Lifting the Veil of a Legend
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William J. Christen. Pauline Cushman: Spy of the Cumberland. Roseville: Edinburgh University Press, 2006. v + 436 pp. $39.95, cloth, ISBN 978-1-889020-11-2. Reviewed by C. Kay Larson Published on H-CivWar (August, 2007) During the Civil War, "Miss Major" Pauline April 1863, Cushman was recruited as an army Cushman, née Harriet Wood, became a national detective by Col. Orlando H. Moore, the provost heroine as a Union spy and scout. Cushman en‐ marshal there. Cushman had reported two Con‐ tered the U. S. secret service following a fairly suc‐ federate parolees who tried to entice her into cessful Midwestern acting career and the death of making pro-Confederate declarations on stage. her husband, Charles C. Dickinson, a member of From this point on, Christen relies heavily on the 41st Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Chris‐ three biographies of Cushman, two autobiogra‐ ten, an independent scholar of nineteenth-centu‐ phies written in 1864, and a biography published ry culture, spent thirteen years researching: by Ferdinand L. Sarmiento in 1865. Christen also where Cushman came from, what the true facts of questions which parts, if any, of the Cushman/ her Union service were, and what happened to Sarmiento accounts are fctionalized. For exam‐ her after the Civil War. ple, there is a long discussion as to whether Cush‐ In the frst chapters, Christen uncovers Cush‐ man actually made a Confederate toast on stage man's real name; place of birth; who her parents (as a ruse to appear as a Confederate sympathiz‐ were; her marriage to Dickinson, a musician; his‐ er). tories of the theater companies that employed the In June 1863, Cushman was sent behind Con‐ couple; the Dickinsons' stage history; etc. Christen federate lines by Army Chief of Police William analyzes the sometimes conflicting information Truesdail in Nashville to gain information on Con‐ gleaned from family tradition, playbills and per‐ federate General Braxton Bragg's forces. Aside formance reviews, Midwestern newspaper no‐ from the Cushman/Sarmiento accounts, this is tices, and more. best verified by provost marshal records and the Following Dickinson's death from lingering ef‐ memoir of Josiah Conzett of the Fifth Iowa Caval‐ fects of dysentery, Pauline left her two children ry. Christen also confirms this reviewer's research with her in-laws to go on the Louisville stage. In that commanding General William S. Rosecrans H-Net Reviews used his own private network of scouts, which in‐ zona friend described Cushman as "refined" and cluded women. This would account for the rela‐ her hotel was well-appointed. tive dearth of official records on Cushman.[1] Sometime during the night of December 2, In summary, Cushman traveled to several 1893, Pauline Cushman Fryer died in San Francis‐ towns occupied by Bragg's forces, gathering infor‐ co, at age sixty. She was living in meager circum‐ mation on Confederate dispositions and sketching stances on her government widow's pension in a fortifications. She was fnally betrayed by a local boardinghouse owned by two close women smuggler and taken to Bragg's headquarters friends. Although her life had become circum‐ where her sketches were discovered. After a court scribed, eight hundred persons attended her fu‐ martial conviction, Cushman was sentenced to neral, including hundreds of Union veterans and hang. Due to Rosecrans's onslaught, Bragg was members of the Woman's Relief Corps. Circa 1910, forced to evacuate and Cushman was left at a doc‐ her body was reinterred in the Officer's Circle in tor's home in Shelbyville, being in ill health due to the Presidio National Park cemetery. Cushman's her confinement. Cushman was rescued when tombstone simply reads, "Pauline Fryer, Union Union forces retook the town. This Tullahoma Spy." campaign drove Bragg out of Middle Tennessee Regarding the writing of this biography, three into the Chattanooga area. issues beg discussion: the detailed research; the Christen's research does generally confirm general composition of the book; and the truth of the Cushman/Sarmiento accounts, as do reprints Cushman's wartime services and Christen's evalu‐ of newspaper stories published in the North after‐ ation of them. Clearly Christen did an extraordi‐ ward. For instance, at the opening of the Great nary amount of drudging work to uncover the Western Sanitary Fair in Cincinnati in December facts of Cushman's life and he should be applaud‐ 1863, Rosecrans introduced Cushman, relating her ed for it. But too many original documents are heroics as a spy. reprinted in full. The general facts of Cushman's For the next six years, Cushman's war es‐ life and the author's best judgments about them capades provided material for celebrated tours. would have been better