Rose O’Neale Greenhow, also known as Rebel Rose, was a Confederate spy during the United States Civil War. Since she moved in important political circles during that time period, she was able to gather quite a bit of information to help the Confederacy. In fact, she was so instrumental in aiding the Confederacy that she was credited by CSA President Jefferson Davis with enabling the South to win the First Battle of Bull Run. Her road to the head of the Southern spy network was interesting and fraught with many twists and turns.
She was born in 1817 on a plantation in Maryland just northwest of Washington, DC. Rose and her younger sister, Ellen, were orphaned and, subsequently, taken in by their Aunt Maria Ann Hill who ran a fashionable boardinghouse called the Capitol Building Boardinghouse. She and Ellen lived here until about 1830, and they were fortunate to be among the Washington societal elite including Dolly Madison who introduced Rose to her future husband. Rose married this man, wealthy doctor and lawyer Dr. Robert Greenhow, in 1830. They had four daughters, and the family moved to many locales including Mexico City and California because of Robert’s work with the State Department. After Robert died, Rose became good friends with Senator John Calhoun from South Carolina and developed a passion for the cause of Southern independence. Thomas Jordan, a US Army captain, recruited her for his Confederate spy network and gave her a 26 symbol cipher so that she could encode messages.
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July 9 and 16 of 1861 were critical for Rose as she passed along information about Union activities to General Beauregard of the Confederate Army. Knowledge of these Union activities helped the South garner a win at the First Battle of Bull Run. Allan Pinkerton, head of what is now the Secret Service, placed her under house arrest on suspicion of aiding the Confederates, but she still managed to get secret codes out. She never faced trial and was subsequently released and told to stay within Confederate boundaries. However, she disobeyed and traveled to London where the British were sympathetic to her plight. She died on October1 , 1864, while returning to Wilmington, NC. Her ship was run aground while being pursued by a Union ship. Rose escaped in a small rowboat which capsized. She was weighted down with $2,000 worth of gold sewn into her skirt and around her neck, and she drowned. She received full military honors at her funeral in Wilmington.
