Confederate spy Rose O’Neal Greenhow was a well-connected Washington society woman who used those connections to obtain intelligence information at the beginning of the war. She was placed under house arrest on August 23, 1861 and served time in Old Capitol Prison in 1862, after which she was deported to Richmond.
This sketch of defenses of Shuter’s Hill Va, which bears the coded message on the front, is one of twenty-four military maps and drawings in a collection of papers from Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard. The map is dated August 16, 1861.
Citation: Sketch of the defenses of Shuter’s Hill, Va. 16 August 1861 AMs 1168/11