Clean Transcript

A Wild Confederate Rose

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• We are going to be looking at a number of passages, and I'm going to tell you the title of the message, and I want you to listen carefully because when you see the scripture I'm going to read, I'm sure there's going to be a question in your mind. The title of the message is "A Wild Confederate Rose." So if you look in the book of Judges, chapter 5 and verse 24—we will go back and look at the context of this just shortly—but Judges 5:24, the Bible says, "Blessed above women shall Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent."

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• Now stop and think about that. "Blessed above women shall Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent." So I'm sure now that it's probably entering into your mind a question: What possible connection could this scripture verse have with the subject matter and the title of the message, "A Wild Confederate Rose"? Well, let me ask you another leading question. Have you ever tried to grow what are known as confederate rose bushes? Or have you ever seen a wild confederate rose bush? It's true that they are very lovely to behold. They are beautiful. They smell deliciously. But have you ever tried to get rid of one of them? Getting rid of one is one of the greatest problems that you will ever face, because confederate rose bushes are strong, hardy, resilient.

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• And if you leave the tiniest root in the ground, it's going to come back. It's going to grow everywhere. It's going to run everywhere. And you're going to find that a confederate rose is almost impossible to stop.

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• Now the reason I said that is to tell you that there are some women just like that. They are not only given to us in scripture, but they're also given to us in history as well. Everyone should know the story of Jael. She was a very brave, resourceful, and heroic woman. When Sisera was fleeing from Barak, he made a very tactical mistake, which became a very fatal error. He went into the tent of Jael.

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• I want you to look at it in Judges chapter 4, and let's begin reading there with verse 18. Listen carefully. "And Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said unto him, Turn in, my lord, turn in to me, fear not. And when he had turned in unto her into the tent, she covered him with a mantle. And he said unto her, Give me, I pray thee, a little water to drink, for I am thirsty. And she opened a bottle of milk, and gave him drink, and covered him. And he said unto her, Stand in the door of the tent, and it shall be when any man doth come and inquire of thee, and say, Is there any man here, that thou shalt say no. Then Jael, Heber's wife, took a nail of the tent, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it to the ground, for he was asleep and weary, and so he died. And behold, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him, and said unto him, Come, and I will show thee the man whom thou seekest."

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• "And when he came into her tent, behold, Sisera lay dead, and the nail was in his temples. So God subdued on that day Jabin the king of Canaan before the children of Israel. And the hand of the children of Israel prospered and prevailed against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they destroyed Jabin king of Canaan."

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• Now the interesting thing is, in Judges chapter 5, Jael is being praised for this act. Go back, if you would please, to verse 24, because Deborah and Barak are singing a song of praise to God for deliverance. And in verse 24 we read this: "Blessed above women shall Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent."

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• Now watch: "He asked for water and she gave him milk; she brought forth butter in a lordly dish. She put her hand to the nail and her right hand to the workmen's hammer, and with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his head when she had pierced and stricken through his temples. At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down: at her feet he bowed, he fell dead. Where he bowed, there he fell dead."

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• So here was a woman that took matters into her own hands. She killed her enemy, and actually the enemy then of Barak who was pursuing them. She was undoubtedly a very brave and courageous woman. There are multitudes of women that are like that that are recorded in the Bible. Some are given by name, some are not. I ask that you turn to one other passage before we get started, and that's Hebrews chapter 11, and look at verses 32 and 36. Hebrews chapter 11, and turn if you would please to verse 32. Listen carefully.

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• "And what shall I more say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of Barak"—and by the way, that was the one who was chasing Sisera when Jael killed Sisera—"and what shall I more say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthah, of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge

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• of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others had trial of cruel mocking, scourgings, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment." Now, I want you to notice carefully in that passage, the Bible says that women received their dead raised to life again. Now, if women received their dead raised to life again, referring to their husbands, their sons, their children, well, that means previous to that blessing, there were indeed persecutions and sufferings as well.

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• Now, I cannot necessarily prove it contextually, but in all probability in Hebrews chapter 11 and these verses that we're reading, when he lists Barak and Samson and Jephthah and Gideon and a number of others, when he talks about the women, there probably were a lot of women included that were being tortured as well. In fact, if you don't do anything else other than read the Bible, there's one other book you should read. That is Foxe's Book of Martyrs. Because there you will find many women who suffered for the faith and were tortured just simply because they were Christians. Now the interesting thing is this: you're going to find also, oftentimes, that there were people who were tortured, killed, slain, simply because they were Southern, and many of them Southern Christians.

