Spies, Secrets, and Seward: Civil War in the Shadows

William Henry Seward was no stranger to the shadowy world of espionage. As Secretary of State during the Civil War, he built a massive intelligence-gathering spy ring abroad to thwart Confederate influence. But at the same time, a network of southern operatives were busily working against him. Few were more intriguing or powerful than Rose Greenhow. Once a Washington socialite and personal friend of Seward’s, she dramatically set herself against him once the war began. The stakes were as high as they were personal, as Greenhow clandestinely crisscrossed Union and Confederate lines, passing military secrets, before being dispatched from Richmond to serve as a southern emissary in the heart of Europe. 

Learn more about Greenhow’s story, as well as her fraught relationship with the Seward family, in this book talk from Emily Lapisardi. The editor of Rose Greenhow’s My Imprisonment: An Annotated Edition (2021), Lapisardi has spent 25 years researching Greenhow’s life and legacy. She is also the Director of Musical Activities at U.S. Military Academy at West Point.