People who are involved in espionage usually must remain unknown during their lifetimes. Achieving anonymity even in history is especially true of African American spies and particularly of women spies. When people think of a civil war spy, they imagine a male. Nevertheless, women played a huge role and were perfect because they were easily trusted and viewed as a non-threat. African Americans were also great spies because they had direct access to conversation as they were serving and cooking for both the union army and Confederates. However, during the civil war, most spies that were captured were executed. Certain espionage exploits by African Americans during the Civil War have come to be known and are a part of history.
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The Union and Confederacy were literally divided by ideology alone. The north and south employed SIGINT gathering techniques and used it to their advantage. Both sides bugged/monitored telegraph lines to obtain information, and to employ counter intelligence operations. Part of the Unions counter-intelligence operation focused on the southern ideology of how African Americans were viewed. The Union commanders quickly learned how to utilize the ignorant ideology of the confederate army to its advantage, keying in on the notion that slaves, coachmen, laundresses, servants, and blacks, in general, were uneducated and did not possess any literary skills. Confederate generals and officers would routinely disregard blacks among their presence, which in turn provided a perfect atmosphere for espionage. It has been quoted that General Robert E. Lee himself concluded, “the chief source of information to the enemy (Union forces) is through our negroes.” (Rose, Black Dispatches, …show more content…
Upon Mr. John Van Lew’s death, Mary Elizabeth Bowser and other slaves were freed; by the wife and Daughter of Mr. Van Lew. Shortly after gaining her freedom, Elizabeth Van Lew sent Mary Elizabeth Bowser to be educated in Philadelphia so that she may take part in a larger covert spy operation against the confederates. Upon her completion of education, Mrs. Bowser obtained part time work to serving the Davis family, the family of the Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Once gaining full time employment at the Confederate White House in Richmond, Mary Elizabeth Bowser using the name of “Ellen Bond” (Sizer, 2013) While working she posed as slow thinking and illiterate but she “had a photographic mind. Everything she saw on the rebel president’s desk, she could repeat word for word. Unlike most colored, she could read and write.” (Henry Louis Gates, 2004) The intelligence that Bowser obtained was delivered to “Thomas McNiven,” (Varon, 2003) a Federal spy case agent who made bakery deliveries to the Confederate White
The stories of …show more content…
The Union and Confederacy were literally divided by ideology alone. The north and south employed SIGINT gathering techniques and used it to their advantage. Both sides bugged/monitored telegraph lines to obtain information, and to employ counter intelligence operations. Part of the Unions counter-intelligence operation focused on the southern ideology of how African Americans were viewed. The Union commanders quickly learned how to utilize the ignorant ideology of the confederate army to its advantage, keying in on the notion that slaves, coachmen, laundresses, servants, and blacks, in general, were uneducated and did not possess any literary skills. Confederate generals and officers would routinely disregard blacks among their presence, which in turn provided a perfect atmosphere for espionage. It has been quoted that General Robert E. Lee himself concluded, “the chief source of information to the enemy (Union forces) is through our negroes.” (Rose, Black Dispatches, …show more content…
Upon Mr. John Van Lew’s death, Mary Elizabeth Bowser and other slaves were freed; by the wife and Daughter of Mr. Van Lew. Shortly after gaining her freedom, Elizabeth Van Lew sent Mary Elizabeth Bowser to be educated in Philadelphia so that she may take part in a larger covert spy operation against the confederates. Upon her completion of education, Mrs. Bowser obtained part time work to serving the Davis family, the family of the Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Once gaining full time employment at the Confederate White House in Richmond, Mary Elizabeth Bowser using the name of “Ellen Bond” (Sizer, 2013) While working she posed as slow thinking and illiterate but she “had a photographic mind. Everything she saw on the rebel president’s desk, she could repeat word for word. Unlike most colored, she could read and write.” (Henry Louis Gates, 2004) The intelligence that Bowser obtained was delivered to “Thomas McNiven,” (Varon, 2003) a Federal spy case agent who made bakery deliveries to the Confederate White