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• When you and I begin to think about the war, and since this is a Confederate Memorial Day, we tend to want to honor our Confederate heritage, our Confederate ancestors. When we think of the war, we normally think of men who are marching off to war, and usually we emphasize their suffering, their hardships, their dangers that they faced on a daily basis. Seldom do we ever think of the women that they left at home. When you stop and think about a man who marches off to war, and especially in 1861, when there were no Walmarts or convenience stores nearby, when the men marched off to war, that meant the wife, the woman, was left then to run the farm. She not only had to run the farm, but all of a sudden, the roles then of protector, provider, educator, administrator, doctor, homekeeper—all of these fell upon the woman at one time. Moreover, many of the men died in battle, which means the husbands never came back, which added additional suffering to the role of the woman.

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• More agony was then thrust upon her. It's interesting as you study the war that you'll find that there were some women who were so patriotic and brave, they did something that I consider not only unbiblical but very foolish. They disguised themselves as men and actually fought in the war. But there were other women who used their talents in other ways. They used their charm, their positions, to help the Confederate States in a multitude of ways, and one of those ways was as a spy. You have to remember, during the time of the 1860s, women were usually considered harmless. And they were actually protected, usually even by northern men.

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• Now, I realize there were men like Benjamin Butler, et cetera, and I understand that. But by and large, most men, even in the North, would very seldom ever want to reproach a woman. And before they would ever try to arrest a woman or cause harm to a woman, they would have to have real hard evidence. They would have something that would have to be absolutely imminent and before their eyes in order for them to exile or deport a woman in particular.

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• Well, one such spy is known as the Confederate Rose or the Rebel Rose. Who was Rose O'Neill Greenhow? Even from a young child, she had the nickname as Wild Rose. Not necessarily that she was immoral, but the fact that she just seemingly had a strong will and a disposition to be absolutely independent. Well, Rose O'Neill Greenhow was not only a leader in Washington society, she was also a passionate secessionist and one of the most renowned spies during the War of Northern Aggression. Rose O'Neill Greenhow was born in Port Tobacco, Maryland. She was Rose O'Neill, but then she married the wealthy Virginian, Dr. Robert Greenhow. And he was not only a physician, but he was also a diplomat in the State Department. And so while they lived in Washington, D.C., Rose then raised her four daughters. And of course, she was very prominent in Washington society.

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• But in 1850, the Greenhows then moved to Mexico, and from there to San Francisco, and Dr. Greenhow then died of an injury, leaving Rose a widow. Well, Rose then had grown up as a pampered Washington belle, and her girlhood mentor was none other than John C. Calhoun. Rose also was personal friends with President Buchanan. Her husband, Dr. Greenhow, as I said earlier, not only was a physician, but he worked for the State Department and therefore he had many diplomatic contacts. So after her husband's death, the widowed Rose O'Neill Greenhow moved back to Washington, D.C., and she there assumed her role as Washington hostess, and she hosted many political and military events as well. So at the very start of the war, she began priming the pump, so to speak, gathering information from her contacts and making sure that information got to her Confederate friends to be passed on to the Confederate government.

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• In fact, it was Colonel E.D. Keyes, who was military secretary to General Winfield Scott, while on duty in Washington, he made this remark, that he found great delight with the Southern damsels, even with some of the matrons, notwithstanding the incandescence of their treason. In other words, he realized that these super nice, charming ladies were far more than just super nice and charming. He knew that their heart was really for the South. In fact, Rose O'Neill Greenhow was reputed to be the most persuasive woman that was ever known in Washington. One disgusted federal officer said this concerning Rose.

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• He said, "She has not used her powers in vain among the officers of the army, not a few of whom she has robbed of their patriotic hearts." So Rose was very capable then of getting information from soldiers as well as from diplomats. Now in the 1860s, Rose O'Neill Greenhow was a very wealthy, attractive, and outgoing widow. And she made absolutely no effort to conceal her Southern sympathies.

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• She lived just across Lafayette Park from the White House in Washington, D.C., and being very high in society and a popular member of Washington's high social circles, Rose was strategically placed to secure information that would be valuable to the Confederate government. One illustration of her outspoken courage and frankness occurred during one of her social political dinners. She had as her guest Senator William Seward, who was to become the Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln.

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• Also at that same dinner was Charles Francis Adams from Massachusetts and his wife. Charles Francis Adams was also to become Lincoln's minister to England. At that same dinner was John Bankhead Magruder, who would become a Confederate general. And during this meal, Mrs. Adams insisted on discussing the hanging of John Brown, whom she called a holy saint and martyr. That was just too much for Rose. And Rose shot back at her guest and said, "John Brown was a traitor and he met a traitor's death." Well, John Brown, as many of you know, was hanged on December the 2nd, 1859. He was not only a traitor, but he was a murderer.

