Spies of the Civil War

[SSlater]

(This will need the approval of Management)

There has been some Posts herein, of a need to research the lesser known Agents - with the idea that if we know more about these Agents, we eventually develop a better grasp of the "whole picture".

GOOD IDEA!

The biggest drawback seems to be - Who should we look at?
Here's a list of some (I don't want to say "unknown" Agents) so, I'll say "lesser known" Agents. Pick one, or more, and start looking. Anything you know, or find, is worth posting. Your smallest item may fit with something someone else posted, and we have made progress.

Let's keep all information - about the same person -in a thread dedicated to them only. everybody adds to the same thread. Then we will have all that is known, in one place and that can be referenced. I doubt that we will ever close that thread.

Here goes - Fanny Dade, Samuel Ruth, William Andrew Norton, Gus Howell, Sgt. Harry Brogdan, Antonia Ford, Belle Boyd, Kate Thompson, Josephine Brown, Elizabeth Van Lew, Isaac Silver, William McDaniel, Enoch Mason, Etc. You may want to work on one of the Big Guys - do so! Thomas Jones, Joseph Baden, Benjamin Arnold.
Thomas Nelson Conrad. etc. You may want to get help on someone we don't know about. Just Post Him , or Her, in their own thread. Ask questions, identify your guesses, add names, dates, events, etc.

If the boss says -Yes - lets get started.

[RJNorton]

This is not a category I know anything about, but I found that Elizabeth Van Lew, a Union spy, sent baskets of farm produce to people like Grant. The baskets contained eggs, one of which contained encoded messages in place of its natural contents.

[SSlater]

That's a good start. Let me add some items
Samuel Ruth was the superintendent of the RR between Richmond and Fredericksburg. He worked with Elizabeth van Lew. He would bring escapees from the prisons in Richmond to the end of the line at Hamilton's Crossing (very near Fredericksburg). They would cross the River (The Rappahannock) to a farm owned by Fanny Dade. She would move them across King George to the Potomac, to another farm she owned at Boyd's Hole. She would signal the gunboats to come get the men. If that wasn't possible, she would put them into Maryland. Incidentally, Thomas Nelson Conrad had his camp on Fanny Dade's farm ... "on the Hampstead Road, a mile back from The river." That road in now completely on Caladon State Park and almost overgrown. Toward the end of the war, Conrad wanted to break up Van Lew's escape route, so he had them all arrested, including Fanny. She went "State's Evidence" and everybody got off. See Conrad's Book

[Gene C]

Is this the book you are referring to - "The Rebel Scout" by Capt. Thomas Nelson Conrad?
https://archive.org/stream/rebelscoutthr...0/mode/2up

[SSlater]

Is this the book you are referring to - "The Rebel Scout" by Capt. Thomas Nelson Conrad?
https://archive.org/stream/rebelscoutthr...0/mode/2up

Yes, Gene, that's one of them. The other is "A Confederate Spy". Both books are very similar. (how could they be different, if they cover the same subject?) He probably made a few changes, just so it would sell. Thomas Nelson Conrad was a noted figure after the war. He wrote articles for newspapers, about his experiences. He became the President of "Virginia A & M", (now known as "Virginia Tech.). His political support was a group called the "Adjusters". That group was protesting the "Tax" that the Federal government placed on the Confederate States, in their effort to pay for the war. Since West Virginia was part of Virginia before the war, they should be made to pay part of Virginia's bill. I'll have to look up whether or not they paid.

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Is this the book you are referring to - "The Rebel Scout" by Capt. Thomas Nelson Conrad?
https://archive.org/stream/rebelscoutthr...0/mode/2up

Yes, Gene, that's one of them. The other is "A Confederate Spy". Both books are very similar. (how could they be different, if they cover the same subject?) He probably made a few changes, just so it would sell. Thomas Nelson Conrad was a noted figure after the war. He wrote articles for newspapers, about his experiences. He became the President of "Virginia A & M", (now known as "Virginia Tech.). His political support was a group called the "Adjusters". That group was protesting the "Tax" that the Federal government placed on the Confederate States, in their effort to pay for the war. Since West Virginia was part of Virginia before the war, they should be made to pay part of Virginia's bill. I'll have to look up whether or not they paid.

I forgot to mention, he's buried in Blacksburg.

[Wild Bill]

Technically the "adjusters" referred to by SSlater is the Readjuster Party, a political biracial coalition formed in Virginia in the late 1870s during the turbulent period following the Reconstruction era. Off the top of my head, I believe that John Moby was a party leader, but I could be wrong.