 
Rose O'Neal Greenhow
1817-1864
Confederate Spy
Rose O'Neal was born in Montgomery County,
Maryland in 1817. "Wild
Rose", as she was called from a young age, married the wealthy
Virginian Dr. Robert Greenhow and became a leader in Washington
society, as she raised her four daughters. In 1850, the Greenhows
moved to Mexico, then to San Francisco where Dr. Greenhow died
of an injury, leaving Rose a widow.
The widowed Rose O’Neal Greenhow moved
back to Washington and resumed her role as a popular social hostess,
with many political
and military friends and contacts. At the beginning of the War
Between the States she became a passionate secessionist and one
of the most renowned spies in during the War Between the States.
Among her accomplishments was the ten-word secret message she sent
to General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard which ultimately caused
him to win the battle of Manassas. She spied so successfully for
the Confederacy that Jefferson Davis credited her with winning
the battle of Manassas. She was imprisoned for her efforts first
in her own home and then in the Old Capital Prison. Despite her
confinement, Greenhow continued getting messages to the Confederacy
by means of cryptic notes which traveled in unlikely places such
as the inside of a woman's bun of hair.
After her second prison term, she was exiled to the Confederate
states where she was received warmly by President Jefferson Davis.
Her next mission was to tour Britain and France as a propagandist
for the Confederate cause. Two months after her arrival in London,
her memoirs were published and enjoyed a wide sale throughout the
British Isles. In Europe, Greenhow found a strong sympathy for
the South, especially among the ruling classes. During the course
of her travels she hobnobbed with many members of the nobility.
She was received at the court of Queen Victoria and became engaged
to the Second Earl Granville. In Paris, she was received into the
court of Napoleon III and was granted an audience with the Emperor
at the Tuileries. In 1864, after a year abroad, she boarded the
Condor, a British blockade-runner which was to take her home. Just
before reaching her destination, the vessel ran aground at the
mouth of the Cape Fear River near Wilmington, North Carolina. In
order to avoid the Union gunboat that pursued her ship, Rose fled
in rowboat, but never made it to shore. Her little boat capsized
and she was dragged down by the weight of the gold she received
in royalties for her book.
In October 1864, Rose was buried with full
military honors in the Oakdale Cemetery in Wilmington. Her coffin
was wrapped in the
Confederate flag and carried by Confederate troops. The marker
for her grave, a marble cross, bears the epitaph, "Mrs. Rose
O'N. Greenhow, a bearer of dispatches to the Confederate Government."
Rose O’Neal Greenhow is the ancestor of Ronald Jean Alcorn
MOS&B #7308
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