by Chris Enss
Among the items found on Rose’s body was a copy of her book, a note to her daughter, and a cipher that provided a key to the messages she had sent to Confederate commanders.34
As head of the Secret Service for the Union Army, Allan Pinkerton was called on to recruit agents with varying skills. In addition to ships’ officers, farmers, merchants, and clerks, he hired seamstresses, socialites, and, in the case of Vinnie Ream, an artist. From the time Lincoln was elected president and the Baltimore plot was uncovered, Pinkerton was dedicated to the protection of the Great Emancipator. Rumors of plans to assassinate President Lincoln were consistently brought to the detective’s attention, and he was honor-bound to investigate every report.35
Some of the threats to do away with the president were believed to have originated from within Mr. Lincoln’s own administration. In order to discover which politician might be plotting against the leader, Pinkerton needed to enlist the help of individuals who could get inside the operation without raising suspicions. An American sculptor commissioned to make a marble statue of President Lincoln was drafted by Pinkerton as one of those inside the operation.36
Vinnie Ream was just seventeen years old in 1864 when the president agreed to model for her. Creating the bust of his figure would take six months. The Wisconsin native was a gifted artist who apprenticed with sculptor Clark Mills in Washington. Mills was highly respected, and had been commissioned by Congress in 1853 to create a statue of Andrew Jackson on a horse.37
While sculpting Lincoln's bust at the White House, artist Vinnie Ream had the opportunity to overhear important information to aid Allen Pinkerton with his work protecting the President. Courtesy of the Library of Congress
Prior to Vinnie being able to utilize her artistic talent for President Lincoln, she was working at the dead letter office of the United States Post Office. She was one of the first women to be employed by the federal government. Because Pinkerton was Scottish he believed Vinnie, who was also from Scottish ancestry, would be the perfect undercover agent.38
President Lincoln was poised to be reelected for a second term, and those vehemently and violently opposed to the idea were planning to kidnap him and hold him ransom for the release of Confederate prisoners languishing in Northern jails. Vinnie’s job was to report to Pinkerton any information she could acquire about potential conspirators in the White House.39
During the time Vinnie was creating the sculpture, senators and congressmen filtered in and out of the crypt in the Capitol where she was working to watch the process. She had opportunity to overhear conversations between politicians and staff that were not for public consumption. She was instructed to inform Pinkerton of any suspicious activity or talk against President Lincoln’s policies from his Cabinet, in particular, Vice President Andrew Johnson.40
Exactly what Vinnie shared with Pinkerton is not known, but members of the Radical Republicans (a faction of the Republican Party who were proslavery, and thus, opposed to Mr. Lincoln) believed she had significant political influence. After President Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865, and Andrew Johnson was sworn in as president, members of the Radical Republicans who knew of Vinnie’s association with Allan Pinkerton called upon her to assist them in helping to ensure Johnson’s impeachment.41
According to the February 23, 1868, edition of the Detroit Free Press,
The impeachment of President Andrew Johnson arose from uncompromised beliefs and a contest for power in a nation struggling with reunification. Before President Lincoln was killed his plan of reconstruction called for leniency toward the South as it rejoined the Union. He planned to grant a general amnesty to those who pledged an oath of loyalty to the United States and agreed to obey all federal laws pertaining to slavery. Andrew Johnson was intent on carrying out his plan when he took office. The idea didn’t sit well with the Radical Republicans, and they organized an effort to impeach Johnson.42
Influential members of the Radical Republicans, like US senator Charles Sumner and representative Thaddeus Stevens, threatened to expose Vinnie as a Pinkerton operative if she didn’t help to persuade Senator Edmund Ross (a friend of the Ream family) to vote in favor of impeaching Johnson. “The vote of Senator Ross of Kansas was needed to help secure a unanimous vote of Johnson’s impeachment,” an article in the September 22, 1907, Des Moines Register noted, “and the Radical Republicans tried to get the sculptress to influence him.” She refused.
