Black Dispatches facts for kids

Black Dispatches was a special name used by soldiers from the Union Army during the American Civil War. It referred to important secret information about the Confederate army that was given to them by African Americans. Many of these African Americans were enslaved people who wanted to help the Union win the war.

These brave individuals knew the land well and could often move around without being noticed. Their information was incredibly helpful and led to many successful actions by the Union forces throughout the war.

Black Dispatches often came from enslaved people who had just escaped or come under Union control. Union officers would talk to them to learn what they knew. African Americans also helped the Union by going on secret missions behind enemy lines or working as spies while pretending to be regular people. For example, two Union agents even worked for Confederate President Jefferson Davis in his "White House" in Richmond, Virginia. Even famous people like Harriet Tubman, known for helping enslaved people escape on the "Underground Railroad," played a big part in gathering information for the Union.

Union generals quickly understood how valuable the information from African Americans behind Confederate lines could be. Many stories in Northern newspapers during the war highlighted their important role. Even Confederate General Robert E. Lee knew this, saying in 1863, "The chief source of information to the enemy is through our Negroes." Because of slavery, African Americans doing everyday tasks could move around without much suspicion. Also, Confederate officers often ignored them, even when discussing war plans.

After the war, however, the amazing contributions of these African American spies were often forgotten. This was partly due to unfair prejudice, similar to how the efforts of black American Union soldiers were overlooked. Also, successful spies usually want to keep their identities secret to stay safe. This was especially true after the war, when many African Americans lived near people who still supported the Confederacy and wanted to keep white supremacy.

Both sides didn't keep many official records about their spy activities because they wanted to keep them secret. Many records were even destroyed on purpose to protect the people involved. This means that we often learn about these brave spies from personal stories or other official papers that mention their work.

Brave Spies of the Civil War

George Scott: A Key Escapee

George Scott, an enslaved person who escaped, gave information that helped start one of the first big battles of the war. He told General Benjamin F. Butler, who was in charge of Fort Monroe in Virginia, about Confederate forts and troop movements. Butler had a rule that any enslaved person who reached Union lines should be brought to him for questioning.

Scott had escaped from a plantation near Yorktown. On his way to Fort Monroe, he saw that Confederate forces had built two forts between Yorktown and the Union fortress. Butler's officers were impressed by Scott's information but wanted to check it. Scott bravely agreed to go with a Union officer on several scouting trips behind Confederate lines to get more details. On one trip, a Confederate guard's bullet went right through his jacket!

Based on Scott's information, Butler realized the Confederates were planning to attack Newport News. If Newport News fell, Fort Monroe would be cut off from supplies. So, Butler ordered an attack on the Confederate position first. However, the attack didn't go well and the Union forces were defeated.

John Scobell: The Master of Disguise

As the Union army grew, George B. McClellan became the commander of the Army of the Potomac. He brought Allan Pinkerton, a famous detective, to be his chief of intelligence. Pinkerton, who often used fake names, was in charge of finding out about the enemy and stopping enemy spies. He got most of his information by talking to people who came from Confederate areas, including merchants, soldiers who left the Confederate army, prisoners of war, and former enslaved people. Pinkerton soon learned that former enslaved people were the most willing to help and often knew the most about Confederate forts, camps, and supply spots.

Pinkerton told his agents to focus on talking to former enslaved people. He also told them to look for those who were educated or seemed good at noticing and remembering military details. If they found such people, they sent them to Pinkerton for more evaluation. From these African Americans, Pinkerton chose a small group for secret missions behind Confederate lines.

John Scobell was one of these agents, recruited in late 1861. He became Pinkerton's most famous black agent. Scobell had been well-educated by his owner in Mississippi, who later freed him. He was very smart and good at pretending to be different people, like a food seller, a cook, or a worker. He often worked with other Pinkerton agents, sometimes pretending to be their servant in the South. He worked with Timothy Webster, one of Pinkerton's best agents, and with Mrs. Hattie Lawton, Pinkerton's best female agent.

Scobell is known for giving valuable information about the Confederate army's strength, supplies, and troop movements. While white Pinkerton agents talked to Confederate officials, Scobell would often talk to leaders in the black community to gather information about local conditions and troop locations.

Scobell often used his connections with the "Legal League," a secret black organization in the South that supported freedom for enslaved people, to get local information. Members of the League sometimes helped Scobell by carrying his messages to Union lines. Pinkerton even wrote about how Scobell once helped Mrs. Lawton escape from Confederate agents. Scobell worked for Pinkerton until November 1862, when Pinkerton's operations ended.

However, some historians, like Corey Recko, have not found proof that John Scobell actually existed. He might have been a character Pinkerton created for his book The Spy of the Rebellion.

W. H. Ringgold: The Riverboat Spy

W. H. Ringgold was a free African American who worked on a riverboat on the York River in Virginia. He was forced into service after Virginia left the Union. Ringgold spent six months on the river, helping move Confederate troops and supplies. When his ship was damaged, he was allowed to travel North. In Baltimore, he found Union officials who sent him to Pinkerton in Washington.

