P
pepps
Civil war
espionage
Espionage occurs in societies at peace and at war. Nations at peace use
spies to gather information on a country's military preparations and plans
for war. During war espionage is used to gather information about opposing
armies and to mislead opponents through counterintelligence. Those engaged
in spying risk imprisonment and death if convicted of treason. Although
vital to ensure American security in war and peace, spying-part of
intelligence gathering-raises important issues such as the extent civil
liberties may be reduced to allow the government to catch spies. The
American Civil War marked the beginning of extensive civil and military
espionage. The intelligence operations during the Civil War were pre-modern,
amateurish, and even eccentric by twenty-first century standards, but
elements of this odd secret war foreshadowed the later modernization of
America's novice intelligence services.
Although spies could be useful to resourceful commanders, in general
commanders employed more traditional battlefield means of acquiring
intelligence. Two key methods were cavalry reconnaissance, a skill at which
the Confederates tended to be superior, and the systematic interrogation of
prisoners and deserters. Such methods were supplemented by dispatching spies
to cross enemy lines to discover "what is on the other side of the hill." In
attempting this, Civil War spies had certain advantages. The two sides had a
common language and culture. And in border states, such as Missouri and
Maryland, loyalty to either cause was ambiguous and the recruitment of spies
relatively easy. In addition, Union spies assumed convenient cover
occupations in Confederate territory, which was experiencing shortages in
manpower and military goods. The infiltrators found cover as smugglers or
deserters.
The fledgling intelligence services were novelties and did not survive the
four-year conflict. The federal organizations, despite their limited
jurisdiction and scope, were more effective than the Confederates' service,
the so-called Secret Service Bureau. The principal federal services were
Allan Pinkerton's Detective Bureau of General McClellan's Army of the
Potomac (1861-1862) and General Hooker's Bureau of Military Information
(1863-1865), managed by Colonel George Sharpe, 120th New York Regiment.
Although both organizations functioned only as part of one army, Hooker's
Bureau of Military Information was an improvement on Pinkerton's
organization, which was limited to only two functions: spying and
interrogation of prisoners of war. Sharpe improved these activities and
added more, including the key interception of flag signaling. A
Scottish-born master detective, Pinkerton was effective in counterespionage
and security. In early 1861 Pinkerton's service helped save the life of
President-elect Abraham Lincoln as he traveled through Baltimore to the
nation's capital. Pinkerton was talented in penetrating conspiracies but his
military intelligence work for the Army of the Potomac and his field
estimates of Confederate military strength were inaccurate.
Several Confederate spies long ago entered the realm of myth, in part
because of the exaggerations and fabrications of their published memoirs.
Secret agent Rose Greenhow, a prominent socialite and Confederate
sympathizer in Washington, D.C., produced useful intelligence for General
Pierre Beauregard early in the war, but Pinkerton's counterspies were easily
her match, and she was arrested and jailed. As was the case with a number of
female spies, however, she was released and then escaped to England to
pursue a propaganda war against the Union. Another celebrated Confederate
female spy was Belle Boyd, who created her own legend as an agent. She was
lauded in literature as La Belle Boyd and the Cleopatra of the Confederacy,
despite her modest contributions to Confederate intelligence. Her postwar
published memoirs promoted her legend, enhanced by her later performances on
the stage. On Belle Boyd's tombstone was inscribed "Confederate Spy." But by
far the most effective Confederate spy, who never became a celebrity, was
thirty-one-year-old Mississippian, Henry T. Harrison, who spied for General
James Longstreet and provided accurate reports on federal army movements
before the Battle of Gettysburg.
The most successful secret agent of all, however, was Miss Elizabeth Van
Lew, a federal spy in Richmond, Virginia, who co-headed a Union spy ring
from 1864 to 1865. Using an effective cover personality as an eccentric,
even deranged, lonely spinster, she deceived observers and provided vital
intelligence to a number of Federal generals. Enhancing her cover
personality was her open expression of pro-Union sympathies and her
providing federal prisoners in Richmond with food and clothing. After the
war Van Lew, known as Crazy Bet as part of her myth, was rewarded with a
position in the Federal Postal Service.