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• He murdered several men in Kansas in front of their wives and children. He hacked them to pieces with his sword, some before he shot, some after he shot. And the reason he murdered them was simply because they were Southerners and they espoused Southern views. So John Brown basically was paid by the Secret Six to foment a war. And he began in Kansas by murdering five men. And an interesting thing about John Brown is this: John Brown's mission was to "free the slaves." And he wanted to come to the South and foment a revolution and have the slaves rise up and murder their masters and their families. And his big thing was he was going to free the slaves. Did you know that the first man that John Brown's gang murdered was Haywood Shepard? When they came to the South, the first man they murdered was Haywood Shepard, who was a free black, who happened to be also employed by the West Winchester Potomac Railroad, and he was the baggage master for that railroad.

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• When they murdered Haywood Shepard on October the 17th, 1859, he was only 46 years of age and he left a wife and five children. No wonder there was no Southerner that had any respect for John Brown. And of course, Rose was right. He was not only a traitor, he was a murderer. But Rose was even bolder after she began her espionage work, even after hostilities had broken out.

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• And many ladies were just as openly bold and they did not try to hide their southern sympathies. One federal agent said this, that fine ladies were secretly giving information to the enemy. He added, "It was openly boasted that the secret information given to the rebel generals had been mainly the cause of the defeat of our armies at Bull Run." And certainly, Rose helped in that defeat. In fact, Rose was so motivated and driven by her understanding of the war—listen now, remember, and I'm going to tell you this again—she had been tutored by John C. Calhoun. She understood states' rights. She understood nullification. She understood secession.

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• She was so schooled in the truth that she said this concerning Washington. She said, and I'm quoting, "Instead of friends, I see in those states of Washington only mortal enemies. Instead of loving the old flag of the Stars and Stripes, I see in it only the symbol of murder, plunder, oppression, and shame." I'm not sure if you know this or not, but I do have a message where one Baptist preacher was arrested in the North for a comment about the Stars and Stripes, the flag. He was put in prison for two years because he made the statement that he could not respect the flag because the flag had been now turned as an enemy to the South to oppress Southerners and states' rights. He was arrested and put in prison for two years. But it was Colonel Thomas Jordan, who was a United States officer with strong Southern sympathies of his own, who had approached Rose about developing a Confederate spy ring and supplied her with a cipher code in order that she might transmit messages to the South.

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• By April of 1861, Rose had developed a network of spies ranging from ordinary household servants, to whom she referred as "little birds," to prominent professionals, and even governmental officials. Through the assistance of this network, Rose was able to provide General Beauregard with a timetable of the Union advance on Manassas. On July the 10th, a courier delivered a small package to Brigadier General Milledge Bonham to forward to General Beauregard. The package was a piece of black silk folded to the size of a silver dollar.

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• And by the way, a lady, Betty Duvall, brought it in her bun on the back of her head. She took her hair down and took the little package out and gave it to him, and then he in turn gave it to General Beauregard, and it was in regard to Union General Irwin McDowell and his 35,000 Union troops that were to leave Washington on July the 16th. I mean, she was giving information not only on the strength but even on the movements and the timetable of when the Union soldiers were going to leave. Subsequent information from Rose outlined McDowell's plan as he planned to advance through Arlington, Alexandria, Centerville, Virginia on his way to destroy the railroad at Manassas Junction. So because of this information, it allowed Beauregard then time to consolidate his forces, and it was Jefferson Davis himself who credited Rose O'Neill Greenhow with helping the Confederate Army achieve the victory there at First Manassas. So on July the 23rd, 1861, after the Confederate victory at First Manassas, Colonel Thomas sent a message to Rose, and the message said this: "Our president and our general direct me to thank you.

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• We rely on you for further information. The Confederacy owes you a great debt." And certainly Rose was very efficient at organizing her spy rings. She was very efficient in organizing her letter drops. And the interesting thing is this: although Rose herself was arrested, which I'm going to tell you about just a little bit later, many of her couriers, many of her friends were so discreet and so devoted and so crafty that neither the couriers nor the letter drops were ever discovered throughout the entire war. Rose even discovered the federal alarm system if Washington should be attacked by the Confederates. You say, how in the world did she achieve that information? Well, the answer is very simple. She obtained that information by going around with the officer in charge of the duty. He just told her.

