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[edit] Hattie Lawton

Hattie Lawton (aka: Hattie H. Lawton [1], Hattie Lewis Lawton [2]) She may have been born around 1837[3]. Most details of her life before and after the Civil War are unknown.

“Hattie Lawton was part of Pinkerton's Female Detective Bureau, formed in 1860 to ‘worm out secrets’ by means unavailable to male detectives. [4]” Lawton continued to work for Pinkerton during the Civil War. She was part of the team that participated in the detection of alleged 1861 Baltimore assassination plot against Abraham Lincoln and according to Pinkerton's account, in the early part of 1861 Hattie was stationed in Perrymansville, Maryland with Timothy Webster, another Pinkerton agent [5].

After Pinkerton began his “Secret Service” for Gen. George B. McClellan, Lawton and Webster were added to the payroll of the Pinkerton’s service in Washington on August 8th 1861 [6]. Lawton again posing as Timothy Webster’s wife appeared in Richmond in the early part of 1862[7]. The two were sent by Pinkerton to Richmond to gather intelligence about Confederate army movements.

Lawton tended to Webster when he fell ill at the Monument Hotel in Richmond and this prevented reports back to Pinkerton [8]. John Scobell, an African-America northern spy, worked with the "twenty-five-year-old beauty" Hattie Lawton during this time posing as her colored servant [3].

Pinkerton sent two agents, Pryce Lewis and John Scully, to Richmond to find out what happened to Webster and Lawton. They found Webster and Lawton, but Lewis and Scully were recognized as Pinkerton agents, arrested and then released. Various sources indicate that one or both of the men, either to save their own lives or after being tricked, revealed the identity of Webster. Webster and Lawton were arrested and after a quick trial both were found guilty.

Webster was sentenced to death and executed on April 29, 1862 [9]. Lawton was sentenced to one year of prison, but was released in early 1863 in exchange for a Union soldier[4].(from footnote in Rhoades:Donald E. Markle, Spies & Spymasters of The Civil War (New York, 1994), 187-188.)

During her imprisonment, Richmond's most accomplished Union spy, Elizabeth Van Lew, visited Lawton but it is not clear whether Van Lew was aware of the real identity of Mrs Timothy Webster [4].

After her release from prison, nothing is known about Lawton.--S. Frantz 01:56, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Cuthbert (1949) Lincoln and the Baltimore Plot. p. 4.
  2. ^ Fishel (1996) The Secret War for The Union. p.131.
  3. ^ a b Quarles (1953) The Negro in the Civil War. p.89.
  4. ^ a b c Rhoades (August 2002)"The Women of Castle Thunder".
  5. ^ Cuthbert (1949) Lincoln and the Baltimore Plot. p.4.
  6. ^ Fishel (1996) The Secret War for The Union
  7. ^ Fishel (1996) The Secret War for The Union. p.148.
  8. ^ Fishel (1996) The Secret War for The Union. p.148.
  9. ^ United States (2005) Intelligence in the Civil War

[edit] References

Cuthbert, N. B., & Pinkerton, A. (1949). Lincoln and the Baltimore plot, 1861 from Pinkerton records and related papers. Huntington Library publications. San Marino, Calif, Huntington Library.

Fishel, E. C. (1996). The Secret War for The Union: The Untold Story of Military Intelligence in the Civil War. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co.

Quarles, B. (1953). The Negro in the Civil War. Boston, Little, Brown.

Pinkerton, A. (1883). The Spy of the Rebellion; being a true history of the spy system of the United States Army during the late rebellion. Revealing many secrets of the war hitherto not made public. Comp. from official reports prepared for President Lincoln, General McClellan and the provost-marshal-general. New York, G.W. Carleton & Co.

Rhoades, P. (August 2002). "The Women of Castle Thunder." The kudzu Monthly http://www.kudzumonthly.com/kudzu/aug02/CastleThunder.html

Rose, P. K. (1999). Black Dispatches Black American Contributions to Union Intelligence During the Civil War. Washington, D.C., Center for the Study of Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency. http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS61145.

United States. (2005). Intelligence in the Civil War. Washington, D.C., Central Intelligence Agency. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/additional-publications/civil-war/index.html.

[edit] External links