Timothy Webster – 12 Mar 1822

Timothy Webster Becomes the First Spy Executed in the Civil War

On the day of April 29, 1862, Timothy Webster became the first person executed during the Civil War for acts of espionage. Convicted four days prior to his execution, a court-martial in Richmond, Virginia ruled that Webster, an “alien enemy,” should “suffer death by hanging.” The New York Times republished an original article from the Richmond Dispatch relaying the information of Webster’s capture and trial. Both articles included a “brief synopsis of the proceedings,” which cited Webster’s alleged offenses and the court’s ruling.

The first charge stated that Timothy Webster had been caught on April 1, 1862, “in the service of the United States” lurking “about the armies and fortifications the Confederate States in and near Richmond.” Although the court brought another charge against Webster, they reached a “not guilty” verdict. This second accusation against Webster placed him in Memphis, Tennessee in July of 1861 also around Confederate fortifications. While the burden of proof for the second charge was not strong enough for a conviction, the guilty ruling on the first charge alone sealed Webster’s fate.

In the conclusion of the brief, a fair amount of detail regarding Webster’s final moments provided the reader with a clear picture of the events on April 29. The article went so far as to narrate the malfunction of the first rope used to hang Webster, stating “The half-hung and partially stunned man was speedily raised and assisted up, and a new rope being ready, he was soon swinging, in accordance with his sentence.”

The charges the Confederate court-marshal brought against Timothy Webster at the time of his execution turned out to be only a fraction of the Union spy’s activities. Born in the United Kingdom, in 1821, Webster immigrated to the United States and worked as police officer in New York City. At the war’s onset, he became involved in detective work for the Union, which led to his career as a spy. Part of the new Secret Service ring, Webster was the most valued agent to the organization’s creator, Allan Pinkerton. Prior to his capture, Pinkerton had sent Webster on numerous successful espionage missions to Baltimore. There, he infiltrated the Sons of Liberty group in February of 1861. This, supposedly, led Webster, and subsequently Pinkerton, to a plot in the organization to assassinate Abraham Lincoln.

Webster had also been employed as a double agent. Confederate Secretary of War, Judah Benjamin, used Webster to transport important document to Confederate agents that were across Union lines. With the documents in his possession, Webster made stops before delivering the dispatches allowing Union officials to read the contents of the messages.

When Webster was struck by a case of rheumatism on his mission to Richmond in 1862, Pinkerton sent Union spies Lewis Pryce and John Scully to locate Webster, who had been too ill to relay information back to Pinkerton. The two spies were captured while searching for Webster, and suspicion engulfed the valuable agent. Scully and Pryce received death sentences, but were released after their testimonies implicating Webster.

Citations

• Bonansinga, Jay, Pinkerton’s War: The Civil War’s Greatest Spy and the Birth of the U.S. Secret Service (Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2012), 177, 201-205
• Fisehl, Edwin, The Secret War for the Union: The Untold Story of Military Intelligence in the Civil War (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1996), 95-101
• “Execution of an Alleged Spy,” New York Times, New York Times

Timothy Webster (March 12, 1822 – April 29, 1862) was a British-born American lawman and soldier. He served as a Pinkerton agent and Union spy, and was the first spy in the American Civil War to be executed.

Early life:

Webster came to America with his parents in August 1830 and settled in Princeton, New Jersey. He became a policeman in New York City sometime before 1850. He met Allan Pinkerton in 1853 and took a job with Pinkerton’s private detective agency in 1856.^[1]

Webster married Charlotte Sprowles on October 23, 1841 in Princeton, New Jersey and the couple had four children, two of whom died young. Their son, Timothy Jr., born in 1843, joined the Union Army from Onarga, Illinois on July 30, 1862 and was wounded in the Battle of Brices Crossroads near Ripley, Mississippi on June 11, 1864, and taken to a Confederate prison in Mobile, Alabama where his leg was amputated. He subsequently died there on July 4, 1864. His body was transported north to Onarga, Illinois and buried in the Onarga Cemetery next to his grandfather, Timothy Webster Sr., who died in Onarga in 1860.^[2]

Civil War:

In early 1861, Pinkerton sent Webster and Hattie Lawton to pose as a Southern gentleman and wife (Mrs. Webster) in the Baltimore area and became a member of a pro-Southern group in order to report on secessionists’ plans and activities.^[3] Some of the information provided by Webster gave support to Pinkerton’s assertion that there was a Baltimore Plot to assassinate Lincoln as he moved through Baltimore on his way to his inauguration in 1861.