In December 1861, Ringgold gave Pinkerton very detailed information about Confederate defenses on the peninsula. This included where forts and cannons were, where troops were gathered, and defenses on the York River. His information was the best General McClellan received before his Peninsula Campaign began in March 1862. It was a big part of McClellan's plan for the start of that campaign.

Mary Louvestre: Naval Intelligence Heroine

African Americans also provided important information to the Union Navy. Mary Louvestre, a freed enslaved woman, worked as a housekeeper in Norfolk for an engineer. This engineer was working on transforming the USS Merrimack into the Virginia, the first Confederate ironclad warship. She overheard the engineer talking about how important his project was and realized how dangerous this new ship would be to the Union navy blocking Norfolk. She bravely stole a set of plans for the ship that the engineer had brought home and escaped North. After a dangerous journey, she reached Washington, D.C., and met with Navy officials.

The stolen plans and Touvestre's spoken report about the ship's construction convinced the officials that they needed to speed up building the Union's own ironclad, the USS Monitor. The Virginia sank two Union ships, the USS Congress and the USS Cumberland, and grounded another, the USS Minnesota, before the Union ironclad was finished. If Touvestre hadn't given her information, the Virginia might have had several more weeks to destroy Union ships and open the port of Norfolk, which would have allowed much-needed supplies from Europe to reach the Confederates.

Robert Smalls: Stealing a Ship for Freedom

Charleston, South Carolina was an important Confederate port with railroad lines that could quickly transport supplies. In March 1862, Robert Smalls, a free black man, rowed out to a Union warship near Fernandina, Florida. He reported that Confederate troops were getting ready to leave the town and Amelia Island. Smalls, who was a harbor pilot, had seen the Confederates preparing to destroy the town's harbor facilities when they left.

Smalls understood how important it was to keep Fernandina harbor working as a supply base for Union operations against Charleston. Based on his information, Union forces attacked Fernandina and stopped the enemy's rear guard before the Confederates could destroy the harbor. The information Smalls provided was so important that the Secretary of the Navy wrote about it in detail to President Lincoln in his yearly report.

While this information was Smalls' biggest contribution, he gave another amazing gift to the Navy. On the night of May 12, 1862, he, his family, and other African American crewmen of the Planter, a cargo steamer turned into an armed patrol ship, sailed out of Charleston harbor after the captain and two mates had gone home. In the dark, Smalls pretended to be the captain and, using his knowledge, gave all the correct secret passwords to challenges from the harbor forts. When he reached the Union blockade ships, he surrendered the Planter to them. Later that month, he and his crew received half the ship's value as a reward from the U.S. government.

Charlie Wright: A Sharp Memory

When General Joseph Hooker took command of the Army of the Potomac in January 1863, he immediately saw the need for a good, organized intelligence system. In February, Colonel George H. Sharpe, a lawyer and officer, became the head of the Army's intelligence service. Under Sharpe, the Bureau of Military Information (BMI) was created. Its only job was to collect information on the enemy. It became the first "all-source intelligence" organization in U.S. history, meaning it gathered information from many different places.

Sharpe's BMI was well-established when Charlie Wright, a young black man, arrived at Union lines from Culpeper, Virginia, in June 1863. During questioning, it became clear that he knew a lot about General Lee's army and had an excellent memory for details. On June 12, Captain John McEntee from the BMI telegraphed Sharpe, saying: "A contraband captured last Tuesday states that he had been living at Culpeper C. H. for some time past. Saw Ewells Corps passing through that place destined for the Valley and Maryland. That Ewells Corps has passed the day previous to the fight and that Longstreet was them coming up." McEntee also reported that Wright knew these two army corps well and that his information seemed reliable. Wright identified more than a dozen different Confederate regiments. The key information Wright gave was that these troops were moving through Culpeper and heading for Maryland.

Thanks to the BMI's records and other information, Sharpe was able to confirm Wright's descriptions of the Confederate units. This confirmation convinced General Hooker that Lee's army was indeed moving into Maryland. Hooker then ordered his army to follow the Confederate forces, staying out of sight on the eastern side of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

This movement by the Union Army protected Washington and eventually led to the Battle of Gettysburg. For many years after the war, Union cavalry scouts were given credit for finding Lee's movement. But historical records now show that Wright's intelligence was the main reason Hooker decided to move his forces.

Many things led to Lee's defeat at Gettysburg, but the ground held by the Union forces played a big role in their victory. This was Charlie Wright's contribution. He provided the information that helped Union forces get to Gettysburg first and take the best ground.

Agents in Place: Spies in the White House

Because both sides were not very prepared for the war, there were few spies who had been placed inside the enemy's important buildings. Spies who are "in place" can provide information about the enemy's plans and intentions, not just what they are doing. Even though the Confederacy created its government and military structure just before the war, the Union had several such agents in the Confederate capital by the first year of the war. Two of them were African Americans who worked for Confederate President Jefferson Davis in his official home.

