The Civil War in Song and Story: 1860-1865

Frank Moore

P. F. Collier, 1889 - American literature - 560 pages

Moore's collection includes the story of Dabney, an escaped slave-turned spy, €who provided valuable information to Union officers. In 1863,€Dabney fled across the€Rappahonnock€River to join a Union camp while his wife remained in Fredericksburg.€Dabney and his wife worked out a complicated signal system involving hanging laundry€so that she could pass along information about Confederate troops. He could look at her laundry line from across the river and share the information with the military commanders. He described the system:€"You see my wife over there? She washes for the officers, cooks, and waits around, and as soon as she hears about any movement or anything going on she comes down and moves the clothes on that line so I can understand in a minute. That there gray shirt is Longstreet; and when she takes it off it means he's gone down about Richmond. That white shirt means Hill; and when she moves it up to the west end of the line, Hill's corps has moved up stream. That red one is Stonewall Jackson. He's down on the right now, and if he moves, she'll move that red shirt."

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Civil War in Song and Story: 1860-1865
• Author: Frank Moore
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: P. F. Collier, 1889
• Original from: Harvard University
• Digitized: Aug 8, 2006
• Length: 560 pages