The men then asked her to give them access to her home, where Ross was living at the time, so they could speak with him personally about the matter. She reluctantly consented, but when the politicians arrived at the house, Vinnie “placed herself in their path and would not allow them to pass.”43
On Friday, February 24, 1868, Congress voted to impeach President Andrew Johnson. The February 29, 1868, edition of the Warren Mail reported that the “bold, bad man and accidental President’s fate had been sealed.” The article went on to explain that “after an able discussion impeachment was passed by a vote of one-hundred-twenty-six yays [sic] to forty-seven nays.” As a penance for defying the Radical Republicans, Vinnie was nearly thrown out of the Capitol, but the intervention of powerful, influential New York sculptors prevented anything serious from happening to her.44
The white marble statue Vinnie Ream sculpted of President Abraham Lincoln was unveiled in the US Capitol rotunda on January 25, 1871. The January 29, 1871, Harrisburg Telegraph noted that among the government leaders present were associate justices Davis and Clifford, the secretary of the interior, and several members of the Illinois congressional delegation. Mr. Lincoln was presented as holding in his hand the Emancipation Proclamation.45
Vinnie died at her home in Washington, DC, on November 20, 1914, after suffering from a long illness. Pinkerton called on the artist in 1875 when she sculpted a bust of George Custer, and in 1878, after she received a commission to sculpt Admiral David G. Farragut. What they discussed at either occasion is not known.46
Absolute discretion was one of Vinnie’s most admirable qualities. She never elaborated on her role with the Pinkerton Agency, even in the memoirs she wrote and privately distributed in 1908. Neither is there any reference to the Pinkerton Agency in any of her biographies. She seems to have taken the secret of their association to her grave.
Notes
1. Winkler, Stealing Secrets, p. 17; Ross, Rebel Rose, pp. 117–20.
2. Winkler, Stealing Secrets, pp. 15–16; Pinkerton, Spy of the Rebellion, pp. 251–53.
3. Ross, Rebel Rose, pp. 135–36; Winkler, Stealing Secrets, pp. 17–18.
4. Winkler, Stealing Secrets, pp. 14–15.
5. Winkler, Stealing Secrets, pp. 17–18; Ross, Rebel Rose, pp. 135–36.
6. Boston Post, January 18, 1862.
7. Horan, The Pinkertons, pp. 87–88; Pinkerton, Spy of the Rebellion, pp. 188–90; Ross, Rebel Rose, pp. 22–23.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Horan, The Pinkertons, pp. 88–89; Winkler, Stealing Secrets, pp. 16–17.
11. Winkler, Stealing Secrets, pp. 11–16, 26–27; Moran, The Eye That Never Sleeps, 43–44.
12. Ross, Rebel Rose, pp. 142–45.
13. Ross, Rebel Rose, pp. 142–45; Horan, The Pinkertons, pp. 88–89.
14. Ross, Rebel Rose, pp. 142–45; Winkler, Stealing Secrets, pp. 18–20.
15. Winkler, Stealing Secrets, pp. 18–20; Ross, Rebel Rose, pp. 145–47.
16. Syracuse Herald, October 7, 1911.
17. Syracuse Herald, October 7, 1911; McArthur Democrat, January 9, 1862.
18. McArthur Democrat, January 9, 1862.
19. Ibid.
20. Ross, Rebel Rose, pp. 157–59.
21. Horan, The Pinkertons, pp. 94–95.
22. Winkler, Stealing Secrets, pp. 19–20; The Magnet, Agriculture Commercial, and Family Gazette, July 13, 1868.
23. Winkler, Stealing
Secrets, pp. 19–20.
