In each of my monthly emails, I share Civil War history, recipes for foods noted in Bitter Medicine, and interesting facts from the period. This month I want to share the story of a Civil War spy.
Kate Warne (1833-1868)
Pinkerton Spy
Espionage was not the purview of women in the mid 1850’s. When Kate Warne answered an advertisement for employment as a private investigator for the Pinkerton Detective Agency, Allen Pinkerton was at first dismissive but then finally listened when Kate Warne said, I can go where men can’t. And she did.
Early in her career, the Pinkerton agency concentrated investigations on train robberies and counterfeiters. Warne excelled as a spy, causing Pinkerton to want to hire more women like her. Pinkerton promoted Kate Warne to Supervisor of Women Operatives, charging her with the selection and training of these new hires.
With the coming of the Civil War, Warne took on roles at a more national level. She along with other Pinkerton operatives were instrumental in saving Abraham Lincoln when Southern sympathizers planned to assassinate him as he made his way through Baltimore to Washington D.C. in 1861.
During the war, Warne acquired intelligence gleaned from her friendship with a Confederate spy and ingenue Rose Greenhow. This much about her professional life is known, but very little is recorded about her personal life.
I’ve read two novels inspired by Kate Warde’s professional and private life. The first published in 2017, Girl in Disguise by Greer Macallister fictionalizes her professional and private life as a spy. Megan Campisi’s The Widow Spy, does much the same. Both books draw on the few facts available about this incredible woman, giving readers a suspenseful and well-written story. I enjoyed them both.