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• I mean, you've got to remember, Rose was a very attractive and charming woman, and she could get this information out of these men. And he told her, and here is what she said concerning the information that she got, and I'm quoting: she said that the information that she collected was a result of a direct intervention of divine providence. It would be wrong, she said, to ascribe these things to chance.

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• In other words, she said God just worked it out for her. God allowed her to discover this information. Rose went on to say, "I employed every capacity which God had endowed me, and the result was far more successful than my hopes could have flattered me to expect." In other words, she said it was beyond her wildest imagination, the success that God had given her. Rose was not just simply a spy.

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• She was more than that. She was busy organizing what you and I would call a fifth column or fifth element to help in case the Confederates ever did get to attack Washington, D.C. She wrote and she said this: "We're endeavoring to affect an organization here in order to take advantage of emergencies. If possible, their telegraph wires will all be simultaneously cut and their guns spiked along the Virginia side." So here was a woman who was not just a spy; she was planning to help her beloved South any way that she could.

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• Well, obviously, it's only going to be a matter of time before Rose and her friends aroused what you and I would call federal suspicion. In fact, it was the notorious Alan Pinkerton, founder of the Secret Service, the Pinkerton Detective Agency, and defender of Abraham Lincoln, who took it upon himself to take down Rose Greenhow. One of the funniest incidents that I came across while I was researching for this message occurred when Pinkerton and a number of his agents endeavored to spy on Rose by looking into her window. Now the interesting thing is her house was high off the ground, and Alan Pinkerton then, in order to pry and spy into the window, had to stand on the shoulders of one of his other agents. Well, it was raining cats and dogs.

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• The wind was blowing and howling. So Pinkerton then took his shoes off in order to alleviate some of the pain and pressure on his agent's shoulders as he stared into the empty room, hoping someone would come in. He also had a lookout. He had another agent, so if anyone happened to be coming down the street, the word would be given, and Pinkerton then could get down, and they could hide themselves in the bushes until the stranger passed by. Well, this happened a number of times. And finally, when a man did come to Rose's house, and entered, and they went into the room where Alan Pinkerton was spying, the rain was raining so hard, the wind was blowing with such force that he couldn't hear a word they said. But yet he recognized the man.

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• He was a young infantry captain. And so after the man left the house, then Pinkerton attempted to tail him. Well, the infantry captain realized that someone was following him. So he just allowed the man to follow him until he got to his post. And when he got to his post, he sent soldiers out to arrest the man. And so here is Alan Pinkerton now, the head of the detective agency, founder of the Secret Service, friend of Abraham Lincoln, being thrown in a very cold guardhouse, under guard, shoeless, sopping wet, and spending a miserable night. Of course, Pinkerton did not tell them that he was Alan Pinkerton. He had a pseudonym.

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• He had a false name, Major E.J. Allen. And of course he got word to some of the higher-ups that he was in prison, and the next day the higher-ups did indeed come down and make sure that he got out of prison. But they continued to spy on Rose and they tried to identify every person that entered the house and every person that left the house. Moreover, if you left her house you were followed. And they wanted to make sure and to discover if these people who left Rose's house had conversations with what they call suspicious persons. How do you define a suspicious person?

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• Just stop and think about that. What is suspicious about a person? Just because you talk to someone, does that mean they're suspicious? But anyhow, they follow them. And if they talk to a suspicious person, they took that person's name and address down if they could get it, and if the person who left Rose's house attempted to go south, they were seized and arrested, and they were to be interrogated and examined by the Secretary of War or the Assistant Secretary of War. Well, Rose was no dummy. She realized that she was a person of interest.

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• Interestingly enough, one of General McClellan's own officers let slip to a lady in Georgetown that Mrs. Greenhow and a very prominent pro-Confederate man were placed on a special list of dangerous persons. Well, when that officer let it slip, then very obviously it went straight then to Rose O'Neill Greenhow. And so Rose often found herself being followed by emissaries of the State Department or emissaries from the Pinkerton Detective Agency.

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• And in fact, this was the beginning. And some of these individuals were just not too swift. They did not know how to tail and how to follow. And so Rose and those who were walking with Rose often knew that they were being tailed. And especially when Rose was walking with another young lady, they would oftentimes turn and look straight in the eyes of the men who were following them. And when the men realized that they had been spied and recognized, then they would turn and walk away as if, well, hey, you know, we're really not interested in you. And then Rose and her friend would try, try to tail them and follow them and put the pressure back on them. Well, very obviously, it was not going to be fun and games for long, because on August the 23rd, Rose went for a walk with a diplomat. And as usual, a Pinkerton agent was following her. After the diplomat had left Rose, she stopped by a neighbor's house to inquire about the neighbor's children who had been sick.

