Item No: #306903 CDV Portrait of Pauline Cushman, Civil War Spy. Abraham Bogardus.
CDV Portrait of Pauline Cushman, Civil War Spy

Famous Civil War Spy CDV

CDV Portrait of Pauline Cushman, Civil War Spy

Notes: Half-length portrait of Cushman in her uniform; her hand is just visible at the bottom of the picture gripping the pommel of her saber. An albumen print on a thin 2-3/8 by 3-15/16 inch mount.

Cushman (1833–1893) was one of the most celebrated women during the Civil War, acclaimed for her spying for the Union. She received considerable publicity at the time and was the subject of mostly invented biography in 1865. She continued to generate newspaper coverage for the rest of her life.

Hard facts about her, however, are scarce. Her real name may have been Harriet Wood, from either New York or New Orleans. Pauline Cushman was her stage name. She left home to pursue a career in acting. She married a Charles Dickinson, who is often described as a music teacher but in the 1860 census it is his father who is the music teacher. Charles and Harriet have no profession noted in 1860, when they lived with Charles's parents. They are usually reported as having two young children, but the 1860 census did not record either of them. Cushman's husband enlisted in the Union Army and died in December 1862 of a serious illness contracted in camp. Cushman's marriage to Dickinson is documented through her claim for a widow's pension made in 1890.

Before her husband died, Cushman seems to have spent September 1862 in Buffalo, NY, performing on the stage, according to the city's newspapers. Whatever spying she did must have happened between then and early 1863 when she was captured by Confederate forces and sentenced to hang. The only definitive evidence that she did something for the Union Army seems to be a reference in the Contingent Expenses of the War Department for June 2, 1870: "Paid Pauline Cushman for special services rendered General Rosecrans's command for June and July 1863 — $565.60" (House of Representatives Ex. Doc. 44, 1871, p. 32). Legend has it that she was given the honorary title Major by union troops and she was frequently cited in the press with the title "Miss Major."

Many others listed on the same page of the expense report also provided "special" services to Rosecrans, including at least one other woman, Mary E. Truesdell. One person is credited with providing "secret" services. I have not located a single Civil War memoir that mentions Cushman's activities.

The first reference I found to Cushman's spy work ran in the Louisville Courier Journal on October 31, 1863. This story may have been copied from another newspaper as it says that Cushman had recently passed through New Haven, Kentucky. In the short article, Cushman is "said to be a member of the secret army police" and that "she has crossed army lines on several occasions." In this version, she was "taken prisoner by John Morgan, and advertised to be hung in Nashville as a Federal spy, from all which perils she escaped by singular cunning, daring, and courage. She is adept at drawing, and has frequently obtained sketches of the enemy's works."

That article was copied in many other newspapers and seems to be the origin of Cushman's fame.

For the rest of the Civil War and for a few years after, Cushman toured with a show that combined her performing several short plays, singing, and an account of her Civil War exploits. In most accounts of her life, her children both died in the mid-1860s.

As the memory of the war faded, so did her career. She drifted around the country, married a few times, and died of an opium oversdose in San Francisco. She was buried at the Presido with a headstone reading "Pauline Fryer, Union Spy". Fryer was the surname of her last husband.

Edition + Condition: A very good image, with the mount corners clipped. The verso (back) of the CDV is blank. The image is a slightly cropped version of a photograph attributed to Abraham Bogardus on other CDVs of the era. In light pencil, someone has written in an early hand "Pauline Cushman, Major U.S.A. and Federal Spy."

Publication: (N.-pl.): (n.p.), (late 1860s?).

Item No: #306903

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