handled by summarizing She was hired by P. T. Barnum's American Muse‐ more. And oddly, while Christen detailed the lives um in New York City, among other venues, to per‐ of obscure actors, he failed to comment on more form recitations of her army service. In later pertinent items, such as the play Maritana, a Dra‐ years she led a peripatetic existence in California ma of the Maid of Saragossa [Agustina de and Arizona Territory, working as a hotel/board‐ Aragón] and James Montgomery, the notorious ing house manager, marrying twice more, and Kansas antislavery guerrilla leader (Cushman per‐ burying an adopted daughter. Her frst two chil‐ formed in charity productions for Kansas relief in dren, who remained with her in-laws, also died 1860). Aragón, a legendary Spanish heroine of the young. Comments from Western friends and ac‐ Peninsular War, may have served as an inspira‐ quaintances fnally reveal something of Cush‐ tion for Cushman and others who assumed non‐ man's personality. By all accounts, she was a traditional roles in the Civil War.[2] Christen strong-willed, good-hearted woman who was will‐ would have benefited greatly from an editor who ing to help any man or beast in distress. Yet she could have helped him shape and balance the lived among a rough, hard-drinking, gun-toting content of his book. crowd and assumed their lifestyle. She was As to Cushman's legendary reputation, she known to referee gunfights. However, one Ari‐ needs to be judged in the context of other women combatants and known Civil War events. Even 2 H-Net Reviews though the roles of women (as soldiers, battlefield Confederates have hanged her? I doubt it. But her nurses, scouts, detectives, spies, couriers, guerril‐ imprisonment was as life threatening as the las, smugglers, telegraphers, arsenal workers, etc.) noose, in my judgment. On the other hand, hun‐ have been fairly well known for a number of dreds of women battlefield nurses and soldiers, years, writers continue to doubt their work and such as Annie Etheridge of the 5th Michigan In‐ the mass visual media has totally ignored women fantry and Jennnie Hodgers of the 95th Illinois, combatants. At frst, even the existence of women served much longer (three years in their cases) in soldiers was questioned. Confederate Loreta Jane‐ actual combat. ta Velazquez's autobiography was questioned, On balance, William J. Christen's work is a largely because Gen. Jubal Early did so in the late good, but rocky read, given the back and forth of nineteenth century. For years, Union spy Eliza‐ fact-checking, conflicting evidence, and some ex‐ beth Van Lew was known as "Crazy Bet," based traneous material. But, in part, this represents the largely on one comment in the postwar years.[3] rough road of Civil War women's history, as Until recently no substantial research had been mounds of facts must be sifted and winnowed conducted on many of these women, so igno‐ from scores of sources. Yet along the way, readers rance, doubts, and myths--negative and positive-- gain glimpses of the Civil War era rarely seen. In prevailed. spite of my critiques, I do recommend this work On the other hand, two major biographies, on to academic and lay readers alike. Further I com‐ S. Emma Edmonds (a.k.a., Pvt. Franklin Thomp‐ mend Christen for making extant facts of Cush‐ son, 2nd Michigan Infantry) and Velazquez (a.k.a., man's life that have never before been revealed Lt. Harry Buford, CSA) respectively, were fctional‐ and for his generally unbiased treatment of her. ized in part. So how do we judge Cushman's ex‐ Notes ploits? I think the answer is judge each major [1]. C. Kay Larson, South under a Prairie Sky: event on its own merits. For example, Christen The Journal of Nell Churchill, U. S. Army Nurse doubts that Cushman thwarted a plot to poison and Scout (Philadelphia.: Xlibris Corp., 2006). Two Union soldiers, but why? In the early fall of 1861, of Nell Churchill's fctional scouting missions are plots to poison Union food supplies were uncov‐ based in part on Cushman (pp. 245, 251). See ered in Maryland. During the Civil War the num‐ Christen, pp. 346-47 n. 3 to confirm Rosecrans’s in‐ ber of attempts by slaves to assassinate their mas‐ telligence network. ters rose. So this Louisville plot was in line with other events of the period.[4] On the other hand, [2]. Although I am not familiar with this dra‐ Christen accepted at face value newspaper re‐ ma, Aragón manned a cannon during the 1808 ports that Cushman had stolen money and was French siege of Saragossa. She later was commis‐ imprisoned, even though there were no other in‐ sioned a captain, serving under the Duke of dications of dishonesty on her part. Similar news Wellington. Women warriors were common dra‐ reports emerged about Annie Oakley later in her matic and literary subjects in Britain and America life, too.