Pauline Cushman: Spy of the Cumberland

By William J. Christen
Illustrated, maps, a closing benefit, endnotes, acknowledgements, bibliography, index, 436 pp, 2006. Edinborough Press, P.O. Box 13790, Roseville MN 55113, $39.95 plus shipping.

Reviewer: Richard J. Blumberg
Richard J. Blumberg has a master's degree with honors in Civil War studies. He is past president of the Houston Civil War Round Table and is a speaker for that group and the Society of Women in the Civil War. He also reviews books for the Blue and Gray Education Society.

Review:
William Christen's Pauline Cushman: Spy of the Cumberland is an extremely ambitious undertaking. In some aspects, it is a smashing success. In others, it falls short. However, many of the shortcomings should not be attributed to the author or the author's research efforts.

Pauline Cushman was an unusual, if not eccentric, product of 19th-century America. Unfortunately she is one of many women of that time about whom few early-life details are known. Regrettably, no extensive/comprehensive diary or personal journal has been found.

Miss Major Pauline Cushman, as she was sometimes referred to, was given the name Harriet Wood at birth. In 1853 she married Charles Dickinson, a music teacher and theater musician in New Orleans.

Having worked for Phineas T. Barnum and others before and after her marriage, she had acquired the stage name Pauline Cushman and built a solid theatrical resume. Her true notoriety came as a result of a theatrical prank that called for her to toast the Confederate President during a performance.

As a result of this "dare," she was approached by the Provost Marshal of the City of Louisville to conduct spy operations into Confederate General Braxton Bragg's operations. Having gone south to Nashville as a result of this request, she was summarily captured and sentenced to be hung as a spy.

Cushman was truly blessed that the rapid retreat of Bragg's Army of Tennessee gave her an opportunity to escape, which she took full advantage of. Somewhere along the line, Pauline asserts a claim that she was given a major's commission in the cavalry, hence the name Miss Major Pauline Cushman.

There is no real substantive evidence as to whether this claim is true or not. In fact, the only real substantial evidence of any federal service rendered came in the form of a federal payroll voucher approved by future President James A. Garfield.

Pauline would continue her spy and theatrical activities after the Civil War. She made appearances at the American Museum in New York City and was dubbed "The Spy of the Cumberland" by P.T. Barnum. In 1872, having lost the fame and public attention she previously enjoyed, she moved to San Francisco. She married a second time, but was again widowed, within a year.

For the next five years, she worked in redwood logging camps in Santa Cruz. She met Jere Fryer in 1879 and they moved to the Arizona Territory where they married and ran a hotel and livery stable. In 1890, having become estranged, the couple separated.

During the course of her life of fame and notoriety, Cushman fell into the trap of many socialites. She became an alcoholic. The demanding work she had performed on stage and as a spy led to severe bouts with rheumatism. She lived the last few years of her life in a San Francisco boarding house where she was found dead on the morning of Dec. 2, 1893, from an apparent accidental overdose of morphine.

Her remains now rest in Officer's Circle in the Presidio National Cemetery in San Francisco. The simple gravestone is marked, "Pauline C. Fryer, Union Spy."

Author Christen readily admits that despite his 13 years of extensive research, Pauline's life still remains more fiction than truth. His purpose was to build on or refute the only Cushman biography, Ferdinand Sarmiento's 1864 The Life of Pauline Cushman.

Christen must be commended for his extensive and thorough research, especially since many of the potential leads became dead ends. Subjects like Pauline Cushman are difficult to research, not only because of scarce information available. Her theatrical background may cause some to speculate whether her claims, or those of very close friends like Sarmiento, Garfield, General Rosecrans and others, were made more grandiose to put her in a better light.

On numerous occasions, Christen shows that dates and events provided by Pauline or her peers do not coincide with other well-documented accounts of those same dates and events.

He provides an excellent methodology for doing genealogical research. Unfortunately, in his quest to verify facts and point out discrepancies, the book at times becomes more of a genealogical research record rather than a biography.

Hopefully, the author, a retired automotive engineer and publisher of The Watchdog, has raised interest in further research on Pauline Cushman. If so, I am confident he will feel that his 13-year "labor of love" was worth it.

This book is a good reference for those interested in genealogical research techniques and those with a specific interest in the Pauline Cushman story. The extensive bibliography is a tribute to Christen's years of research.

Several new primary sources were identified and used. He provides critical analysis of the facts and allows readers to form their own conclusions regarding the facts and fiction of this unique woman.