高考英语《流行话题 语境识词 4500》Unit 79 Rebel Wild Rose素材Unit 79 Rebel Wild Rose Rose O'Neal Greenhow was born in Montgomery County, Maryland. "Rebel Wild Rose", as she was sometimes called, was a distinguished hostess in Washington society, a passionate secessionist, and one of the most renowned spies in the Civil War. "I am a Southern woman," she wrote, "born with revolutionary blood in my veins." It was this fervor -- along with her many intimate connections in the capital -- that made Greenhow, a prime rebel recruit when the Civil War finally broke out in April 1861. She proved her worth as a spy in a very short time. From her home on 16th Street NW, Greenhow was running a spy ring meant to undermine the Union war effort. Her effort on behalf of the South were relentless. "She did a better job than most in infiltrating the political and military elite of Washington," says Tyler Anbinder, associate professor of history at George Washington University. "She flattered men into revealing sensitive information." With her charm, intellect and ambition, as well as through her husband, Robert, a State Department official whom she married in 1835, Rose Greenhow came to know virtually everyone of importance in Washington. Among her accomplishments was the ten-word secret message she sent to General Pierre G.T. Beauregard which ultimately caused him to win the battle of Bull Run. She spied so successfully for the Confederacy that Jefferson Davis credited her with winning the battle of Manassas. Her courier, a young woman named Betty Duvall, rode out of Washington dressed as a country girl. Meeting Gen. Milledge L. Bonham at the Fairfax County Courthouse, Duvall advised him that she had an u...
