Agents within the United States The Confederacy benefited from the services of a number of "traditional"
spies including
Rose O'Neal Greenhow and
Aaron Van Camp, who appear to have been members of an espionage gang during the formative period of the Confederate government. Greenhow was incarcerated at the
Old Capitol Prison in
Washington, D.C. Thomas Jordan recruited Greenhow and provided her with cypher code. Other known espionage agents include
Belle Boyd and
Catherine Virginia Baxley.
John Surratt served as both a courier and spy. John H. Sothoron appears to have commanded the Confederate underground in
St. Mary's County, Maryland. Col. Sothoron lived near
Charlotte Hall Military Academy. His son, Webster, attended the school and was reputed to be a spy.
Richard Thomas (Zarvona) and
David Herold were also students, although Herold's attending is disputed.
Samuel Mudd, of
Charles County, Maryland, seems to have lent shelter to agents and harbored
John Wilkes Booth, although Mudd's role is disputed.
Foreign agents The Confederacy's first secret-service agent may have been
James D. Bulloch. In 1861, almost immediately after the attack on
Fort Sumter, Bulloch traveled to
Liverpool,
England, to establish a base of operations. The United Kingdom was officially neutral in the conflict between North and South, but private and public sentiment favored the Confederacy. Britain was also willing to buy cotton that could be smuggled past the
Union blockade, which provided the South with its only real source of hard currency. Bulloch established a relationship with the shipping company of Fraser, Trenholm & Company to buy and sell Confederate cotton, using this currency to purchase arms and ammunition, uniforms, and other supplies for the war effort. Fraser,
Trenholm & Co. became, in effect, the Confederacy's international bankers. Bulloch also arranged for the construction and secret purchase of the commerce raider
CSS Alabama, as well as many of the
blockade runners that acted as the Confederacy's commercial lifeline.
Jacob Thompson was the Confederate commissioner in Canada. He distributed money, coordinated agents, and may have planned covert operations. He was involved with the attempt to liberate Confederate prisoners at
Johnson's Island, a Union facility which also housed political prisoners. Thompson met with
Clement Laird Vallandigham, an Ohio politician. Vallandigham, a potential presidential candidate against Lincoln, was arrested by Union General
Ambrose Burnside and deported to the Confederacy. Vallandigham made his way to Canada.
Signal Corps The Confederate Signal Corps was established in 1862. Nearly 1,200 men were in the secret service, most of whom were well-to-do and knew more than one language. Example:
Alexander Campbell Rucker, brother of Colonel
Edmund Winchester Rucker, was in the Confederate Secret Service. Major
William Norris was their commander. Norris may have worked for
Braxton Bragg. On April 26, 1865, Norris took the position of the Commissioner of Prisoner Exchange
Robert Ould. Ould may have been the civilian liaison to the corps, and Bragg the military liaison, with both reporting to
Jefferson Davis or
Judah Benjamin.
Thomas Nelson Conrad was a scout and spy who worked with Norris.
Torpedo Bureau The Torpedo Bureau, authorized on October 31, 1862, and commanded by Brigadier General
Gabriel Rains, was charged with the production of various explosive devices, including
land mines,
naval mines, and "
coal torpedoes" (bombs disguised as chunks of coal, intended to destroy boilers).
Submarine Battery Service Created at the same time as the Torpedo Bureau, the Submarine Battery Service were the Confederate Navy's torpedo specialists. The service primarily utilized electrically detonated torpedoes to protect the South's waterways. Originally commanded by Commander
Matthew Fontaine Maury, known as "The Pathfinder of the Seas", Maury was succeeded by his protégé, Lt.
Hunter Davidson, when Maury was sent abroad to further his experiments involving electrical torpedoes and to procure needed supplies and ships. The service operated along the James River between Richmond and
Hampton Roads, Virginia,
Wilmington, North Carolina,
Charleston, South Carolina, and
Savannah, Georgia, among other locales.
Bureau of Special and Secret Service During November 1864, the Confederate House of Representatives in secret session referred a bill “for the establishment of a Bureau of Special and Secret Service” to their Committee on Military Affairs. The bureau was to have a “polytechnic corps”. The existing “torpedo corps” was to be incorporated into the bureau. New inventions were to be encouraged.
Operations in Canada and the Maritime Provinces Confederate agents operated around
Halifax,
Quebec City,
Niagara,
Toronto, and (especially)
Montreal. Confederate agents operating in Canada were considerable enough to be widely tolerated. For example, in
Toronto, Southern agents operated freely and openly with little to no concern from local authorities who were governed by British North America’s official policy of neutrality. Indeed, Southerners enjoyed the sympathy of most of Toronto’s political, social, and business elite—although few were as enthusiastic in supporting the Confederate cause as
George Taylor Denison III. Canadian banks funded their activities and Toronto, Montreal,
St. Catharines, and Halifax were among the bases of well-financed Confederate networks by Confederate agents and sympathizers in these cities. Several Canadian hotels across the territory, including the
Queen's Hotel, Toronto and
St. Louis hotel in Quebec City, acted as informal headquarters for Confederate Secret Service activities. ==Sanctioned destructionists, privateers, and licensed operators==