Born: 1814 (circa), United States (Assumed)
Died: 12 June 1880
Country most active: United States
Also known as: “Dabney’s wife”
During the US Civil War, runaway slave couple Dabney and Lucy Ann Walker (who is not named in many references) joined Union troops at General Joseph Hooker‘s headquarters camp near Fredericksburg, Virginia in 1863. A few weeks after they arrived, Lucy Ann returned to Confederate territory to serve as a laundress and personal servant to a Southern woman who lived nearby. Shortly afterward, Dabney, who served as a cook, began reporting Confederate movements to Hooker’s staff. His information was reliably accurate and timely: he knew which units were moving, where they were going, how long they’d been marching, and how many troops they had. Dabney’s information usually reached Hooker just hours after it was discussed by rebel commanders.
When asked where he got his information, Dabney led Union army officers to a hilltop, where they had a clear view of Fredericksburg and much of the surrounding area. He pointed to a house on the outer edge of the town, near the river bank. In the yard was a clothesline where laundry was hung out to dry.
Dabney explained that he and Lucy Ann had worked out their own signaling system using the laundry that she hung out to dry for her mistress. When she saw troops moving through the area or overheard Confederate soldiers talking about future plans, she rushed to the clothesline and hung items in particular patterns to send her husband a coded message.
For example, a white shirt stood for General A. P. Hill, pants hung upside down indicated the direction west, and so on, creating simple messages like “Hill-north-three regiments”. Until Hooker moved the camp, the couple provided him with some of the best intelligence of the campaign.