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• At that time she spied some other Pinkerton agents. And she did have on herself one small important paper. And she figured pretty much so that she was going to be arrested. But when she spotted the two who had really been following her very closely, they then tried to walk toward her and past her with a conspicuous air of authority, which was indeed a dead giveaway. And when they got to the end of the street, instead of continuing, they stopped and turned around and watched her, which was another dead giveaway. So by this time, Rose had put two and two together. She figured she's going to be arrested.

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• And so she walked by an individual that she knew was a Confederate agent. And she murmured, as she went by, "Those men will probably arrest me. Wait at Corcoran's corner and see. If I raise my handkerchief to my face, I have been arrested. Give out the information." Well, when another Pinkerton man walked past her with a cheery nonchalance like, "We're not interested in you," Rose took the opportunity to take the paper that was important, put it in her mouth, chew it up, and swallow it. With the evidence destroyed, then Rose went straight to her house.

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• Before she could get the door open, the detectives were behind her. One of them was Alan Pinkerton himself. She was arrested on August the 21st, 1861, by Alan Pinkerton, Chief of the Secret Service, and on the staff of General McClellan at the instigation of Abraham Lincoln.

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• Now I want you to listen to the conversation that ensued during her arrest. Alan Pinkerton asked, "Is this Mrs. Greenhow?" "Yes." And when she answered yes, both of those detectives hesitated momentarily. Why? Well, this woman was not only a prominent social hostess in Washington, D.C. You remember, she was a friend of President Buchanan. She had diplomatic contacts. She knew a lot of high and important people. And so when Rose then saw their hesitation after she identified herself, she asked, "Who are you and what do you want?" Pinkerton then replied, "I've come to arrest you." "By what authority?" shot Rose. "By sufficient authority," replied Pinkerton. "Let me see your warrant," said Rose. And it was indeed an awkward moment, for there was no warrant. At that moment, Rose raised her handkerchief to her face, giving the signal that she had been arrested.

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• And at this point, the two men took her by the arms and forced her inside her house, and she said to the detectives, "I have no power to resist you. But had I been inside my house, I would have killed one of you before I'd submitted to this illegal process." You've got to remember that there was another lady Confederate spy, Belle Boyd, who did indeed shoot and kill a Yankee soldier at her door. In order to try to pacify the furious widow, Pinkerton and his men said, "We only obey orders."

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• Boy, that sounds familiar, doesn't it? "We're just following orders. We're just doing what we're told." All of a sudden, more agents appeared absolutely out of nowhere. Rose then asked him, "What in the world are you going to do?" And the answer was "Search." Rose then tried to expertly and carefully help them by showing the detectives letters from leading people who were all quite innocent and harmless, but of course they were not easily fooled, and Pinkerton was wise enough not to leave agents outside of Rose's house because he did not want at that point anyone to know that Rose had been arrested. Now listen to this: Rose had a little eight-year-old daughter.

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• The other daughters were grown and gone. But the eight-year-old child was with Rose. And when they pushed Rose inside and began to search the house, the little girl ran outside shouting at the top of her lungs, "Mother has been arrested! Mother has been arrested! Mother has been arrested!" And when Pinkerton's agents went outside to silence the little girl, she very quickly climbed a tree and then continued to shout, "Mother's been arrested, mother's been arrested!" and continued to do so until an agent was able to haul her down and silence her. Well, later on, a couple was allowed to approach close to the house and Rose saw them coming and she was able to warn them away.

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• And as she did, a Captain Dennis grabbed her by the arm to stop her. You know, it's different today. You just did not grab a lady back in those days, and Rose was absolutely infuriated at what she called this brutal outrage. So in order then to try to calm Rose down, they decided that they were going to take orders for meals for everyone in the house and they were going to supply the food. And when they asked Rose what she would like and how they could make this up to her, she answered, "Ought, but the life's blood of the bastard could efface it." In other words, Rose said, "The only thing that'll satisfy me is his death. Don't try to pacify me with food." And she was outraged that the man had grabbed her. And then Rose then used the excuse as the heat of the day to go upstairs to change her dress.

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• And one of the Pinkerton agents foolishly allowed her to do so. After she went upstairs, he thought better. Like, "Man, what did I just do? Who knows what that woman has on her, and who knows what she's trying to get rid of?" And so he ran upstairs very quickly, and he's knocking on the door, and he said, "Madam, madam, madam." And he opened the door just a little bit, just enough to see that Rose was indeed legitimately employed in changing her garment.

