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| ‘Major’ Pauline Cushman, the Federal spy who barely escaped hanging Pauline Cushman was a clever actress, and her art fitted her well to play the part of a spy. Although a native of New Orleans, she spent much of her girlhood in the North, and was so devoted to the Union that she risked her life in its Secret service. The Federal Government employed her first in the hunt for Southern sympathizers and spies in Louisville, and the discovery of how they managed to convey information and supplies into the territory of the Confederacy. She performed the same work in Nashville. In May, 1863, as Rosecrans was getting ready to drive Bragg across the Tennessee River, Miss Cushman was sent into the Confederate lines to obtain information as to the strength and location of the Army of Tennessee. She was captured, tried by court-martial, and sentenced to be hanged. In the hasty evacuation of Shelbyville, in the last days of June, she was overlooked and managed to regain the Union lines. It was impossible to describe the joy of the soldiers when they found the brave spy, whom they had thought of as dead, once more in their midst. Her fame after this spread all over the land. The soldiers called her ‘Major’ and she wore the accouterments of that rank. Her accurate knowledge of the roads of Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi was of great value to the commander of the Army of the Cumberland. |
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[273]
Review of Reviews. New York. 1912.
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