Research Paper On Rose O Neale Greenhow

Rose O’Neal Greenhow was a Rebel Spy for the Confederacy during the Civil War. She was a well known woman among the government throughout her life, and served as an important spy. In her later life she was arrested for smuggling, and died in an unintentional accident. She impacted the spying society greatly, and influenced many people who shared a similar point of view as her. Rose O’Neal Greenhow’s early life was filled with many unfortunate events. Rose was born in 1815 in Montgomery, Maryland. She was an infant when her father died and lost her sister, Gertrude, to a disease when she was about seven or eight years old. A year later following her sister’s death, her mother passed away from drowning when she was about nine or ten. She

Rose was a social butterfly which benefited her in her job as a spy. One of her closest companions had been John C.Calhoun. She was also the Confederacy’s most celebrated spy during the started of the Civil War. During her times as a spy she stayed in Richmond collecting diplomatic, and wrote her memoirs until recalled in 1864. Rose managed to established a spy network throughout Washington, Rose usually picks up information from the union plans. During the years she worked as a spy, she was also able to created friendships with important people in the office.One of her most important achievement was the ten-words secret messages sent to Genertal Pierce G.T. Beauregard, this had caused him to won the battle of Bull Run. However she was later on arrested after being caught smuggling important informations from the

She was always considered as a security risk. But it was not until she was caught after smuggling important documents to the Confederacy that had ended her career as a spy. She was putted on house arrested for five months by Allan Pinkerton, before she was sent to the Old Capitol Prison in Washington with her daughter Little Rose. Greenhow was never given a fair trial, because the government were sacred that the trial would exposed her closed relationship with people who held important offices in the government. Her arrested however did not end rebel spying. She was later sent back to the South carrying Confederate dispatch and $2000 in gold.
The tragic event that led to the death of Rose O’Neal Greenhow. On September 1864, Rose was on her way back from her trip when a Yankee war vessel ran her ship aground in North Carolina. She boarded a small life boat, but the harsh waves overturned the boat. She had carried $2000 worth of gold which pulled her body down causing her to die from drowning. Her body was discovered the next day after being washed up shore the next morning. She died in Cape Fear River, North Carolina on October 1st. Her body was wrapped in the Confederate flag, and buried with full military honors in Oakdale