The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine (public domain), 1904
The most famous woman to pass through Fort McHenry’s prison during the Civil War was probably Susan Archer Talley. A published poet and possible friend of Edgar Allen Poe, Talley had been deaf since childhood. She was an ardent supporter of the Confederacy, and was sent to Fort McHenry in April of 1862 as a political prisoner, having been accused of passing information to the Confederates.
Born in rural Virginia during the early 1830s to lawyer Thomas Talley and his wife Eliza Frances Archer. Susan spent her early years happily wandering the woods and meadows of the family estate with a Newfoundland dog named Trim. When she was eight years old, Susan’s family moved to Richmond where her father built a Colonial Revival style farmhouse named Talavera, in what is now the Fan District of Richmond. Susan began attending Persico’s Boarding and Day School for Young Ladies, and was a bright student, showing a talent for drawing, painting, and sculpture. However, just two years after starting her education she came down with scarlet fever, which left her permanently deaf. She then withdrew from school and continued her education independently, including the pursuit of poetry writing.
When she was around 16 or 17, one of Susan’s poems was published in the Southern Literary Messenger, and additional publications soon followed, including a book of poetry in 1859. Her poem “Battle of Manassas” based on the first battle of the Civil War was popular, and showcased her strong Southern sympathies. She used her writing talents to support herself throughout her life, mainly by publishing stories, and more notably, biographies of Edgar Allen Poe. Susan was a great admirer of Poe, who influenced her own writing, and although she claimed to have been a close friend of his, there is some controversy over how well she knew him. Poe’s sister Rosalie lived very close to Talavera, and he was likely a guest of the Talley family.
When the Civil War broke out, Susan had been on her way to Europe to study art. She traveled as far as New York City, where she was denied a passport, and so had to make her way back to Richmond. According to Weiss, this is the where her activities as a spy began. Like many details of her life, the truth about some of her claims is unknown. For example, en route back home, she claimed to have helped smuggle a letter to General Robert E. Lee, torn in little pieces so that it would fit into her plaited hair. Other similar adventures supposedly followed, and she eventually made it back to Richmond, only to find that Talavera had been taken over by the Confederate Army, and her family scattered.
Susan then went to stay with an English captain in Norfolk, Virginia, and found herself conveniently located between the United States and Confederate armies. As a respectable and genteel woman, she was able to move between both parties, and apparently began passing information to the Confederates. On April 3, 1862, she was arrested by the U.S. Army near Norfolk and accused of supplying information to the Confederate Army during the opening stages of the Peninsular Campaign against Richmond. She was sent to Fort McHenry and charged with “communicating with the rebels and signaling the enemy’s pickets.”
Women spies generally faced less harsh punishment than their male counterparts, and could often gain their freedom by swearing an oath of loyalty to the United States. Susan refused to take the oath on three occasions, declaring it to be an insult to a Southern woman. Even though General John Dix ordered her to be held in solitary confinement at Fort McHenry, Major Morris, the fort’s commanding officer, permitted her walks along the ramparts and balcony for fresh air. She was not kept in one of the small dark prison cells in the sally port, but in a room overlooking the parade ground. Susan reported that she was gradually given the right to walk freely around the grounds and ramparts with an escort, and that she could receive visitors from her secessionist friends, who brought her flowers, books, food, and even canaries. She claimed that the major gave her a small garden plot, and a German girl as a servant.
Morris spent many hours trying to convert Talley to the Union cause, until according to Talley “he remarked at length that I was the most obstinate of all the rebels that he had ever had under his charge” as she refused to take the oath of allegiance.
One of Susan’s escorts on her walks was Lieutenant Louis Weiss, a Union officer originally from Germany. They married in secret in June 1862 while she was held prisoner. After her release on June 25, 1862, her husband resigned from the Army and returned to Germany temporarily, while she waited for him in Norfolk. When General Dix learned she had been released from Fort McHenry, he was infuriated, and ordered her confined to the city, with all of her mail confiscated. By Talley’s account, she escaped Norfolk by running the blockade, and eventually made it back to Richmond, where she found Talavera badly damaged.
Susan gave birth to a son, Stuart Archer Weiss, in 1863, and had no communication with Louis for several years. They eventually lived in New York City for some time, but the marriage did not last. Susan brought up her son as a single mother, supporting herself by writing stories and poems for magazines and newspapers. In her time, she was considered a fairly well-known writer (with one publication calling her “the famous Virginia writer”), and was vehemently supportive of the South and the “lost cause.” She died in Richmond in 1917, having lived an adventurous and colorful life, both on paper and in real life.
