Thomas Nelson Conrad (1837–1905)

Title: A Confederate Spy:
A Story of the Civil War
Source: the Virginia Historical
Society
More informationThomas Nelson Conrad was a Confederate spy during the American Civil War (1861–1865) and president of Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College (later Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University). Conrad was the head of the Georgetown Institute, a boys' school in the District of Columbia at the start of the Civil War. An open Confederate sympathizer, he worked as a spy throughout the war, even while serving as chaplain of the 3rd Virginia Cavalry. After the war, Conrad became principal of a boys' school in Blacksburg, and when it was absorbed into the new agricultural college, attempted to become president. He finally succeeded when the Readjusters took power in 1882, and under his leadership, the school introduced literary and scientific studies, increased spending on the library, and reorganized its military program to resemble the curriculum of the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington. After the Readjusters lost power, Conrad was dismissed as president in 1886. He taught in Maryland, worked for the U.S. Census Bureau in Washington, D.C., and published two memoirs of his war experiences before retiring to a farm in Prince William County. He died in 1905 in Washington.

Conrad was born on August 1, 1837, in Fairfax Court House and was the son of Nelson Conrad and Lavinia M. Thomas Conrad. He attended Fairfax Academy and Dickinson College, which awarded him a bachelor's degree in 1857 and a master's degree in 1860. Conrad became a lay Methodist preacher and taught at a private school in Georgetown, District of Columbia, before establishing the Georgetown Institute, a boys' school there.

Title: The Old Capitol Prison,
Washington, D.C.
Source: Library of Congress
More informationAfter the Civil War began, Conrad made no effort to conceal his Confederate sympathies, which had attracted the attention of United States government authorities even before the institute's commencement exercise in June 1862, when his students made fiery pro-Confederate speeches, and he ordered the band to play "Dixie," to uproarious applause. On August 2 he was arrested on charges of communicating with the enemy and recruiting students for the Confederate army. Conrad was locked up in Old Capitol Prison and later paroled pending exchange. Many years afterward he wrote that during that time he plotted to assassinate the former commanding general of the United States Army, Winfield Scott, whom he considered a traitor to his native Virginia, but that Confederate officials refused to allow him to proceed.

Conrad provided Confederates with information on Union general George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac in 1862 during the Peninsula Campaign. On October 16, 1863, Conrad became chaplain of the 3rd Virginia Cavalry, with the rank of captain dating from September 30 of that year, but he was repeatedly detached on espionage assignments. According to his later accounts, he returned to Washington at least six times and set up a secret line of communication through southern Maryland into Virginia. Conrad received a personal letter of thanks from Confederate president Jefferson Davis in May 1864 for the valuable intelligence he had provided on Union general Ambrose E. Burnside's corps during the Overland Campaign and, in particular, the Battle of the Wilderness. Arrested that year in southern Maryland, Conrad was imprisoned at Point Lookout, where he feigned illness and then escaped. Late in 1864 he and two associates schemed to kidnap U.S. president Abraham Lincoln and hold him for political ransom, a plan they abandoned as impractical because the president traveled with an armed cavalry escort. Conrad wrote to Davis in January 1865 stating that he wished to resign his chaplaincy and devote himself to the Confederate secret service. After Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865, Conrad was arrested and threatened by an angry crowd because he resembled the assassin John Wilkes Booth. Released, Conrad was arrested again in Virginia, but he leaped from a moving train and fled to the mountains until the postassassination furor had passed.

Title: U.S. Senator William
Mahone
Source: Library of Congress Prints &
Photographs Division
More informationOn October 4, 1866, Conrad married Emma T. Ball, of King George County. They had three daughters and four sons, one of whom died in childhood. From 1866 to 1868 Conrad taught at Upperville Academy, in Fauquier County, and from then until 1871 at Rockville Academy in Maryland. In the latter year he became principal of the Preston and Olin Institute, a Methodist boys' school in Blacksburg. When that school was absorbed in 1872 into the new Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College, Conrad unsuccessfully sought its presidency. He then became editor of the weekly Montgomery Messenger, in which he criticized the management of the college and supported the Readjusters, a new, biracial political party that advocated increasing public support for education and reducing the principal and interest rate to be paid on the antebellum state debt. Conrad wrote frequently to William Mahone, the Readjuster leader, offering political advice and reporting on political events in southwestern Virginia. Conrad became a professor of English at the college in 1877 and after the Readjusters gained control of the General Assembly was appointed president in February 1882.

