Frank Petrexa
Tribune
I wonder how much of the gold was for her. Also, with the blockade, one wonders what the confederacy would do with it. It would have been better to leave it in a sympathetic European repository.Greenhow was captured for a time. A popular Washington socialite, she used her connections to gather information to pass to the Confederates. Allen Pinkerton, head of the Secret Service had her placed under house arrest August 23, 1861 and moved her to the Old Capital Prison January 18, 1862. She was essentially deported to the South on May 31, 1862.
After that, she was sent to Europe to act as a sort ambassador-at-large. She was returning from Europe on a blockade-runner that ran aground in the mouth of the Cape Fear River near Wilmington, NC (my mom's hometown). She was trying to get ashore by rowboat, but it capsized and she was weighed down by $2,000 in gold sewn into her underclothes.
A story could be written about what might have happened if she were imprisoned in a less genteel Union.
Allen Pinkerton was after the war not very warm and fuzzy, at least toward labor unions. Maybe at this stage he was just gaining influence and business and didn't want to rock the boat with harsh measures. (He certainly put the fear of God into "Gorgeous George" McClellan with his wildly grandiose estimates of Confederate capability. )