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Wild Rose: Rose O'Neale Greenhow, Civil War Spy
written by Ann Blackman
Studio : Random House
by Random House
Release Date : 2005-06-07
Publisher : Random House
Released : 2005-06-07
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours and eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25.
Number of Items : 1
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 9 reviews)
List Price : $17.95
Our Price : $9.99
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Product Description |
For sheer bravado and style, no woman in the North or South rivaled the Civil War heroine Rose O’Neale Greenhow. Fearless spy for the Confederacy, glittering Washington hostess, legendary beauty and lover, Rose Greenhow risked everything for the cause she valued more than life itself. In this superb portrait, biographer Ann Blackman tells the surprising true story of a unique woman in history.
“I am a Southern woman, born with revolutionary blood in my veins,” Rose once declared–and that fiery spirit would plunge her into the center of power and the thick of adventure. Born into a slave-holding family, Rose moved to Washington, D.C., as a young woman and soon established herself as one of the capital’s most charming and influential socialites, an intimate of John C. Calhoun, James Buchanan, and Dolley Madison.
She married well, bore eight children and buried five, and, at the height of the Gold Rush, accompanied her husband Robert Greenhow to San Francisco. Widowed after Robert died in a tragic accident, Rose became notorious in Washington for her daring–and numerous–love affairs.
But with the outbreak of the Civil War, everything changed. Overnight, Rose Greenhow, fashionable hostess, become Rose Greenhow, intrepid spy. As Blackman reveals, deadly accurate intelligence that Rose supplied to General Pierre G. T. Beauregard written in a fascinating code (the code duplicated in the background on the jacket of this book). Her message to Beauregard turned the tide in the first Battle of Bull Run, and was a brilliant piece of spycraft that eventually led to her arrest by Allan Pinkerton and imprisonment with her young daughter.
Indomitable, Rose regained her freedom and, as the war reached a crisis, journeyed to Europe to plead the Confederate cause at the royal courts of England and France.
Drawing on newly discovered diaries and a rich trove of contemporary accounts, Blackman has fashioned a thrilling, intimate narrative that reads like a novel. Wild Rose is an unforgettable rendering of an astonishing woman, a book that will stand with the finest Civil War biographies.
From the Hardcover edition. |
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Wild Rose |
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Excellent! Rose O'Neale Greenhow was an extraordinary woman, a master mind as a secret agent. Her life, which was obtaining intelligence from the North for the benefit of the Southern government, was extremely intricate. Great reading, not a dull moment in the book! |
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SPY THRILLER |
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THIS HAS GOT TO BE THE BEST SPY THRILLER OF THE YEAR BUT THE BEST PART OF THIS BOOK IS ITS ALL TRUE AND IT ALL HAPPENED ITS NOT A NOVEL.I SAW ANN BLACKMAN ON TV AND I WAS SO IMPRESSED BY HER TALK THAT SHE GAVE ON THE LIFE OF THE SPY MASTER ROSE O NEALE GREENHOW THAT I BOUGHT THE BOOK RIGHT AWAY AND COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN ONCE I GOT MY HANDS ON IT.THIS TALENTED WRITER HAS TRACKED DOWN SO MANY NEW AND EXCITING DOCUMENTS AND FACTS THAT PROVE BEYOND A SHADOW OF A DOUBT THAT HAD IT NOT BEEN FOR GREENHOWS UNDERGROUND ACTIVITYS THINGS WOULD HAVE BEEN OVER SOONER FOR THE SOUTH . THIS REAL PAGE TURNER WOULD MAKE A WONDERFUL GIFT FOR A FAMILY MEMBER, A FRIEND , OR RECAMENDATIONS FOR YOUR CIVAL WAR ROUND TABLE OR CIVAL WAR BUFF OR HISTORY BUFF OR MILITARY BUFF. PLEASE GET THIS BOOK TO A SOLDIER SERVING OVER SEAS. |
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Sexy, audacious, determined, But a Spy Nonetheless. |
Rose O'Neal Greenhow was "the" Civil War spy. This is a true story of her exploits before and during the Civil War.
In 1857, Rose was described by a jealous Northern woman as "she looked fity or seventy." That's me sometimes. She was on trial in San Francisco where her husband, Robert, was a lawyer. She might have passed for thirty-five. She was asked "How old are you?" She answered with dignified finality -- "Of sufficient age to testify." She was the Ethel Rosenberg of the Civil War on the Southern side, of course.
Her Oriental Hotel on Market Street was a noted gathering place for the Southerners. Among the generals she met there were Johnston of Shiloh fame, Sherman, Scott and McDowell. Some of their graves at at Shiloh in southwest Tennessee. There in San Francisco, there were polka cotillions and the Southerners lived akin to the way they did in Washington, D.C. She made trips back and forth, carrying messages, and became known as a Confederate spy.
Seven years later, in 1864, she looked years younger in looks as she sailed on the 'Condor' from England to the Confederate States. Rose had often said she would glady die for the Confederacy, and she was drown in the ship wreck during a storm.
In Washington, she had been the fashionable hostess to the likes of John C. Calhoun, James Buchanan, and Dolley Madison. She and Robert went to California during the height of the Gold Rush. After his death in a tragic accident, she became notorious for her many love affairs in Washington. D.C.
With the Civil War, things changed rapidly for, overnight Rose became an intrepid spy. She supplied accurate intelligence against the Union forces, written in code, to General Beauregard, reportedly one of her lovers. She made the difference in the outcome of Bull Run with her information, but Allan Pinkerton arrested her as a spy. Indomitable Rose journeyed to Europe during the crisis of the war to plead the Confederate 'cause' to the royal courts of England and France.
No woman in the North or South rivaled this Civil War heroine, who risked everything for the cause she valued more than life itself. She declared, "I am a Southern woman, born with revolutionary blood in my veins (she meant Rebel tendencies)."
This biography is about an astonishing woman, a book which will stand with the finest of Civil War true stories. Wild (Rebel) Rose was one to deal with only if you were a Confederate sympathizer. Ann Blackman wrote THE SPY NEXT DOOR: ROBERT PHILIP HANSSEN and SEASONS OF HER LIFE (about Madeleine Albright). She was a news reporter with 'Time' magazine and the Associated Press covering American politics and social policy. |
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A Fascinating Addition to Civil War Literature |
This is a delightful book, and in many ways:
1. It describes the life of a wonderfully interesting lady who didn't stay just home and make babies.
2. It gives a picture of Washington D.C. as it existed at the time of the Civil War. This picture is in two parts:
a. the physical aspects, the filth, smell, and how life was lived, and
b. the way Washington worked then (and now) power, money and sex.
3. It is based on new information -- her diary, originally thought to have been written in code, but in fact just very poor penmanship.
The story starts with a message sent to Gen. P.G.T Beauregard to give him an week's notice of when the Union Army would attack Manassas (Bull Run). He used this information to order reinforcements that enabled him to defeat the yankees. Through the course of the war Rose would be caught, imprisoned (without habeas corpus to even know the charges against her). She was exiled to the South, where she was sent by President Davis to France and England to try to get them to assist the South.
This is a fascinating book. All the more so because it is true. Rose was a character born long before her time. |
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Wild Rose |
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Wild Rose with its great research by the author adds a rarely publized subject to the many civil war books and should go down as one of the most interesting. The research is fabulous and is used to paint a picture of the times thru the eyes of a politically active "idealist" leading to spying,prison, and eventually - her DEATH. For civil war history buffs(such as me) it has great qualilty and for those not into history, it is a story that could be repeated many times in the future. |
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