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• And also had a pistol pointed at him which he failed to confiscate. And he very quickly closed the door, and Rose had decided not to shoot him because he had given her opportunity to dispose safely of the cipher code that she had to make sure that it would not be found by the Federals. When a Pinkerton woman came in to inspect all of Rose's garments—the men wouldn't even do it—but when a Pinkerton woman came in to inspect all the garments, it was too late. She had already safely disposed of the cipher. In fact, Rose said later, had she not been able to safely get rid of the cipher, that she was willing to burn her own house down to make sure that the Federals did not get it. So shortly thereafter, word began to spread that Rose had been arrested, and on August the 26th, both the New York Times and the New York Herald reported Rose's arrest. Now, the interesting thing is the Federals then tried to buy her house, which she refused to sell.

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• So then they just simply did what they do best: they confiscated it. And they turned it into a prison, and it became known as Greenhow Prison. So Rose then was imprisoned in her own house for four or five months. It's very interesting that Lincoln was a lawyer, yet a cabinet full of lawyers, Congress full of lawyers, and you remember, it was Lincoln who wanted to

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• preserve the Union and the Constitution. And yet at the same time, he was doing everything he could to destroy the constitutional rights of practically every citizen. And at the same time, he was the man who's responsible for basically nullifying and abrogating our Constitution. And here was this woman arrested with no warrant, her home confiscated for no reason, and yet here she is kept in a prison. Not only that, there were other women who eventually were brought to her house who were in prison there as well.

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• One prisoner was Miss Ella or Ellie M. Poole, who was a Virginian and not one of the Washington spies, but she was arrested in Wheeling, West Virginia.

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• Now since Miss Ellie was not in good health, the United States Marshal allowed the poor creature to live at home under guard. That night, the poor, suffering lady arose from her bed of pain, found a key, unlocked the door, and escaped to a neighbor's house. Well, as the Federals were coming in the front door, she was going out the back door. In fact, she escaped four more times from the Federal agents before she was able to find a skiff and float down the river to safety. In spite of ill health that many suffering southern ladies were likely to develop when they were arrested, they recovered remarkably in order to escape their federal captors. Miss Ellie was later, by the way, recaptured in Louisville, Kentucky, and spent time in Greenhow Prison, which was Rose's house, before she was sent to the Old Capitol Prison in Washington. Now Rose was also sent then to the Old Capitol Prison in Washington. The Old Capitol Prison was not a delightful place. On January the 18th, 1862, Rose was given two hours to get ready to move from her house to the Old Capitol Prison.

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• And by the way, she was sent there with a military guard. Let me tell you just something about the Old Capitol Prison. After the British had burned the United States Capitol during the War of 1812, Congress then built a brick building on First Street in Washington to serve as a temporary Capitol. In 1825, when the new Capitol building was ready, the old building was vacated and it became known as the Old Capitol. Well, the Old Capitol then became a fashionable boarding house. And it just so happened at that time that when Rose was a young woman, her aunt and uncle ran that boarding house and Rose was sent to live there, and one of the renters in that boarding house was John C. Calhoun. So that's how he and Rose became friends and that's how he began to be the mentor of Rose. Now, after the boarding house ceased to be, it became a school, and then that ceased to be when the War of Northern Aggression began. The old Capitol building now was 61 years old.

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• It was dilapidated. But yet they decided, you know, it could be made into a prison. And bars were added and notable prisoners were sent there. Belle Boyd was in the Old Capitol Prison. Rose O'Neill was there. Many hangings took place at the Old Capitol Prison. That is where supposedly the Lincoln conspirators were hanged there at the Old Capitol Prison. That's also where Major, or Captain Henry Wirz was hanged, the captain of Andersonville, there where he was hanged for "brutality" and all this kind of stuff which was totally and completely false. There's absolutely nothing remaining today of the Old Capitol Prison because now the Supreme Court building sits on that site. So Rose then is sent to this prison. Just simply because Rose was sent to the prison did not mean that her spying ceased for the Confederacy. Now that Rose is in the Old Capitol Prison, all of a sudden she became interested in tapestry making, which today we would call embroidery.

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• Now, who in the world is going to deny a lady prisoner the occupation of embroidery? I mean, it's harmless, it's innocent, it's something that will probably help occupy and pass time. But Rose was such a dangerous prisoner that when her rolls of yarn came in of various colors, they had to be unrolled and inspected to make sure there was nothing in them, and inevitably, invariably, they were always passed on to Rose. And it is absolutely true that when those balls of yarn came into Rose, they were harmless, there was nothing there. But when her embroidery left the prison, it was not harmless, because Rose had worked out a vocabulary of colors, and she was sending messages through her embroidery.

