Rose O’Neal Greenhow
This photograph of Rose O’Neal Greenhow and her daughter was taken during her six-month imprisonment in the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C. Greenhow, a 44-year-old widow with four daughters, was recruited in 1861 to be the operating head of the Confederacy’s first spy ring. A Washington socialite with many friends in high government circles, Rose was perfectly placed to gather intelligence about Federal troop strengths and movements. It was she who supplied Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard with a warning that Union General Irvin McDowell was planning an attack on Manassas in July 1861. Rose’s career as a spy was cut short, however, when, on August 23, she was arrested by Union secret service operative Allan Pinkerton and held under house arrest for five months. Rose Greenhow was finally released and sent South on June 2, 1862. She drowned in a shipwreck on September 30, 1864.
Photo: Library of Congress