After the outbreak of war, Pinkerton began to provide agents to the Union armies under George B. McClellan. Webster continued to gather information on the Confederacy from 1861 through 1862 in southern Maryland and Richmond, Virginia. In Richmond in 1862 he was stricken with inflammatory rheumatism^[4] and was too ill to send reports back to Pinkerton. As a result, Pinkerton sent Pryce Lewis and John Scully to locate Webster.^[3] The two men were recognized as being Union spies^[4] and captured by the Confederacy. Scully eventually revealed information that caused Webster and Lawton to be arrested.^[3]

Confederate officers had trusted Webster many times with valuable documents and information and the Confederacy was extremely embarrassed by Webster’s betrayal. While Lewis and Scully were eventually released, Webster was arrested, tried, and sentenced to death by hanging. Hattie Lawton was imprisoned and later released in an exchange of prisoners.Timothy Webster, with fellow, Union, Pinkerton agent, Hattie Lawton, before his execution, in Richmond, Virginia, by a Confederate firing squad, for wartime espionage, from the 1882 book, The Spy of the Rebellion: Being a True History of the Spy System of the United States Army During the Late Rebellion…, by Allan Pinkerton

Death:

When Pinkerton heard the news of the sentence, he and President Lincoln sent a message to the Confederacy threatening that if Webster was put to death, the Union would reciprocate by hanging a Confederate spy.^[5] Union policy had been to keep Confederate spies in jail and exchange them for Union prisoners.

The Confederacy ignored the threat^[4] and on April 29, 1862, Timothy Webster climbed the gallows in Richmond, Virginia at Camp Lee.^[5] After the initial attempt to hang Webster failed, he was helped to the gallows again and was heard to say, “I suffer a double death!” before being killed on the second attempt.^[3] He was buried in Richmond, but in 1871, Pinkerton sent George Bangs and Thomas G. Robinson (Timothy’s son-in-law) to Richmond to locate his body and bring it to Onarga, Illinois for burial. He was buried next to his father, Timothy Webster Sr., and his son, Timothy Webster Jr.^[2]

1. ^ Recko (2013) A Spy for the Union: The Life and Execution of Timothy Webster.
2. ^ Jump up to:^a b Goff (2000) Timothy Webster the story of the Civil War spy and his family.
3. ^ Jump up to:^a b c d Beymer (1910) Timothy Webster:Spy.
4. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Intelligence in the Civil War, CIA Publication https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/intelligence-history/civil-war/Intel_in_the_CW1.pdf
5. ^ Jump up to:^a b Fishel (1996). The Secret War for The Union.

References:

• Beymer, W. G. (1910). Timothy Webster:Spy. Harper’s monthly magazine ; \v October, 1910. [New York], Harper’s Monthly Magazine.
• Cuthbert, N. B., & Pinkerton, A. (1949). Lincoln and the Baltimore plot,1861 from Pinkerton records and related papers. Huntington Library publications. San Marino, Calif, Huntington Library.
• Fishel, E. C. (1996). The Secret War for The Union: The Untold Story of Military Intelligence in the Civil War. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co.
• Goff, P. D. (2000). Timothy Webster the story of the Civil War spy and his family. Elgin, Ill, Goff Publications.
• Pinkerton, A. (1883). The Spy of the Rebellion; being a true history of the spy system of the United States Army during the late rebellion. Revealing many secrets of the war hitherto not made public. Comp. from official reports prepared for President Lincoln, General McClellan and the provost-marshal-general. New York, G.W. Carleton & Co.
• Recko, Corey (2013). A Spy for the Union: The Life and Execution of Timothy Webster. Jefferson, NC, McFarland & Co.
• United States. (2005). Intelligence in the Civil War. Washington, D.C., Central Intelligence Agency.