American actress and Civil War spy (1833?1893)
Pauline Cushman
|
---|
|
Born
| Harriet Wood
June 10, 1833
|
---|
Died
| December 2, 1893
(1893-12-02)
(aged 60)
|
---|
Other names
| Major Pauline Cushman Fryer, Pauline Fryer
|
---|
Occupation(s)
| Actress, Union Spy
|
---|
Spouse(s)
| Jere Fryer, August Fichtner, Charles C. Dickinson
|
---|
Children
| Three, Charles and Ida, and adopted daughter Emma
|
---|
Pauline Cushman
(born
Harriet Wood
; June 10, 1833 – December 2, 1893) was an American actress and a
spy
for the
Union Army
during the
American Civil War
. She is considered one of the most successful Civil War spies.
[1]
Early life
[
edit
]
Harriet Wood, who later adopted the stage name of Pauline Cushman, was born in
New Orleans, Louisiana
, on June 10, 1833, the daughter of a Spanish merchant and a Frenchwoman (daughter of one of
Napoleon Bonaparte
's soldiers). Harriet and her brother William
[2]
[
page needed
]
were raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her parents moved there to establish a trading post with indigenous peoples. In 1862, she made her stage debut in
Louisville, Kentucky
, a
Union
-occupied city.
[3]
Later, she would travel to New York where she would take the stage name Pauline Cushman. Over the course of her life, Cushman was married to Jere Fryer, Charles C. Dickinson, and August Fichtner. She had three children: Charles, Ida, and an adopted daughter, Emma.
Career as a spy
[
edit
]
After a Northern performance, Cushman was paid by two local pro-Confederate men to
toast
Confederate
President
Jefferson Davis
after the performance. The theatre company forced her to quit, but she had other ideas.
[4]
She had decided to ingratiate herself with the rebels by making the toast, while offering her services to the Union as a
spy
.
By fraternizing with rebel military commanders, she managed to conceal battle plans and drawings in her shoes, but was caught twice in 1864
[5]
and brought before Confederate
General
Braxton Bragg
, tried by a military court, and sentenced to death by hanging.
[6]
Though she was already ill, she acted worse off than she was. The Confederates had to postpone her execution. Cushman was spared
hanging
by the invasion of the area by Union troops.
[7]
She was also wounded twice.
[8]
Some reports state that she returned to the South in her role as a spy, dressed in male uniform. She was awarded the rank of
brevet
major by General
James A. Garfield
, and made an honorary
major
by President
Abraham Lincoln
for her service to the Federal cause, and became known as "Miss Major Pauline Cushman."
[9]
By the end of the war in 1865, she was touring the country giving lectures on her exploits as a spy.
Later life
[
edit
]
Because her undercover activities on behalf of the government were secret, there is a lack of corroborative information about her life at this time. After the war, however, she began a tour celebrating her experiences as a Union spy, working at one point with
P. T. Barnum
. In 1865, a friend, Ferdinand Sarmiento, wrote an exaggerated biography titled
The Life of Pauline Cushman: The celebrated Union Spy and Scout,
detailing her early history, her entry into the secret service, notes, and memoranda.
She lost her child to sickness by 1868, and married again in 1872 in
San Francisco
, but was widowed within a year. Sources state that in 1879 she met Jere Fryer, and moved to
Casa Grande
,
Arizona Territory
, where they married and operated a hotel and livery stable. Jere Fryer became the
sheriff
of
Pinal County
. Their adopted daughter, Emma, died on April 17, 1888, at 6 years old of a seizure. As a result, the Fryers separated in 1890.
By 1892, she was living in poverty in
El Paso
,
Texas
. She had applied for back
pension
based on her first husband's military service which she received in the amount of $12 per month beginning in June 1893
[
citation needed
]
. Her last few years were spent in a boarding house in San Francisco, working as a
seamstress
and
charwoman
. Disabled from the effects of
rheumatism
and
arthritis
, she developed an addiction to pain medication, and on the night of 2 December 1893 she took a suicidal overdose of
morphine
. She was found the next morning by her landlady.
Death and legacy
[
edit
]
She died as Pauline Fryer at the age of sixty. The time of her Civil War fame was recalled at her funeral, which was arranged by members of the
Grand Army of the Republic
; Cushman was buried with full military honors.
[10]
"Major" Cushman's remains now rest in Officer's Circle at the
Presidio's National Cemetery
. Her simple gravestone recognizes her contribution to the Union's victory. It is marked, "Pauline C. Fryer, Union Spy."
In 1961, the television series
Rawhide
aired an episode, "The Blue Spy" with Pauline Cushman as the central character, portrayed by veteran actress
Phyllis Thaxter
.
A road at
Fort Ritchie
, Maryland a now decommissioned Army Post, was named in her honor.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
DIA History Office (March 13, 2014).
"Women in Intelligence, Part 1"
.
Defense Intelligence Agency
. Retrieved
June 16,
2021
.
- ^
Christen (2005).
Pauline Cushman
. Edinborough Press.
ISBN
978-1-889020-11-2
.
- ^
Tsui, Bonnie (2006).
She Went to the Field: Women Soldiers of the Civil War
. Guilford: Two Dot. pp. 97?98.
ISBN
9780762743841
.
- ^
Tsui, Bonnie (2006).
She Went to the Field: Women Soldiers of the Civil War
. Guilford: Two Dot. pp. 98?99.
ISBN
9780762743841
.
- ^
Hall, Richard H. (2006).
Women on the Civil War Battlefront
. Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas. p. 233.
ISBN
0700614370
.
- ^
Tsui, Bonnie (2006).
She Went to the Field: Women Soldiers of the Civil War
. Guilford: Two Dot. p. 99.
ISBN
9780762743841
.
- ^
Tsui, Bonnie (2006).
She Went to the Field: Women Soldiers of the Civil War
. Guilford: Two Dot. p. 99.
ISBN
9780762743841
.
- ^
Hall, Richard H. (2006).
Women on the Civil War Battlefront
. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas. p. 233.
ISBN
0700614370
.
- ^
"Minor Items"
,
The Cultivator and Country Gentleman
, vol. XLI, no. 1199, Albany, NY: Luther Tucker & Son, p. 45, January 20, 1876
, retrieved
July 3,
2014
- ^
Tsui, Bonnie (2006).
She Went to the Field: Women Soldiers of the Civil War
. Guilford: Two Dot. p. 100.
ISBN
9780762743841
.
Books
[
edit
]
- Sarmiento, Ferdinand L. (1865).
Life of Pauline Cushman, the Celebrated Union Spy and Scout: Comprising Her Early History, Her Entry into the Secret Service of the Army of the Cumberland, and Exciting Adventures with the Rebel Chieftains and Others While Within the Enemy's Lines ... the Whole Carefully Prepared from Her Notes and Memoranda
. John E. Potter.
OCLC
50384124
.
Articles
[
edit
]
- Herringshaw, Thomas William. 1909. "Cushman, Pauline".
Herringshaw's National Library of American Biography: Contains Thirty-Five Thousand Biographies of the Acknowledged Leaders of Life and Thought of the United States; Illustrated with Three Thousand Vignette Portraits
.
External links
[
edit
]
Due to conflicting details about her life, several source links are provided.
|
---|
International
| |
---|
National
| |
---|
Other
| |
---|