  #55 | 43:28 to 44:32 | cleaned

• Not only that, she still was able to sneak—don't ask me how—her cipher code into prison with her. She was still able to get coded messages out to the Confederacy. You say, how? Well, when Rose went to prison, her eight-year-old daughter went with her. And oftentimes, when that little girl went out to play, undoubtedly, she probably carried some messages with her. Rose did not destroy the cipher until she received direction and authority to do so from Jefferson Davis himself. Now Jefferson Davis was concerned for Rose's safety, having lived in Washington not only as a senator but as a former Secretary of War, and yet he was absolutely amused and tickled at how Rose easily succeeded in deluding and deceiving the Yankees. Major General John E. Wool telegraphed Secretary of State Seward on January the 7th, 1862, and he said this, listen carefully, that some Confederate agent in Washington was obtaining all the information necessary for those who commanded in the rebel army. "They know much better than I do what is going on in Washington."

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• He said, "The expedition of General Burnside is perfectly known at Norfolk." And then he added, "You've got a number of rebel spies in Washington." And certainly Rose continued there, as well as a lot of additional men and women spying for the Confederacy. In June of 1862, Rose was released from prison. And as she was released from prison, she had a Confederate flag wrapped around her, but concealed under a light shawl.

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• She was taken to Fortress Monroe, where she signed a promise—listen carefully—not to return north of the Potomac River during the present hostilities without the permission of the Secretary of War of the United States. So Rose then was officially not only kicked out of prison but deported and exiled to the South. So evidently then the Yankees believed that she would be less danger in the South than she would be in the North. And of course, on June the 2nd, the New York Times recorded her release and her removal. Finally, when Rose did make it to Richmond, Virginia, she was treated there as a heroine. Jefferson Davis himself appointed her to a diplomatic mission

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• in England and in France, and she left that summer to go to England and France to represent the Confederacy. While she was over there, she wrote her memoirs, which were entitled "My Imprisonment and the First Year of Abolition Rule at Washington," as part of her propaganda to help bring England into the war on the side of the Confederacy. By the way, her memoirs were widely received and sold abundantly all throughout Europe. And Rose found out that there were many in Europe who had deep sympathy for the South. In fact, most of those who had deep sympathy for the South were among the ruling classes. While she was in England, she was able to meet Queen Victoria.

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• She also became engaged to the second Earl of Granville. She also met Napoleon III, the Emperor, and he gave her an audience. So she was very successful while she was in England and in France, but the thrill of Europe could never ever keep the heart of a southern lady for long, and she longed to return to the South. So in 1864, after a year abroad, she boarded the Condor, a British blockade runner, which was to take her home.

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• Just before reaching her destination, the vessel ran aground at the mouth of the Cape Fear River near Wilmington, North Carolina. The vessel was being chased by a Union gunboat. To avoid capture, Rose got into a little rowboat and tried to make it to shore. The wind and the ocean was too much and the little vessel capsized and Rose drowned. Probably one of the things that aided her drowning was she was bringing back gold for the Confederacy and she undoubtedly had it upon her person. So in October of 1864, Rose was buried with full military honors in the Oakdale Cemetery in Wilmington, North Carolina.

  #61 | 48:37 to 49:30 | cleaned

• Her coffin was draped with the Confederate flag and carried by Confederate troops. The marker for her grave, a marble cross, bears the epitaph: "Mrs. Rose O'Neill Greenhow, a bearer of dispatches to the Confederate government." Rose was one of the most successful female spies for the Confederacy during the war. One author said it very clearly. He wrote, "At the last day, when the martyrs who have with their blood sealed their devotion to liberty shall stand together, firm witnesses that truth is stronger than death, foremost among the shining throng, co-equal with the Rolands, the Joan of Arcs of history, will appear the Confederate heroine, Rose O'Neill Greenhow." I'm sure that Rose would agree with the words of another female Confederate spy, Belle Boyd, who when they tried to put her out of prison said this: "If it's a crime to love the South, its cause, and its president, then I'm a criminal, and I'd rather lie down in this prison and die than leave it in allegiance to a government such as yours." Let me make some applications today, and I want you to think with me. When I began to study on the life of Rose O'Neill Greenhow, my heart began to rejoice just simply because here is a woman who is full of courage, conviction, and

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• dedication. She was determined, she was resourceful, and she stood passionately for that which she believed was right. The question that hit my mind was this: where are our ladies like that today? You always heard behind every good man is a good woman. Where are our women that understand truth and principle, that understand liberty and freedom, that are willing to oppose tyranny and corruption, and stand for what is right?

