August 19, 2022
On June 10, 1833, Harriet Wood was born in New Orleans. Her father was a Spanish merchant, and her mother was the daughter of one of Napoleon Bonaparte’s soldiers. The family moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, to establish a trading post, and while she lived there, she learned how to fire shotguns and ride horses. She and her brothers also canoed in the local rivers. In 1862, she moved to Louisville to make her stage debut. She didn’t remain in Louisville, however, and headed for New York, where she took the stage name, Pauline Cushman.
At the age of 18, she moved to New York City to pursue a career as an actress, but she was unable to find a job. She was hired by a theater manager in New Orleans, and she changed her name to Pauline Cushman. She developed a reputation for her charms and met her future husband, Charles Dickinson. They moved to Cleveland, Ohio, after which, Dickinson enlisted in the Union Army as an infantry musician. He contracted dysentery and died in 1862 (although reports as to his cause of death vary).
The Accidental Spy
Cushman was performing in the play at a Louisville theater, Seven Sisters, in April 1863, when two paroled Confederate officers offered to pay her to make a toast to the Confederacy during the show. She wasn’t sure what to do, so she asked the U.S. Provost Marshall in Louisville, Colonel Orlando Hurley Moore, for advice. His recommendation: accept the proposition so she could ingratiate herself and then come to his office the next day. When she followed his advice, toasting, “Here’s to Jefferson Davis and the Southern Confederacy. May the South always maintain her honor and her rights!” she was fired. Moore then offered her a new position as a Union spy. The toast allowed her to gain Southern approval, and so she was able to mix in their circles. Once she became a spy, Cushman posed as a Confederate sympathizer to collect information. She disguised herself as a southern woman in a boarding house and managed to stop the poisoning of Union soldiers. She also dressed as a man and convinced a woman who was bringing supplies to Confederate soldiers that she was an undercover Confederate officer. Once she notified the Union forces of her location, they were able to confiscate the supplies.
Her Capture
She then moved to Nashville to work in a theater there; she was also employed by the espionage chief for the commander of the Army of the Cumberland. Cushman was under orders to gather information about confederate General Braxton Bragg. She claimed that she was “searching for a lost brother” and infiltrated the camps, where she was supposed to study and memorize the information. Although she wasn’t to steal physical documents, she didn’t listen and was caught smuggling battle plans in the soles of her boots.