William A. Jackson was an enslaved man hired out to President Davis as a coachman. His first recorded report was on May 3, 1862, when he crossed into Union lines near Fredericksburg, Virginia. As a servant in the Davis household, he could watch and overhear the Confederate President's discussions with his military leaders. We don't have records of the exact information he gave, but it was important enough that General McDowell immediately sent it to the War Department in Washington.

The second agent, Mary Elizabeth Bowser, was part of a Union spy group called "the Richmond underground." This group was led by Elizabeth Van Lew, whose family was well-respected in Richmond. Van Lew pretended to be harmless and a bit strange to Confederate authorities, even though she supported the Union. After the war, she got all the official records about her activities from the War Department and destroyed them. So, we don't have many details about Bowser's specific actions.

Bowser had been enslaved by the Van Lew family, but Van Lew freed her and sent her North for an education. When Van Lew decided to start a spy ring in Richmond, she asked Bowser to return and work for the Union. Van Lew helped Bowser get a job as a servant in the Confederate "White House" through a friend who supplied the household.

Bowser pretended to be uneducated but hardworking. After working part-time, she was hired as a regular employee. Her access gave her chances to overhear valuable information. As a black servant, Bowser was often ignored by the President's guests. She reported on conversations she overheard between Confederate officials and on documents she could read while working around the house. She and Van Lew, often dressed as a country farmwife, would meet in secret spots outside Richmond to share information.

Another Union spy, Thomas McNiven, said that Bowser had a "photographic memory" and could remember every word of the documents she saw at the "White House." Because of her intelligence contributions, Bowser was honored and inducted into the U.S. Army Intelligence Hall of Fame at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, on June 30, 1995.

Harriet Tubman: Beyond the Underground Railroad

Harriet Tubman, another black woman involved in gathering information for the Union, is famous for her work with the Underground Railroad. However, her intelligence activities are also well documented. Tubman, often called "Moses" by people at the time, is best known for her many trips into the South to free relatives and friends and bring them to safety. Her last trip was in 1860. When the war started, she spent the early years helping care for the many enslaved people who had fled to Union-controlled areas.

By the spring of 1863, Union officials found a more active role for Tubman. Union forces in South Carolina desperately needed information about the Confederate forces they were fighting. They knew almost nothing about the enemy's strength, where their camps were, or how their forts were designed. All these needs could be met by short spying trips behind enemy lines, and Tubman was chosen to organize and lead these expeditions.

Tubman selected a few former enslaved people who knew the areas well and set up her spy organization. Often disguised as a field worker or a poor farm wife, she led several spy missions herself, while directing others from Union lines. She reported her information to Colonel James Montgomery, a Union officer commanding the Second South Carolina Volunteers, a black unit involved in guerrilla warfare.

The tactical information Tubman gave to Union forces during the war was frequent, plentiful, and used effectively in military operations. For example, her part in a Union raid up the Combahee River in South Carolina in June 1863 is well known. Tubman had gone on spy missions into the area, found enemy supply areas, and reported weaknesses in Confederate troop positions.

In late May, General David Hunter, commander of all Union forces in the area, asked Tubman to personally guide a raiding party up the river. On the evening of June 2, Tubman led Montgomery and 150 of his men up the river past Confederate guard lines. In a quick surprise raid, the Union forces destroyed millions of dollars worth of Confederate supplies and brought back more than 800 enslaved people and thousands of dollars in enemy property. By this action alone, Tubman's contribution to the Union cause was very significant. When Tubman died in 1913, she was honored with a full military funeral to show respect for her activities during the war.

A Clever Laundry Signal

There's a popular story about a black couple who gave information about Confederate troop movements to the Union during the fighting around Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 1863. The story first appeared in a newspaper or magazine article written by a Union officer who claimed to have seen the events. There are no official records to prove this story, and the value of the information might be exaggerated. But there's probably some truth to the tale.

The story involves an enslaved man named Dabney, who escaped with his wife and found work at General Hooker's headquarters camp. It became clear that Dabney knew the area's geography very well, and even though he had little education, he was clever. He quickly became interested in the Union flag-signal system and learned all he could about it.

After several weeks, Dabney's wife asked permission to return to Confederate lines as a personal servant to a Southern woman going home. A few days after his wife left, Dabney started reporting Confederate movements to Hooker's staff. His reports quickly proved accurate, and he was asked how he got his information.

Dabney explained that he and his wife had created a signaling system using the laundry she hung out to dry at her mistress's house, which could be seen from Hooker's headquarters. As his wife watched Confederate troop movements, she would hang the laundry in a certain order to signal Dabney. For example, a white shirt meant General A. P. Hill, a pair of pants hung upside down meant "west," and so on. This system provided useful information until Hooker moved his headquarters.

While such a system could only send simple messages like "Hill-north-three regiments," the information might not have been extremely valuable. Union cavalry scouts and Signal Corps observers would have provided similar information. But the fact that this story is told in many articles and books makes it a part of the legend of intelligence activities during the war.