Rose O'Neal Greenhow placed under house arrest
- In Washington, D.C., Allen
Pinkerton, leading the new US secret service, places Confederate spy Rose
O'Neal Greenhow under house arrest. A wealthy Washington
widow at the outbreak of the war, Greenhow is well connected in the
capital and especially close to Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts.
Openly committed to the Southern cause, Greenhow has formed a reliable spy
network for the Confederacy. Her operatives had provided key information
to General Pierre G. T. Beauregard about Union General Irwin McDowell's
troop deployments before First Manassas in July, prompting Beauregard to
request additional troops and win a decisive victory. The Federals quickly
tracked down the leaks in Washington, and Pinkerton today places Greenhow
under house arrest and will soon confine other suspected women in her
home. But Greenhow would be undeterred in funneling information to the
Confederates from visitors, including Senator Wilson. In frustration
Pinkerton in early 1862 would confine Greenhow and her daughter to the Old
Capitol Prison for five months, later exiling her and her daughter,
"Little Rose," to the South in June 1862. Greenhow would later travel
to England and France encouraging support for the Southern cause, writing her
memoirs while abroad. Returning to the Confederacy in September 1864, Greenhow’s
ship would run aground off the North Carolina coast as a Union war vessel chased
it. Greenhow would drown when her lifeboat capsized, weighed down by a large
load of gold./1861
- The USS Release and Yankee
engage Confederate batteries at the mouth of Potomac Creek, Virginia./1861
- Skirmish occurs at Medoc, Missouri./1861
- Fort Craig, New Mexico Territory, is abandoned by
Federal forces after a skirmish./1861
- Forces skirmish at Springfield, Western Virginia./1861
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