By the time of the battle of Chancellorsville in early May 1863, General
Hooker's Bureau of Military Information's performance in field intelligence
had greatly improved. This service was now more effective in discovering
three key intelligence elements about the enemy: the location of its forces,
the strength and composition of those forces, and commanders' intentions.
Sharpe's spies assisted in Hooker's superb coup of placing a large federal
army in the rear of the Confederates, undetected by Lee. Good intelligence
helped Hooker's plan, though he lost the battle of Chancellorsville to Lee.
It was at the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, only weeks later, that
federal intelligence truly came into its own. By this time federal
intelligence officers had compiled the most complete order-of-battle chart
of Lee's army. During this campaign three elements provided vital
information to General George Meade: federal soldier-spies behind
Confederate lines; organized groups of citizen-scouts in south-central
Pennsylvania who observed Confederate movements; and effective cavalry
scouting, which detected the enemy's approach to Gettysburg. Meade's use of
this intelligence, backed by military strength, was an important factor in
the Confederates' defeat at Gettysburg.
The Civil War proved to be a turning point for the government's role in
intelligence gathering. First, the North's victory over the South was partly
the result of the North's superiority in both tactical and strategic means
for observing enemy troops. The North used the interception and deciphering
of Southern telegrams and flag signals to its advantage, just as the Allies'
breaking of Japanese and German codes in World War II contributed to
victory. After the Civil War, in 1885, military intelligence was reorganized
to incorporate new technology. Second, despite some objections, Americans
accepted the necessity of reducing temporarily some civil liberties during
time of war to aid in the detection and capture of spies. In the
twenty-first century's War on Terror, Americans face an even greater
challenge in balancing individual privacy and civil liberties with security.
espionage
Espionage occurs in societies at peace and at war. Nations at peace use
spies to gather information on a country's military preparations and plans
for war. During war espionage is used to gather information about opposing
armies and to mislead opponents through counterintelligence. Those engaged
in spying risk imprisonment and death if convicted of treason. Although
vital to ensure American security in war and peace, spying-part of
intelligence gathering-raises important issues such as the extent civil
liberties may be reduced to allow the government to catch spies. The
American Civil War marked the beginning of extensive civil and military
espionage. The intelligence operations during the Civil War were pre-modern,
amateurish, and even eccentric by twenty-first century standards, but
elements of this odd secret war foreshadowed the later modernization of
America's novice intelligence services.
Although spies could be useful to resourceful commanders, in general
commanders employed more traditional battlefield means of acquiring
intelligence. Two key methods were cavalry reconnaissance, a skill at which
the Confederates tended to be superior, and the systematic interrogation of
prisoners and deserters. Such methods were supplemented by dispatching spies
to cross enemy lines to discover "what is on the other side of the hill." In
attempting this, Civil War spies had certain advantages. The two sides had a
common language and culture. And in border states, such as Missouri and
Maryland, loyalty to either cause was ambiguous and the recruitment of spies
relatively easy. In addition, Union spies assumed convenient cover
occupations in Confederate territory, which was experiencing shortages in
manpower and military goods. The infiltrators found cover as smugglers or
deserters.
The fledgling intelligence services were novelties and did not survive the
four-year conflict. The federal organizations, despite their limited
jurisdiction and scope, were more effective than the Confederates' service,
the so-called Secret Service Bureau. The principal federal services were
Allan Pinkerton's Detective Bureau of General McClellan's Army of the
Potomac (1861-1862) and General Hooker's Bureau of Military Information
(1863-1865), managed by Colonel George Sharpe, 120th New York Regiment.
