Pauline Cushman — Civil War Union Army Spy With Ties to Arizona
By Larry Nader, Larry Nader Photography & Art
Published May 23, 2023
Most of us have a working knowledge of the Civil War from American history classes in our youth, while others spend their entire lives dedicated to researching and learning about the war between the states. But I do not remember ever being taught about spies that served on both sides during the war, or that Arizona has a link to the espionage aspect of the Civil War; and a woman spy at that. For this week’s article, we take you to the town of Florence, Arizona as we investigate the history of Pauline Cushman — Union Army Civil War Spy.
Cushman was born Harriet Wood in New Orleans, Louisiana on June 10, 1833. She was the daughter of a Spanish merchant and a French woman who was the daughter of one of Napoleon Bonaparte’s soldiers). Sometime after her birth, Harriet’s family relocated to Grand Rapids, Michigan where they established a trading post trading with the local indigenous people. But Harriet had her sights set on something bigger.
Making her acting debut in 1862 in Union-controlled Louisville, Kentucky, she would later go on to New York City taking the stage name of Pauline Cushman. At some point, Cushman would travel back to her birthplace where she was performing at a local theater when she met her first husband, Charles Dickinson, a musician. When the war broke out, Charles joined the Union Army as a musician before dying of dysentery in 1862.
Following the death of her first husband, Harriet returned to acting and was performing on stage in Louisville, Kentucky when, following a performance, she was approached by Union officers proposing that she become a spy for the North. But to do so required her to travel behind enemy lines.
Cushman would get close to Rebel officers and commanders, obtaining battle plans and drawings that she would conceal in her shoes. Despite being a slippery character, Cushman was detained in 1864 under suspicion of being a Union spy but managed to escape. Later that same year, she was recaptured and taken before General Braxton Bragg, tried, convicted, and sentenced to hang. This is where her acting skills really came in handy.
While awaiting her time in the gallows, Cushman’s health deteriorated drastically. While she was sick, she used her skills from the stage to appear even sicker than she was and the Confederates postponed her until she was better (something that totally baffles me….too sick to be put to death?) However, her stalling tactics saved her life when the Union army invaded Shelbyville, Tennessee forcing the Confederates to vacate the area. While they were making their hasty retreat they left Cushman behind figuring that she was in ill health and was too well known to be of any future use to the North.
Dubbed “The Spy of Cumberland” by the southern forces, Cushman was awarded the rank of Brevet Major by General James A. Garfield and made an honorary Major by President Abraham Lincoln for her service to the Union. By the end of the war in 1865, she was touring the country giving lectures on her exploits as a spy, working with P.T. Barnum at one point.
After losing her child to illness in 1868, Cushman would make her way to San Francisco, California where she would meet and marry her second husband in 1862. However, she was widowed, yet again, within a year.
In 1879, reports indicate that Cushman met her third and final husband, Jere Fryer, and the pair moved to Casa-Grande, Arizona where they operated a hotel and livery stable. However, tragedy continued to follow Cushman, as the daughter she adopted with Fryer died at the age of six from a seizure in April 1888. The trauma of losing another child but have been hard for Cushman as she and Fryer separated in 1890. Sadly, by 1892, she was dirt-broke and living in El Paso, Texas.
Somehow, Cushman made her way back to San Francisco where she spent her final years in a boarding house, working as a seamstress and maid (or charwoman as it was called). Eventually, the effects of Rheumatism and arthritis completely disabled her such that Cushman eventually became addicted to pain medications, before she eventually passed from a suicidal overdose of morphine at the age of sixty. Cushman was buried with full military honors.
In a tribute to Cushman’s military service, the television series Rawhide aired an episode titled “The Blue Spy” in 1961 with Pauline Cushman as the central character. Phyllis Thaxter portrayed her character.
While her time in Arizona was fleeting, the house that she and Fryer resided in is now a National Historic Place in Florence, Arizona. The Sonoran-style adobe house was originally built by local Blacksmith, Roderick Ross in 1876. In addition to Cushman’s celebrity status in the list of the home’s previous owners, silent movie star Tom Mix also lived there in the 1930s. According to the Historic Site sign located in front of the property, the home was added to the National Register of Historical Places in 1999, although a search of the National Register’s online database does not support this. I performed an interactive search in addition to a manual search of the database and could not find this listing at all.
You can visit the Ross/Fryer-Cushman house still today at 364 N. Grant St. in Florence, Arizona. There are also a number of other historical site markers within close proximity to the house including the Charles Rapp Saloon, Mauk Building, E. N. Fish & Co. Store, W.C. Smith/Rittenouse/Arriola’s Cosmopolitan Store, Silver King Florence Hotel, E.N. Fish & Co. Store , Levi Ruggles , and C. G. Powell People’s Store.
With that, we will wrap things up for this week’s trip. Until next week, share our posts with your friends and family, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Linked In to have our posts and photos delivered directly to your newsfeeds, and feel free to comment on these articles either on our site or social media pages. Peace!
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