24. Syracuse Herald, October 7, 1911; Ross, Rebel Rose, pp. 164–66.
25. Winkler, Stealing Secrets, pp. 22–24; Syracuse Herald, October 7, 1911.
26. Ross, Rebel Rose, pp. 192–93; Horan, The Pinkertons, pp. 94–95.
27. National Republican, June 3, 1862.
28. Horan, The Pinkertons, pp. 94–96.
29. Ross, Rebel Rose, pp. 201–04.
30. Winkler, Stealing Secrets, pp. 25–26.
31. Winkler, Stealing Secrets, pp. 25–26; Horan, The Pinkertons, pp. 96–97; Ross, Rebel Rose, pp. 219–21.
32. Ross, Rebel Rose, pp. 219–21; Winkler, Stealing Secrets, pp. 25–27.
33. Wilmington Journal, October 20, 1864.
34. Winkler, Stealing Secrets, p. 27; Richmond Dispatch, October 8, 1864.
35. Chronicle-Telegram, January 3, 1882.
36. Horan, The Pinkertons, pp. 36, 54–55.
37. New York Times, January 27, 1853; Sculpting Lincoln, pp. 78–101.
38. Cooper, Vinnie Ream: An American Sculptor, pp. 3, 7–11.
39. Emerson, Giant in the Shadows, pp. 280–81; The Rail Splitter: A Journal for the Lincoln Collector (Fall 2000).
40. Des Moines Register, September 22, 1951.
41. Trefousse, Historical Dictionary of Reconstruction, pp. 175–76.
42. Detroit Free Press, February 23, 1868.
43. Des Moines Register, September 22, 1907.
44. Warren Mail, February 29, 1868.
45. Harrisburg Telegraph, January 29, 1871; Sculpting Lincoln, pp. 78–101; Cooper, Vinnie Ream: An American Sculptor, pp. 15–17.
46. Washington Post, July 13, 1982.
Chapter Seven
Operatives Elizabeth Baker and Mary Touvestre
Elizabeth Baker sat at a small burled walnut desk, frantically scribbling on thick sheets of paper. A silhouette of her image cast on the fabric-covered walls showed her flipping through the sheets of paper. She was inspecting a variety of crude drawings of ships. The flame from a lit candle on the desk next to her danced in harmony with a draft seeping in through a closed window. It was early fall of 1861 in Richmond, Virginia. The Civil War was in its infancy, and military leaders from the North and South had sent spies behind enemy lines to learn whatever secrets they could.
Allan Pinkerton directed Mrs. Elizabeth H. Baker to go to the Confederate capital to acquire information about the Rebel navy. She didn’t hesitate to abide by the detective’s orders. Elizabeth had been working as an operative for the Pinkerton Detective Agency for a number of years. Although assigned to the Chicago office, she had traveled out of town on occasion, teaming with other agents to investigate robberies and missing person cases. Prior to moving to the Midwest, she had lived in Virginia and was well acquainted with the customs and the people of the region. When war broke out she relocated. Pinkerton referred to her as a “genteel woman agent,” and considered her “a more than suitable” candidate for the assignment he’d selected for her.1
Elizabeth wrote two sets of friends she had known from her days living in Richmond and informed them of her plans to visit. Claiming to miss being in Virginia, she told them she wanted to return and stay for a long visit. As luck would have it, Captain Atwater of the Confederate Navy and his wife invited Elizabeth to stay with them when she came to Richmond.2
Elizabeth arrived at the Atwaters’ home on September 24, 1861. The reunion was a happy one, and the three friends attended numerous receptions, balls, and fund-raisers together. Elizabeth met influential socialites, Confederate officers, and politically ambitious Southerners who claimed to possess the precise plans needed to defeat the North.3
Drinks flowed at many of the soirees the Atwaters and Elizabeth were invited to attend. Tongues loosened as champagne and bourbon were consumed. One evening, after having too much to drink, Elizabeth’s host decided to discuss the issues between the states and speculated on the tactics the Confederate Navy would use to ensure that the South would win the war. Elizabeth played her part well, agreeing with Captain Atwater about the North’s weaknesses and how much better life would be when the South defeated the Yankees.4
When the three friends were not attending grand social functions, they were touring the city. Elizabeth made mental note of the number of Confederate forces amassing in Richmond, the artillery being transported in and out of the city, and the fortifications being built around it. In the evenings before retiring to bed, Elizabeth jotted down everything she had seen and sketched the vital information on scraps of paper. She hid the notes and sketches in the crown of her bonnet.5
One morning in late September, Captain Atwater made mention that part of his workday would be spent watching the demonstration of an unnamed submarine vessel referred to as the Cheney, a two-man underwater vessel built by William Cheney. Elizabeth casually expressed an interest in seeing the demonstration, and Captain Atwater agreed that she and his wife could accompany him. “If you and Mrs. Atwater will be ready by nine o’clock,” the captain told Elizabeth, “we will have ample time to reach the place, which is some few miles below the city.”6