Although both organizations functioned only as part of one army, Hooker's
Bureau of Military Information was an improvement on Pinkerton's
organization, which was limited to only two functions: spying and
interrogation of prisoners of war. Sharpe improved these activities and
added more, including the key interception of flag signaling. A
Scottish-born master detective, Pinkerton was effective in counterespionage
and security. In early 1861 Pinkerton's service helped save the life of
President-elect Abraham Lincoln as he traveled through Baltimore to the
nation's capital. Pinkerton was talented in penetrating conspiracies but his
military intelligence work for the Army of the Potomac and his field
estimates of Confederate military strength were inaccurate.
Several Confederate spies long ago entered the realm of myth, in part
because of the exaggerations and fabrications of their published memoirs.
Secret agent Rose Greenhow, a prominent socialite and Confederate
sympathizer in Washington, D.C., produced useful intelligence for General
Pierre Beauregard early in the war, but Pinkerton's counterspies were easily
her match, and she was arrested and jailed. As was the case with a number of
female spies, however, she was released and then escaped to England to
pursue a propaganda war against the Union. Another celebrated Confederate
female spy was Belle Boyd, who created her own legend as an agent. She was
lauded in literature as La Belle Boyd and the Cleopatra of the Confederacy,
despite her modest contributions to Confederate intelligence. Her postwar
published memoirs promoted her legend, enhanced by her later performances on
the stage. On Belle Boyd's tombstone was inscribed "Confederate Spy." But by
far the most effective Confederate spy, who never became a celebrity, was
thirty-one-year-old Mississippian, Henry T. Harrison, who spied for General
James Longstreet and provided accurate reports on federal army movements
before the Battle of Gettysburg.
The most successful secret agent of all, however, was Miss Elizabeth Van
Lew, a federal spy in Richmond, Virginia, who co-headed a Union spy ring
from 1864 to 1865. Using an effective cover personality as an eccentric,
even deranged, lonely spinster, she deceived observers and provided vital
intelligence to a number of Federal generals. Enhancing her cover
personality was her open expression of pro-Union sympathies and her
providing federal prisoners in Richmond with food and clothing. After the
war Van Lew, known as Crazy Bet as part of her myth, was rewarded with a
position in the Federal Postal Service.
By the time of the battle of Chancellorsville in early May 1863, General
Hooker's Bureau of Military Information's performance in field intelligence
had greatly improved. This service was now more effective in discovering
three key intelligence elements about the enemy: the location of its forces,
the strength and composition of those forces, and commanders' intentions.
Sharpe's spies assisted in Hooker's superb coup of placing a large federal
army in the rear of the Confederates, undetected by Lee. Good intelligence
helped Hooker's plan, though he lost the battle of Chancellorsville to Lee.
It was at the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, only weeks later, that
federal intelligence truly came into its own. By this time federal
intelligence officers had compiled the most complete order-of-battle chart
of Lee's army. During this campaign three elements provided vital
information to General George Meade: federal soldier-spies behind
Confederate lines; organized groups of citizen-scouts in south-central
Pennsylvania who observed Confederate movements; and effective cavalry
scouting, which detected the enemy's approach to Gettysburg. Meade's use of
this intelligence, backed by military strength, was an important factor in
the Confederates' defeat at Gettysburg.
The Civil War proved to be a turning point for the government's role in
intelligence gathering. First, the North's victory over the South was partly
the result of the North's superiority in both tactical and strategic means
for observing enemy troops. The North used the interception and deciphering
of Southern telegrams and flag signals to its advantage, just as the Allies'
breaking of Japanese and German codes in World War II contributed to
victory. After the Civil War, in 1885, military intelligence was reorganized
to incorporate new technology. Second, despite some objections, Americans
accepted the necessity of reducing temporarily some civil liberties during
time of war to aid in the detection and capture of spies. In the
twenty-first century's War on Terror, Americans face an even greater
challenge in balancing individual privacy and civil liberties with security.