Spy Seminar: Civil War Spy Profiles April 10, 2006

Spy Seminar
Civil War Spy Profiles

Monday, 10 April; 6:45 - 9:25 pm

"They hoped to keep on foot amongst us a most efficient corps of spies, informers, suppliers, and aiders and abettors of their cause in a thousand ways.?
- Abraham Lincoln

Neither the Blue nor the Gray were strangers to intrigue and espionage: society ladies carried secret messages, runaway slaves re-crossed the Mason-Dixon Line as undercover agents, and couriers worked covert operations in the life or death climate of wartime. This program exploring the secret work of these operatives begins at Ford's Theatre with a keynote address by Ernest B. Furgurson, author of Freedom Rising: Washington in the Civil War. Then Donald E. Markle, author of Spies and Spymasters of the Civil War, will explore the actions of Mary Elizabeth Bowser, an African American Union Spy, worked with spymistress Elizabeth Van Lew; and John M. Wearmouth, author of Thomas A. Jones: Chief Agent of the Confederate Secret Service in Maryland, will recount this Southern supporter's role in John Wilkes Booth's escape. Attendees will break for a brief walk to the Willard InterContinental Hotel for refreshments and the conclusion of the program, at which historical impersonator Emily Lapisardi will portray Confederate spy Antonia Ford (who married one of the Willard proprietors) and Markle will highlight Allan Pinkerton's intelligence network and counterintelligence operations for the Union. All the experts will be on hand for discussion at the close of the seminar.

This International Spy Museum Spy Seminar is co-sponsored by the Willard InterContinental Hotel in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the hotel?s re-opening.

Seminar to be held at Ford?s Theatre, National Historic Site, National Park Service and at the Willard InterContinental Hotel.

Tickets: $35 ? Friends of Ford's Theatre, Friends of the Willard, and Members of The Spy Ring (Join Today!): $30 ? Includes light refreshments at the Willard InterContinental Hotel ? Space is limited ? advance registration required!