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Deciding who is a hero certainly depends on one’s point of view. During the Civil War, spy operations were instrumental in determining the success of both sides’ battle plans. Most any account of Civil War history will include some references to spies or to citizens with unsuspected allegiances to “the enemy.” The beneficiaries of spy reports considered their spies in a much better light than did the ones being betrayed or spied upon.

One unlikely spy during the period was an actress known as Pauline Cushman, given name Harriet Wood. Born in New Orleans in 1833, her family later relocated to Michigan where her parents established a trading post. She reportedly made her acting debut in a stage play in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1862. Louisville was a Union Army-occupied city by that time. There are some different accounts of details, but likely while in Louisville, two Confederate sympathizers (possibly paroled Confederate officers) offered Cushman a significant amount of money to propose a toast to Confederate president Jefferson Davis. Seizing the opportunity to play both sides, she made the toast but informed Union officers beforehand, offering to become a spy for the Union. The theatre troupe fired her over the action, and her new career was off and running.

Her exploits on behalf of the Union army have been covered in several books over the past 200 years. In the book Coffee County From Arrowheads to Rockets, editor and author Corrinne Martinez had this to say regarding Cushman’s efforts in our locale: “The dreaded intelligence service of the Union army, headed by Col. William S. Truesdail, increased its activities after the Battle of Stone’s River. Spies were everywhere, and in Middle Tennessee a Creole actress whose stage name was Pauline Cushman was hard at work posing as a friend of the South. Soon after May 23, 1863, Truesdail asked Miss Cushman to visit Bragg’s camp; she was aware of the immense danger involved, especially since General Bragg was a spy-conscious general.

 “At Shelbyville, she quickly made friends with the young officers and met the young Captain of engineers in charge of fortifying the area. She managed to obtain all the documents and blueprints the young engineer had and tried to reach Nashville. However, she was detained at a cabin, and a Confederate sergeant entered and asked for her pass. She was unable to produce one and was placed under arrest. The documents and sketches of the fortifications were found, and Miss Cushman, protesting innocence, was taken before Generals Morgan, Forrest and Bragg. Forrest, in talking about the documents to Miss Cushman said, ‘Should their evidence show you to be… a spy, nothing under heaven can save you from a hempen collar.’ She was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged. She was sent to a Shelbyville home to await her execution, but soon the war activities occupied the Confederates attention; Rosecran’s troops, when they marched into Shelbyville, found the Creole actress still waiting. She was delivered from her sentence.”

She was awarded the rank of brevet major by General James A. Garfield, and made an honorary major by President Abraham Lincoln for her service to the Federal cause, and became known as “Miss Major Pauline Cushman.” By the end of the war in 1865, she was touring the country giving lectures on her exploits as a spy. We’ll assume that tour was in the northern half of the country!

Cushman was married three times and had serious health issues later in life. She committed suicide in 1893 via a lethal dose of morphine and was buried in San Franciso with full military funeral honors.

Supporting information courtesy of Wikipedia; all photos courtesy of the Library of Congress and are credited to the Matthew Brady Studio.

If you have interesting Tullahoma area stories and photos from the past, please contact me: alanmayes@lighttube.net