Elizabeth contained her enthusiasm at the announcement. This was the exact area of warfare that Pinkerton had instructed her to learn more about. The detectives had heard rumors that the Confederates were developing torpedoes and submarine vessels to battle against Union blockades.7
According to the September 25, 1861, edition of the Janesville Daily Gazette, the submarine in question was “shaped like a cigar, drawing thirteen feet of water, while only seven are above the surface.” The article went on to note that “it was one hundred five feet long, covered with thick, iron plates, with spikes at the bow and the stern. This vessel cannot only break through blockades, but sink them.” The exhibition of the vessel was to take place in the James River. Designed by William L. Cheney, a New York–born former US Navy officer who later joined the Confederate Navy, the submarine held a crew of two or three men. Captain Atwater explained to Elizabeth that the vessel was operated using a series of gears and levers. She was also told the sub was “but a small working model of a much larger one; it would be finished in two weeks.”8
Elizabeth carefully watched the submarine and the crew through a pair of field glasses Captain Atwater gave her. She was informed that the men inside the vessel wore diving armor which enabled them to work underwater. The air they breathed was supplied from a hose affixed to a sea-green floatation collar that rested on top of the water behind the submarine. Additional hoses were used by divers venturing outside the submarine. Divers worked underwater, attaching a torpedo to the ship they intended to blow up.9
Elizabeth witnessed a scow (a flat-bottomed boat with a front bow, often used to haul bulk freight) being towed into the river and anchored several miles out from the docks. The submarine then set off after the vessel. The location of the underwater boat was easy to follow because of the floating collar. When the submarine reached a designated spot, divers carrying magazines or torpedo canisters were offloaded and swam to the target. The divers then attached the explosives to the scow and ventured back to the submarine. Once inside, the vessel backed away from the target (as evidenced by the movement of the floating collar), and moments later, the scow exploded.10
The crowd watching the boat being blown to bits cheered and applauded. “Without any previous warning there was a concussion from the blast and it took us aback,” Elizabeth later wrote in her report to Pinkerton. “The scow seemed to be lifted bodily out of the water and thrown into the air. Her destruction was complete.” Captain Atwater explained to her that the larger submarine the Confederates would use on the North was specifically earmarked to protect steamers Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson. Both steamers would be leaving Norfolk, Virginia, soon, loaded with cotton and bound for England. It was imperative that they reach their destination. Elizabeth was told that the name of the sub
marine that would see the steamers through was called the Merrimack.11
The Merrimack was a frigate, best known as the hull upon which the ironclad warship the CSS Virginia was constructed. Built and launched in 1855, she was decommissioned in 1860 after traveling through the Caribbean, Western Europe, and Central America. The Merrimack sat at the Norfolk Navy Shipyard until April 1861. The Confederacy, in desperate need of ships, decided to rebuild the frigate as an ironclad.12
The October 5, 1861, edition of the Emporia Weekly News carried an article about the activity of the Confederate Navy and its plans for the Merrimack. The article also included news about the general condition of the Southern capital:
Dr. Wilson, Surgeon in the United States Army, and taken prisoner at Bull Run by the Rebels, was released on parole and reached Richmond. He says there is great distress and dissatisfaction in the Rebel capitol. All the hotels are fitted up as hospitals, and are filled with sick and wounded. There are four hundred men of the Florida regiments in the hospitals. Medicines of all kinds are costly. Quinine sells at eight dollars an ounce and is very scarce.13
All the necessaries of life are dear. Small change is very scarce. Confederate currency is depreciating, the best commanding 15 percent premium. All the physicians of the city agree that there are at least two thousand influential citizens of Richmond that do not believe an attack will be made on Washington. Beauregard’s headquarters are at Fairfax Court House. Johnson’s headquarters are near Winchester. There are about four thousand troops at Norfolk. At the latter place the Rebels are converting the steamer Merrimack into a floating battery.14
