Pauline Cushman

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Pauline Cushman

Harriet Wood (born June 10, 1833 in New Orleans , Louisiana , † December 2, 1893 in San Francisco , California ), known by her stage name Pauline Cushman , was an American actress and spy for the Northern States during the American Civil War . During her mission, she was exposed by the Confederate Army, brought before a military tribunal and sentenced to death as the first woman in the United States, but the sentence was not carried out due to the approaching Union troops. For her services, she received the rank of Brevet Major from the Union Army , which is why she was henceforth addressed as Miss Major Cushman and buried with military honors after her death.

Life

Childhood and youth

Pauline Cushman was born under the name Harriet Wood as the child of a Spanish trader and the daughter of a French winemaker in New Orleans . According to their biographer Ferdinand Sarmiento, the two ran away from Europe when the families refused to agree to a marriage and emigrated to the United States. However, a later census taker added foreign (German: foreign ) after her place of birth , which could indicate that she only came to the States after her birth. Pauline was the only girl of the eight children of her parents. Her mother described her as a quiet, tolerant woman, but her father had a harsh temperament.

When she was ten years old, the family moved to Grand Rapids , Michigan , a trading post that was also home to some Indians . Pauline grew up with Indian friends, from whom she learned horse riding and canoeing . According to their own information, these friends gave her the name Laughing Breeze (Eng. Laughing Breeze ). There was tension within the family, not just between parents. Pauline and one of her brothers also fell out and would never reconcile. Around 1850 she moved to New York , where she became an actress and took on the stage name Pauline Cushman. I.a. she performed in her old home in New Orleans, where she was frenetically celebrated for her beauty and charisma. In around 1853 she married Charles Dickinson, who played in the orchestra. The couple had two children, Ida and Charlie, who, however, died in quick succession at a young age.

espionage

Although she was born in the southern states , Pauline was a supporter of the Union. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, their troupe was playing in Cleveland , Ohio . Her husband joined the Union Army as a musician, but died in December 1862 of dysentery or typhus . In March 1863 she took on a role in the play The Seven Sisters at Wood's Theater in Louisville , Kentucky . Here she was approached by two officers of the Southern States, which offered her a large sum of money when one during a performance toast to Jefferson Davis and the Confederacy installed. Although Kentucky was held by Union forces, there were many southern sympathizers who relayed information. Pauline therefore immediately informed Colonel Moore, who was the Provost Marshal for the Union Army. This advised her to make the toast in order to position herself officially as a loyal southern national and in reality to spy for the Union. He himself would attend the performance with a few assistants. Cushman did as he was told and raised his glass on stage with the words: “To Jefferson Davis and the Southern Confederation! May the South always keep its honor and its rights! "

Pauline Cushman's toast on stage

With these words, she caused a commotion and was released from the acting troupe an hour later. At the same time, however, she had won the hearts of Confederate sympathizers and made numerous acquaintances over the next few days. From them she learned the names of southern spies and couriers, plans for small guerrilla troops in the area, and the transport of aid to the Confederate army. In addition, she found out how messages were smuggled into the southern states, including in the crops of chickens or in the handles of butter knives. According to her biographer, she often disguised herself to expose enemy spies, for example as an escaped Confederate or farm boy. She is also credited with saving injured Union soldiers from being poisoned by a southern collaborator.

Their successes led Colonel Moore to send them to Nashville , Tennessee , to track down enemy spies there as well. To this end, Pauline accepted an offer from theater owner JR Allen to work as an actress in the New Nashville Theater . In order to maintain her disguise as a Confederate rebel, Colonel Moore refused her a permit, so that Pauline apparently escaped from Louisville against the will of the Union Army. This made her extremely popular in Nashville, which gave her the opportunity to make new contacts. In May 1863, however, Colonel William Truesdail entrusted her with the much more dangerous mission of visiting Confederate General Braxton Bragg's army camps in Columbia, Shelbyville , Wartrace , Tullahoma and Manchester . Under the pretext of looking for her brother, who served in the Southern Army, she was supposed to gather information from the camps about their fortifications and transportation routes. In particular, he urged her not to carry any notes with her, but to memorize as much as possible. As protocol required, Pauline swore an oath to the Union at this meeting and thus became a member of the Army of the Cumberland .

