Mary Touvestre Biography
by Krysta CardinaleMary Touvestre was one of the few female African-Americans to supply the Union with intelligence information. Touvestre was also one of the only African Americans to abet the Navy during the Civil War.
Mary Touvestre was a freed slave that worked as a housekeeper in Norfolk, Virginia. She worked for an engineer who redesigned the Confederate USS Merrimac Ship into what became knows as the Virginia. This was the South's first ironclad warship. After overhearing her boss talking about his plans, she recognized the significance of the new ship and the threat it would pose to the Union navy. She subsequently stole a set of plans from the house while cleaning one day and fled north.
Once in Washington D.C., Mary Touvestre set up a meeting with the Union Navy officials. The officials examined the plans and listened to the verbal intelligence Touvestre provided. They agreed that the Virginia represented a significant threat and that would require a rapid need to step up construction of the Monitor, its own ironclad ship.
Before the Monitor was launched, the Confederates ironclad ship, the Virginia, caused some damage. It was able to destroy the Union’s Congress and Cumberland ships and also grounded the Minnesota. The destruction would have been much worse had the information provided by Mary Touvestre not encouraged the Union to speed up construction of the Monitor leaving the Merrimac unchallenged for weeks.
