THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 9, 1995 TAG: 9504070646
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: George Tucker
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
Secret information furnished by Mrs. Mary Louveste, an African-American Union sympathizer from Norfolk, to Gideon Welles, Abraham Lincoln's secretary of the Navy, saved the nation's oldest dry dock from destruction and stressed the necessity of speedy completion of the USS Monitor. The dry dock, still in use in Norfolk Naval Shipyard, was built between 1827 and 1834.
In May 1861, what remained of the former USS Merrimack - partially burned when the Federal forces abandoned the yard a month earlier - was raised from the Elizabeth River, placed in the dock and rebuilt as the CSS Virginia. It was this ironclad that engaged the Monitor in Hampton Roads on March 9, 1862, in what is known as the Battle of the Merrimack and the Monitor.
Even though the Confederates changed the name of the former Merrimack to the Virginia, Civil War historians generally refer to the ship by its original name. The name ends with a ``k,'' even though many, including Welles, omitted that letter.
Louveste was a free black woman, born in Virginia in 1820. In 1840, she married Michael Louveste, a mulatto from Guadalupe. When the 1860 U.S. census was taken, Michael Louveste, who was listed as a barkeeper, lived with his wife on Nivison Street in Norfolk. Both were Union sympathizers.
Two accounts of Mrs. Louveste's espionage - both by Welles - have survived. The first is called ``The First Iron-Clad Monitor,'' and was written in 1879 for ``The Annals of the War Written by Leading Participants North and South.'' The second is a letter written in 1872, in which Welles urged that Mrs. Louveste receive compensation for her wartime spying. The letter is owned by the Portsmouth Public Library.
In his printed account, Welles states: ``When the contract for the `Monitor' was made, in October (1861), with a primary condition that she should be ready for sea in one hundred days, the Navy Department intended that the battery should, immediately after reaching Hampton Roads, proceed up Elizabeth River to the Navy Yard at Norfolk, place herself opposite the dry-dock, and with her heavy guns destroy both the dock and the `Merrimac.' This was our secret. The `Monitor' could easily have done what was required, for her appearance at Norfolk would have been a surprise. But the hundred days expired, weeks passed, and the `Monitor' was not ready.''
Welles tells how Mrs. Louveste's espionage altered the government's plans: ``Late in February (1862), a negro woman, who resided in Norfolk, came to the Navy Department and desired a private interview with me. She and others had closely watched the work upon the `Merrimac', and she, by their request, had come to report the ship was nearly finished, had come out of the dock, and was about receiving her armament. The woman had passed through the lines, at great risk to herself, to bring me the information, and, in confirmation of her statement, she took from the bosom of her dress a letter from a Union man, a mechanic in the Navy Yard, giving briefly the facts as stated by her. The news, of course, put an end to the test, which had been originally designed, of destroying the `Merrimac' in the drydock; but made us not less anxious for the speedy completion of the battery.''
Welles' letter, written four years earlier, gives this account of Mrs. Louveste's brave action: ``It was whilst we were in this state of anxiety (i.e., concern over the completion of the Monitor), with but vague and indefinite information, that this colored woman, Mary Louveste, came to the Navy Department, and requested to see me alone. Not a word would she communicate in the presence of anyone, but when were were alone she informed me that she was from Norfolk; told me the condition of the vessel, and took from her clothing a paper, written by a mechanic who was working on the `Merrimac,' describing the character of the work, its progress and possible completion. The information corroborated and confirmed that which we had, in various ways, received from others.''
Summing up his appeal that she be compensated for her valuable help, Welles added: ``Mrs. Louveste encountered no small risk in bringing this information to the Department. . . If the government is paying for services of this description, I am aware of none more meritorious than that of this colored woman whose zeal and fidelity I remember and acknowledge with grattitude.''
Mary Louveste's case had not yet been sufficiently researched to show whether she received any compensation. But one thing is certain: What is already known about her espionage activities proves she deserves more than a footnote in Norfolk's Civil War annals.
KEYWORDS: CIVIL WAR SPY by CNB