Biography

Rose O'Neal Greenhow was born in Maryland, the daughter of a farmer who kept enslaved people on his estate. After his supposed murder by an enslaved man serving as his valet, Rose and her sister Ellen were sent to live with an aunt in Washington, D.C., likely sometime in the late 1820s. Living in Washington, Rose became intimately familiar with the workings of city society. When her sister Ellen married James Madison Cutts, the nephew of Dolley Madison, wife of President James Madison, Rose drew closer to higher political society. In 1835, Rose married Dr. Robert Greenhow, a medical doctor, lawyer, translator, and librarian who worked for the State Department. Robert died in 1854 leaving his wife with three children and pregnant with a fourth. Rose stayed in Washington and maintained the political role she had held hitherto, including aiding in the election of James Buchanan in 1856. During the American Civil War, Rose used her political ties to engage in espionage for the Confederacy. Her efforts helped the Confederacy win one of the first battles of the war, the Battle of Manassas. Rose's spy network included many women who used ingenious means to pass along information to Southern forces. Rose's activities eventually caught the attention of Thomas A. Scott, the Assistant Secretary of War, who employed Allan Pinkerton to determine her guilt. Pinkerton confirmed her involvement in war espionage and she was imprisoned in her home. Rose continued to pass along information to the Confederacy and was a source of humiliation for the Union and honor for the Confederacy. Returning from a trip abroad intended to garner support for the Confederacy in 1864, Rose's ship was grounded off North Carolina. In attempting to make shore in a small rowboat, Rose drowned, supposedly weighted down by the gold she had acquired abroad in support of the Confederacy.