Lincoln's Secret Spy: The Civil War Case That Changed the Future of Espionage

[Jane Singer]

(11-13-2014 04:54 PM)L Verge Wrote:  This is a sidebar to Jane's delving into the espionage side of the Civil War. When I get a request similar to what follows, I always turn to either Jane or Dave Gaddy for guidance (now that I don't have Bill Tidwell and Mr. Hall). This past week, I received the following email from a gentleman who had been advised by Harold Holzer to contact me as he searched for more information on a Civil War ancestor from Southern Maryland:

"My great grandfather Constantine Aloysius Bowling was a Confederate
soldier under J.E.B. Stuart in the 1st Maryland Cavalry. He is mentioned
in this letter from the Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln...

To Charles A. Dana [1] [1]

Executive Mansion,
Washington, Oct. 17, 1864.
Will Mr. Dana please report to me on the case of Constantine Bowling? A.
LINCOLN

ANNOTATION

[1] ALS, owned by Dale Carnegie, New York City. Constantine Bowling has
not been identified, and no report from Dana has been found.

I have filled in some of the blanks. As the story goes, he told his
family the he was visiting a girlfriend in Baltimore (Mary Surratt?). He
was later captured near Washington and beaten badly somewhere along the
lines. He returned home in late 1864 / early 1865 to his hometown of
Bryantown, MD and was treated by our family doctor at the time ...Samuel
Mudd.

1. Why would he risk so much going that far behind enemy lines?
2. Why was he in Washington?
3. Why Linclon was so interested in him?
4. Why was someone as prominent as Charles Dana involved?

If you could find the time to point me in the right direction for some
answers, I wold greatly appreciate it. Thank you for your time."

I was certainly intrigued because my great-aunt, Mary Emma Huntt, married an Aloysius Bowling of Southern Maryland in the 1880s. Could this have been her father-in-law? We now think that is very doubtful. However, Jane immediately found the roll of prisoners in Old Capitol Prison, and this Mr. Bowling was a prisoner there from October 1863-October 1864. We noted that he was released from Old Capitol within ten days of this letter to Charles Dana - and at almost the same time that Booth was beginning to form his operatives for the kidnap plot. Could Bowling have been a link? She also found reference to 48 pages on Bowling in another source that she is currently exploring.

There is also a "down home" story about Bowling. He grew up in Bryantown (a very familiar name in the Lincoln assassination story), and the story is that he hid in the rafters of the belfry at St. Mary's Catholic Church in the village with secret papers while Union soldiers searched the area for him. Sounds like a Walter Bowie or Col. Mosby stunt to me! That church, of course, is where Dr. Mudd made a special trip for Mass on that Sunday in November of 1864, and met John Wilkes Booth.

The intriguing part of the whole story (to Jane and me) is why Lincoln would turn to Charles Dana, the well-respected journalist for assistance on the case of Aloysius Bowling - but then again, Dana had served Lincoln in the past as a special investigator. If you want to join in the hunt, have at it. It would be nice if we could finish the story for this descendant of Bowling.

Laurie and forum,

I'm still working on the Dana connection. The forty-eight pages on Constantine A. Bowling's service records are in FOLD3. If any of you subscribe, it is a marvel! When I think of how Dr. Hall and others spent long, long hours at the NARA and here I can access service records in a very short time. Hardly seems fair.

Seems so far that there is a stew of family mythology and fact but it is of record that Bowling was arrested as a 'rebel spy.' And as Laurie speculates, was he recruited by someone at the prison or had the Maryland underground been nipping at his heels before?

There is more to do on the family and because the Bowling family physician was Dr. Mudd .... well ...

Good chase, this! Again, Laurie thanks for the kind words. This darn war is my life''s work, especially the espionage angles.