Officially banished to the south as a rebel, Pauline received letters of recommendation in Columbia from members of the Confederate Army. She was so popular that Captain Blackman had a Confederate uniform tailored for her and suggested that she be his wing adjutant . In Shelbyville, she eventually broke her instructions and took the plans of a Confederate Army engineer. In Wartrace, too, she took as many papers as possible and in Tullahoma she made drawings that she hid in the sole of her shoe. However, while attempting to return to Nashville, she was apprehended and captured without a passport. For a short time she was under the supervision of John Hunt Morgan , with whom she said she had personal sympathy despite her different political views. General Nathan Bedford Forrest, however, recognized her as a Union spy and transferred her to Shelbyville. When her shoes and luggage were searched, her sketches and the stolen papers were found, evidence of her espionage.

Pauline Cushman in uniform

Given her predicament and exhausted after her grueling attempt to escape to Nashville, Pauline fell ill. As a result, she was found guilty in absentia by a military tribunal and became the first woman in the United States to be hanged. According to some sources, Pauline pleaded significantly sicker than she was in order to delay execution. In the end, there was no enforcement as Union forces drew closer and the Confederate Army had to withdraw from Shelbyville. After the Union invaded Pauline placed herself under the protection of the soldiers and was led back by them to Nashville, where she was received as a heroine. A New York newspaper wrote:

“Few, if any, of our American women have served the Union cause as inestimably as this bold, beautiful lady. These services have been recognized by the government and generals in the field, and their letters, testimonies and personal acknowledgments prove their love and respect for this truly faithful lady. "

James A. Garfield awarded her the rank of brevet major of the cavalry for her services and ladies friend in Nashville made her a blue riding costume with the insignia of a major, whereupon Pauline only wanted to be addressed as Major Cushman. However, her health was badly affected by her imprisonment and she had to struggle with bouts of depression for the rest of her life. Also, her face had become so familiar that she could no longer be used as a spy. Still, she continued to support the Army, this time as an advisor on unmapped areas in Alabama , Mississippi, and Tennessee that she knew well.

post war period

Similar to the Confederate spy Belle Boyd , her activities had made Pauline a celebrity among the population. She used her fame after the war to present her experiences on stage in monologue form, often dressed in her uniform. She performed in the cities of Boston , New York and San Francisco, among others . She was supported for a while by the showman PT Barnum , who advertised her as the Cumberland spy . She spent the 1870s in logging camps where coastal redwoods were processed. According to the receipts for her retirement pension, she married her second husband on December 19, 1872 in San Francisco , August Fichtner, who was born in Prussia , but who died two years later.

In 1879 she married her last husband, Jeremiah, sixteen years her junior, called "Jere", Fryer, whom she followed after the wedding to Casa Grande , Arizona . Here the couple successfully ran a hotel with an attached boarding house, but there are indications that Pauline developed an alcohol problem. According to the reports of her contemporaries, she had lost none of her fearlessness. So she chased away a group of drunken soldiers who bothered her several times at night, mediated between angry miners and faced a madman who wanted to blow up the city with several loads of nitroglycerine .

“Unimpressed, she ran towards the heap and without bothering about the madman and his pistol, she pulled out the fuse and threw it away. The man was so intimidated by this boldness of a woman that he surrendered immediately. "

Since the marriage was childless, Pauline adopted a newborn baby named Emma. Curiously, she passed the child off as her own to her husband. After her alleged pregnancy was announced, she traveled with an unmarried, pregnant woman to San Francisco, where the child was born on November 15, 1881. Since she was known for her jealousy, it is believed that with this child she wanted to bind her husband to her. To her parents' sorrow, however, Emma was born with an unidentifiable neurological disorder, which manifested itself in uncontrollable twitching and muscle spasms. Her condition worsened over time and one hospital visit is documented for 1886. In the same year Fryer was sheriff of Pinal County , which is why he had to move to Florence .

Pauline Cushman's grave in San Francisco National Cemetery

As Emma's condition worsened, Pauline took her daughter to cooler Grand Rapids , Michigan, for a year and a half . On the way back, Emma suffered another attack in Fremont , Nebraska, and died on April 17, 1888. According to a contemporary, the birth mother learned of the child's death from the newspaper and asked Pauline for information, whereupon her stunned husband found out about the adoption. The marriage broke up and Pauline returned to Casa Grande to take over the management of her hotel again. In 1890, Pauline officially separated from her husband, although neither of them ever filed for divorce.

