General Joe Hooker (USA). Image Source: Library of Congress.
Following the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Confederate Army, under the command of Robert E. Lee, camped in and around Fredericksburg. Meanwhile, Union forces, under the command of General Joseph Hooker, camped on the other side of Rappahannock River, in and around Falmouth. As the winter of 1862–1863 came to a close, both armies prepared to mobilize and engage each other. In Hooker’s camp, two servants — a man named Dabney and his wife — helped Hooker track the movement of the Confederate forces.
General Hooker’s Clothesline Telegraph at Fredericksburg
Similar to Benjamin Tallmadge and the Culper Spy Ring, Dabney and his wife used a clothesline to send signals. This short story of how the clothesline was used is from The Civil War in Song and Story: 1860–1865 by Frank Moore, which was published in 1889.
Please note that section headings and minor text corrections have been made to help scan and understand the text.
In the early part of 1863, when the Union army was encamped at Falmouth, and picketing the banks of the Rappahannock, the utmost tact and ingenuity were displayed, by the scouts and videttes, in gaining a knowledge of contemplated movements on either side; and here, as at various other times, the shrewdness of the African camp attendants was very remarkable.
Dabney Crosses to the Union Side
There came into the Union lines a negro from a farm on the other side of the river, known by the name of Dabney, who was found to possess a remarkably clear knowledge of the topography of the whole region; and he was employed as cook and body servant at headquarters.
Dabney Learns the Signals
When he first saw our system of army telegraphs, the idea interested him intensely, and he begged the operators to explain the signs to him. They did so, and found that he could understand and remember the meaning of the various movements as well as any of his brethren of paler hue.
Dabney’s Wife Volunteers to Spy on the Confederates
Not long after, his wife, who had come with him, expressed a great anxiety to be allowed to go over to the other side as servant to a “secesh woman,” whom General Hooker was about rending ever to her friends. The request was granted. Dabney’s wife went across the Rappahannock, and in a few days was duly installed as laundress at the headquarters of a prominent rebel General.
Hooker is Informed About Confederate Movements
Dabney, her husband, on the north bank, was soon found to be wonderfully well informed as to all the rebel plans, Within an hour of the time that a movement of any kind was projected, or even discussed, among the rebel generals, Hooker knew all about it.
He knew which corps was moving, or about to move, in what direction, how long they had been on the march, and in what force; and all this knowledge came through Dabney, and his reports always turned out to be true.
The Mystery of Dabney’s Source of Information
Yet Dabney was never absent, and never talked with the scouts, and seemed to be always taken up with his duties as cook and groom about headquarters.
How he obtained his information remained for some time a puzzle to the Union officers. At length, upon much solicitation, he unfolded his marvellous secret to one of our officers.
Dabney Explains the Clothesline System
Taking him to a point where a clear view could he obtained of Fredericksburg, he pointed out a little cabin in the suburbs near the river bank, and asked him if he saw that clothes-line with cloches hanging on it to dry.
“Well,” said he, “that clothes-line tells me in half an hour just what goes on at Lee’s headquarters. You see my wife over there; she washes for the officers, and 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 it in a minute.”
The Positions of Longstreet, Hill, and Jackson
“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. He’s down on the right now, and if he moves, she will move that red shirt.”
Lee’s Fish Trap is Exposed
One morning Dabney came in and reported a movement over there. “But,” says he, “it don’t amount, to any thing. They’re just making believe.”
An officer went out to look at the clothes line telegraph through his field-glass. There had been quite a shifting over there among the army flannels. “But how do you know but there is something in it?”
“Do you see those two blankets pinned together at the bottom?” said Dabney.
“Yes, but what of it?” said the officer.
“Why, that’s her way of making a fish-trap; and when she pins the clothes together that way, it means that Lee is only trying to draw us into his fish-trap.”
As long as the two armies lay watching each other on opposite banks of the stream, Dabney, with his clothes-line telegraph, continued to be one of the promptest and most reliable of General Hooker’s scouts.