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• One of my favorite songs—and I'm not through with scripture, but listen to this—one of my favorite songs is "The Homespun Dress." Many of you know that song. Supposedly it was written by Cary Bell Sinclair. Let me give you the verses. Listen carefully. "Oh yes, I am a Southern girl, and glory in the name, and boast it with far greater pride than glittering wealth or fame.

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• We envy not the Northern girl, her robes of beauty rare, though diamonds grace her snowy neck and pearls bedeck her hair." Then the chorus: "Hurrah! Hurrah! For the sunny South so dear! Three cheers for the homespun dress that Southern ladies wear!" Now listen: "The homespun dress is plain, I know, my hat's palmetto too, but then it shows what Southern girls for Southern rights will do. We've sent the bravest of our lads to battle with the foe, and we will lend a helping hand; we love the South, you know." Listen: "Now, Northern goods are out of date, and since old Abe's blockade, we Southern girls can be content with goods that Southern made. We sent our sweethearts to the war, but dear girls, never mind, your soldier love will never forget the girl he left behind. The soldier is the lad for me, a brave heart I adore, and when the sunny South is free and fighting is no more, I'll choose me then a lover brave from out of the gallant band; the soldier lad I love the best shall have my heart and hand.

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• The South's land is a glorious land and has a glorious cause; then cheer, three cheers for Southern rights and for Southern boys! We scorn to wear a bit of silk, a bit of Northern lace, but make our homespun dresses up and wear them with such grace. And now, young men, a word for you: if you would win the fair, go to the field where honor calls and win your lady there.

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• Remember that our brightest smiles are for the true and brave, and that our tears are for all of those who fill a soldier's grave." You know, our Southern ladies sacrificed, suffered, and yet some died. I know of very few today who could measure up to the standard of some of these Southern ladies in the 1860s. What has happened to our women? Let me ask another question. What has happened to our men? I know very few men who could do what Rose Greenhow did. I know very few men who would be willing to burn their own house down to protect the South. I know very few who would be willing to go to prison to protect truth. You know what we've forgotten? We've forgotten such admonitions as 1 Corinthians 16:13, where the Word of God says, "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong." We've forgotten.

  #67 | 53:56 to 55:09 | cleaned

• Ephesians 6:10, "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might." We have forgotten 2 Timothy 2:1, "Therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." Also, he said, "Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." Where are our women? Where are our men? Let me remind you of the words of President Jefferson Davis. He said, and I quote, "The principle for which we contend"—that is the principle for which the South fought, and it was not slavery—"the principle for which we contend is bound to reassert itself, though it be at another time in another form." May I submit to you, I believe that time has arrived.

  #68 | 55:10 to 56:03 | cleaned

• We too, as our ancestors, must learn to stand for principle and truth and righteousness and liberty and freedom. And we must learn to fight against tyranny in every form. And we can't do it without men and without women. I've often said, what do you think it would be like if each county just had one man like Robert E. Lee or like Stonewall Jackson? What would it be like in the state of Georgia if we just had one like Lee or Jackson? Or in America? Can you imagine what it would be like if we had a whole army of Robert E. Lees and Stonewall Jacksons? And I'm not talking about just their fighting ability. I'm talking about men of character and courage and consistency and faith. Men who understand that there are some things worth dying for. There are some things worth fighting for. I think it's time that you and I learn to pray, "God give us men. God give us women that hear and know and understand and are willing to fight." Jael was willing to fight.

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• "Blessed art thou among women." Here was a woman who was not afraid to take an enemy on. God praised her for what she did. He did not condemn her. And the truth of the matter is this, dear friend: those who stand for His Word and His truth and His righteousness, though the world condemn them and governments may execute them or imprison them, He, the Lord, will never condemn them for standing for what is right.

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• He will commend them and reward them. May God be pleased to give us men and women. Let's pray. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we do ask today that You would help us. Teach us, Lord. Build us up in the most holy faith. And, Lord, give us courage. Give us conviction. Give us character. Help us, Lord, to learn to stand. And, O God, we as men should be ashamed when we hear women like Rose O'Neill Greenhow, Belle Boyd, that we have lost the very thing that our forefathers have fought and died to preserve for us. Renew our courage. Convict us. Give us, Lord, Your leadership and Your wisdom and Your direction that we may serve and honor Thee. In Christ's name we pray, Amen. Amen.

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T21:29:58Z