Cushman, Pauline (1833-1893), was an American stage actress. She gained fame after serving as a Union spy during the American Civil War (1861-1865).
Cushman, whose given name was Harriet Wood, was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on June 10, 1833. Her family moved to Michigan when she was young. Around the early 1850’s, Wood traveled to New York City to pursue a career in the theater . There, she changed her name to Pauline Cushman. The name change was probably in honor of Charlotte Cushman , the leading American actress of the mid-1800’s.
In 1853, Pauline Cushman married the musician Charles Dickinson. The couple had two children, both of whom eventually died in childhood. Dickinson enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War. He died of dysentery , an intestinal disease, in 1862.
Cushman continued her career as a stage actress. By mid-March 1863, she was working with a touring theatrical group in Louisville , Kentucky. The city was at that time under Union control, but Cushman accepted a payment to make a public toast to the Southern cause. She was then fired for being a Southern sympathizer. However, Cushman had informed a Union official about the toast prior to the event. He had suggested that she go through with the toast so that she could work as a secret agent. Later, she also made an oath of allegiance to the United States government. Cushman toured Confederate Army camps, obtaining information about troop movements and battle plans.
Union officers had ordered Cushman not to possess notes or maps containing military information. But she violated this order after discovering battle plans at Confederate General Braxton Bragg’s camp south of Nashville, Tennessee. She was caught, and a Confederate military court sentenced her to death. In June, however, Union troops took the town of Shelbyville, where Cushman was being held. The Confederates left her behind during a hasty retreat.
For her association with the Union’s Army of the Cumberland, Cushman became celebrated in the North as “the spy of the Cumberland.” Union officers bestowed her with the honorary rank of major, and some reports said that she was commended by President Abraham Lincoln . Cushman was now too well known to continue her work as a Union spy. She resumed her work as an actress and toured with the circus show of P. T. Barnum . She lectured about her espionage adventures, usually attired in a federal uniform.
Cushman moved to California in early 1872. Later that year, she married August Fichtner, but he died not long afterward. In 1879, she married Jere Fryer, and the couple ran a hotel in Arizona. Fryer also became an Arizona sheriff. The couple separated in 1890.
In her later years, Cushman suffered from rheumatism and became addicted to pain medication. She died of an overdose of morphine in San Francisco on Dec. 2, 1893. She is buried in the Officer’s Circle of the San Francisco National Cemetery. Her tombstone reads, “Pauline C. Fryer, Union Spy.”
