How many spies were in the civil war

Stevenson I. American Civil War Spies. LaFayette Baker - Union spy chief, the basis of many stories and conspiracy theories. Belle Boyd - Teenage Confederate spy, started career by shooting Union soldier. Timothy Webster - Union spy, and the first Civil War spy to be executed. Sam Davis - Boy Hero of the Confederacy. Elizabeth Van Lew - Union spychief who ran an extremely successful spy ring in Richmond.

Comments Have your say about what you just read! Leave me a comment in the box below. Follow ACivilWarStory. Recent Articles. LaFayette Baker.

Belle Boyd. Timothy Webster. Not only had Cox captured Charleston, he also gained control of the strategically important Kanawha River.

Cox enjoys the unquestioned honor of winning the important valley of Kanawha for the Union…what is Bull Run for the rebels by the side of it? But in February Pinkerton asked Lewis to head back into enemy territory to look for Timothy Webster, a double agent who had been undertaking valuable work for the Union in the South.

Throughout the fall of dozens of secessionists were arrested and imprisoned thanks to information supplied by Webster. The Confederates congratulated Webster on his good fortune in escaping capture, but they soon began to doubt the authenticity of this enigmatic man who seemed to lead a charmed life. Pinkerton reminded Lewis that he would be doing the Union a great service, since Webster might possess information vital to the offensive being planned by McClellan.

Lewis relented, and on February 18 he and another agent, Irishman John Scully, were rowed across the Potomac into Virginia, and then entrained for Richmond. They arrived on February 26, posing as two British cotton merchants, and checked into the Exchange and Ballard Hotel. Later that day they visited other hotels in the area, asking whether a Timothy Webster was a guest.

Eventually they found him at the Monumental. The pair paid Webster only a brief visit on that first day, promising to return the following evening for a longer discussion. After a few minutes of small talk, he departed and the three Union agents got down to business.

But their discussions were soon interrupted by a knock at the door. In walked George Clackner, a Confederate detective, accompanied by a second man who Lewis recognized at once: Chase Morton, who had been arrested by Lewis and Scully in Washington a couple of months earlier on accusations of spying.

When no evidence was forthcoming, Morton had been sent south, and now he was on hand to identify Lewis and Scully as Northern detectives. Sharpe was a highly successful spymaster for the Union Army of the Potomac. His background gave him many advantages: he hailed from a privileged family in Kingston, NY; graduated from Rutgers University with honors; earned a law degree from Yale University; and, after opening a practice as an attorney, went on to serve with distinction as a Union Army officer.

In this capacity, Baker employed seedy characters from the underbelly of DC in his cadre of spies. A highly intelligent heiress from Richmond, VA, Van Lew developed an early empathy for slaves she saw being beaten in the streets of her hometown. Most women would volunteer to spy, however, some of them were recruited by spymasters. Goods like medicine, ammunition or weapons were hidden in packages and baskets.

Occasionally, extra stealth was required and they would hide them in the hoops of their skirts or even in dolls. She recruited other Southern women to smuggle weaponry, like muskets and sabers, under their hoop skirts.