Her civil war fame had long since faded and she was in financial trouble. For this reason, she applied for the survivor's pension for soldier widows, since her first husband had died in the war. Her rank as a brevet major was only nominal and therefore as a civilian she was not entitled to a veteran's pension. In December she moved to San Francisco, where she lived with the widow Elizabeth Taylor. Her health deteriorated rapidly. She suffered from severe rheumatism and probably heart problems. In 1893 she finally died of a morphine overdose . With the support of the Grand Army of the Republic and the Women Relief Corps , she was buried with military honors in the city cemetery. Her bones were later transferred to the San Francisco National Cemetery and are now in Officer Circle. A plaque commemorates them near the entrance.

literature

  • William J. Christians: Pauline Cushman: Spy of the Cumberland. Edinborough Press 2006, ISBN 1-88-902011-7
  • Ferdinand Sarmiento: Life of Pauline Cushman: The Celebrated Union Spy & Scout. Original edition JE Potter 1865; New edition Applewood Books 2001. ISBN 1-42-901545-4
  • Harnett Thomas Kane: Spies for the Blue and Gray . Doubleday 1954, ISBN 0-38-501464-3
  • Donald E. Markle: Spies and spymasters of the Civil War . Barnes and Nobles 1995, ISBN 1-56-619976-X

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ferdinand Sarmiento: Life of Pauline Cushman: The Celebrated Union Spy & Scout. JE Potter 1865, p. 21
  2. ^ William J. Christians: Pauline Cushman: Spy of the Cumberland. Edinborough Press 2006, p. 242
  3. ↑ Harnett Thomas Kane: Spies for the Blue and Gray. 1st edition, Ace Books 1954, p. 128
  4. ^ A b Harnett Thomas Kane: Spies for the Blue and Gray. 1st edition, Ace Books 1954, p. 129
  5. ^ A b Pauline Cushman at San Francisco National Cemetery . Accessed September 6, 2018
  6. ^ William J. Christians: Pauline Cushman: Spy of the Cumberland. Edinborough Press 2006, p. 303
  7. ^ Frank Moore: Women of the War: Their heroism and self-sacrifice. Hartford, Conn 1867, p. 170
  8. ↑ a b Pauline Cushman on Find a Grave . Accessed September 6, 2018
  9. ^ Frank Moore: Women of the War: Their heroism and self-sacrifice. Hartford, Conn 1867, p. 171
  10. ↑ Harnett Thomas Kane: Spies for the Blue and Gray. 1st edition, Ace Books 1954, pp. 130 f.
  11. ^ Ferdinand Sarmiento: Life of Pauline Cushman: The Celebrated Union Spy & Scout. JE Potter 1865, p. 75
  12. ^ Ferdinand Sarmiento: Life of Pauline Cushman: The Celebrated Union Spy & Scout. JE Potter 1865, p. 119
  13. ↑ Harnett Thomas Kane: Spies for the Blue and Gray. 1st edition, Ace Books 1954, p. 134
  14. ^ Ferdinand Sarmiento: Life of Pauline Cushman: The Celebrated Union Spy & Scout. JE Potter 1865, p. 213
  15. ^ Frank Moore: Women of the War: Their heroism and self-sacrifice. Hartford, Conn 1867, p. 175
  16. ^ Ferdinand Sarmiento: Life of Pauline Cushman: The Celebrated Union Spy & Scout. JE Potter 1865, p. 87
  17. ^ Ferdinand Sarmiento: Life of Pauline Cushman: The Celebrated Union Spy & Scout. JE Potter 1865, p. 346
  18. ^ A b Donald E. Markle: Spies and spymasters of the Civil War . Barnes and Nobles 1995, p. 174
  19. ^ William J. Christians: Pauline Cushman: Spy of the Cumberland. Edinborough Press 2006, p. 224
  20. ^ William J. Christians: Pauline Cushman: Spy of the Cumberland. Edinborough Press 2006, p. 259
  21. ^ William J. Christians: Pauline Cushman: Spy of the Cumberland. Edinborough Press 2006, p. 241
  22. ^ William J. Christians: Pauline Cushman: Spy of the Cumberland. Edinborough Press 2006, p. 247
  23. ^ William J. Christians: Pauline Cushman: Spy of the Cumberland. Edinborough Press 2006, p. 264
  24. ^ William J. Christians: Pauline Cushman: Spy of the Cumberland. Edinborough Press 2006, p. 277
  25. ^ William J. Christians: Pauline Cushman: Spy of the Cumberland. Edinborough Press 2006, p. 280
personal data
SURNAME Cushman, Pauline
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wood, Harriet (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American spy
DATE OF BIRTH June 10, 1833
PLACE OF BIRTH New Orleans , Louisiana
DATE OF DEATH December 2, 1893
Place of death San Francisco , California