In 1861, Thomas Nelson Conrad enlisted as a chaplain in the Confederate army. Assigned as a scout for the 3rd Virginia Cavalry, the 24-year-old Methodist preacher often made use of his chaplain garb when crossing into Union lines.
Once Conrad began operating in Washington, D.C., he established a spy operation in the Van Ness house, a mansion owned by a Confederate sympathizer and located near the White House and government offices. A contact at the War Department aided Conrad’s efforts to acquire information about the composition and movement of Union forces. Conrad also routinely forwarded Northern newspapers that provided accounts of Union Army activities to Confederate military leaders in Richmond.
In 1861, Thomas Nelson Conrad enlisted as a chaplain in the Confederate army. Assigned as a scout for the 3rd Virginia Cavalry, the 24-year-old Methodist preacher often made use of his chaplain garb when crossing into Union lines.
Once Conrad began operating in Washington, D.C., he established a spy operation in the Van Ness house, a mansion owned by a Confederate sympathizer and located near the White House and government offices. A contact at the War Department aided Conrad’s efforts to acquire information about the composition and movement of Union forces. Conrad also routinely forwarded Northern newspapers that provided accounts of Union Army activities to Confederate military leaders in Richmond.
The intelligence Conrad provided proved useful to the South in several major battles of the war. That included documents he furnished to Confederate General Robert E. Lee about Union Army activities during the Seven Days Battle in mid-1862, enabling Lee’s army to outmaneuver the stronger Union forces. Later that year, Conrad learned of Union Army plans to march south through Fredericksburg, Virginia, where Lee was headquartered. It was one of several reports Lee received about the advancing Northern forces, and in the subsequent Battle of Fredericksburg, the Confederates won their most lopsided victory of the war.