CDV photograph of Mrs. Rose Greenhow. Oval bust view. Image is clear with very good contrast. Mount remains in good condition. Pencil identification on front and back. Photographer’s backmark, E. & H.T. Anthony, New York from a Brady negative.

Rose O'Neal Greenhow (1813– October 1, 1864) was a renowned Confederate spy during the Civil War. A socialite in Washington, D.C., before the war, she moved in important political circles and she was able to cultivate friendships with presidents, generals, senators, and high-ranking military officers including John C. Calhoun and James Buchanan. She used her connections to pass along key military information to the Confederacy at the start of the war. In early 1861, she was given control of a pro-Southern spy network in Washington, D.C., by her handler, Thomas Jordan, then a captain in the Confederate Army. She was credited by Jefferson Davis with ensuring the South's victory at the First Battle of Bull Run in late July 1861.

The government found that information was being leaked and the trail led to Rose Greenhow's residence. In 1862 after an espionage hearing, she and her daughter "Little Rose", were imprisoned for nearly five months in Washington, D.C.  Greenhow was deported to the Confederacy. Running the blockade, she sailed to Europe to represent the Confederacy on a diplomatic mission to France and Britain from 1863 to 1864. Two months after arriving in London, Greenhow wrote her memoir, titled "My Imprisonment and the First Year of Abolition Rule at Washington". She published it that year in London and it sold well throughout Britain.

On August 19, 1864, Greenhow left Europe to return to the Confederacy, carrying dispatches. She traveled on the Condor, a British blockade runner. On October 1, 1864, the Condor ran aground at the mouth of the Cape Fear River near Wilmington, North Carolina, while being pursued by the Union gunboat USS Niphon. Fearing capture and reimprisonment, Greenhow fled the grounded ship by rowboat. A wave capsized the rowboat, and Greenhow drowned. She was weighed down by $2,000 worth of gold sewn into her underclothes, from her memoir royalties.

When Greenhow's body was recovered from the water near Wilmington, searchers found a small notebook and a copy of her book "Imprisonment" hidden on her. Inside the book was a note meant for her daughter, Little Rose. She was honored with a military funeral at St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church in Wilmington, North Carolina, and the Ladies Memorial Association, in 1888, marked her grave in Oakdale Cemetery with a cross that read "Mrs. Rose O'Neal Greenhow. A Bearer of Dispatches to the Confederate Government." She is buried in Oakdale Cemetery, Wilmington, NC.  [jet] [ph:L]

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