washington DC), June 21, 1864.
“She was proving a troublesome customer”: Keyes, unpublished autobiography, Curtis Carroll Davis Papers.