Described as the most colorful and controversial president in the first century of the school, Conrad made significant, lasting changes. The college began awarding bachelor's degrees for literary and scientific studies as well as in civil and mining engineering. He organized the college into four academic departments (agricultural, business, literary and scientific, and mechanical), converted the school to summer instead of winter vacations, significantly increased spending on the library, made the school's farming operation financially successful for the first time, and continued to reorganize its military program in the pattern of Virginia Military Institute's. Conrad became a Republican after Mahone joined that party. He was criticized for continuing his political activity, and after the Readjusters lost control of the state government, he was dismissed as president effective June 30, 1886.

One of Conrad's sons died while attending Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College during Conrad's tenure as president. For three months in 1882 and one month in 1887 Conrad served as mayor of Blacksburg. In August 1887 he moved to Maryland to teach at Maryland Agricultural College (now the University of Maryland at College Park), and then about 1890 he moved to Washington, D.C., to become a statistician for the United States census. A few years later Conrad bought a farm near Dumfries, in Prince William County, to which he retired.

In 1892 Conrad published a ghostwritten reminiscence of his espionage exploits, A Confederate Spy: A Story of the Civil War, based on articles he had written for a Philadelphia newspaper in May 1887. He also published a revised edition entitled The Rebel Scout: A Thrilling History of Scouting Life in the Southern Army (1904). His wife died in 1900, and Conrad died on January 5, 1905, in Washington, probably at his son's residence, of what was described as acute indigestion. He was buried in the Westview Cemetery in Blacksburg. The Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets honored him in 1972 by naming its new equestrian military team first Conrad's Troopers and then the Conrad Cavalry.

Major Works

A Confederate Spy: A Story of the Civil War (1892)
The Rebel Scout: A Thrilling History of Scouting Life in the Southern Army (1904)

Time Line

August 1, 1837 - Thomas Nelson Conrad is born in Fairfax Court House, Virginia.
1857 - Thomas Nelson Conrad earns a bachelor's degree from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
1860 - Thomas Nelson Conrad earns a master's degree from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He becomes a lay Methodist preacher and establishes the Georgetown Institute, a boys' school in the District of Columbia.
June 1862 - Thomas Nelson Conrad orders the school band at the Georgetown Institute to play "Dixie" at a commencement exercise, to uproarious applause.
August 2, 1862 - Thomas Nelson Conrad, head of the Georgetown Institute, a school for boys, is arrested on charges of communicating with the enemy and recruiting students for the Confederate army. He is locked up at Old Capitol Prison and later paroled.
October 16, 1863 - Thomas Nelson Conrad becomes chaplain of the 3rd Virginia Cavalry, with the rank of captain, effective September 30.
1864 - Thomas Nelson Conrad is arrested in southern Maryland, escapes custody, and late in the year schemes to kidnap Abraham Lincoln and hold him for ransom. The plan is abandoned.
May 1864 - Thomas Nelson Conrad receives a personal letter of thanks from Confederate president Jefferson Davis for the intelligence he provided on Union general Ambrose E. Burnside's forces at the Battle of the Wilderness.
January 1865 - Thomas Nelson Conrad writes to Confederate president Jefferson Davis stating that he wishes to resign his chaplaincy and devote himself to the Confederate secret service.
April 1865 - Following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Nelson Conrad is arrested and threatened by a mob because he resembles the assassin John Wilkes Booth.
1866–1888 - Thomas Nelson Conrad teaches at Upperville Academy, in Fauquier County.
October 4, 1866 - Thomas Nelson Conrad marries Emma T. Ball, of King George County. They will have three daughters and four sons, one whom will die in childhood.
1869–1871 - Thomas Nelson Conrad teaches at Rockville Academy in Maryland.
1871 - Thomas Nelson Conrad becomes principal of the Preston and Olin Institute, a Methodist boys' school in Blacksburg.
1872 - The Preston and Olin Institute, a Methodist boys' school in Blacksburg, is absorbed into the new Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College. Thomas Nelson Conrad unsuccessfully seeks the school's presidency.
1877 - After editing the weekly Montgomery Messenger, Thomas Nelson Conrad becomes an English professor at the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College in Blacksburg.
February 1882 - After the Readjusters gain control of the General Assembly, Thomas Nelson Conrad is appointed president of the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College in Blacksburg.
1882 - Thomas Nelson Conrad, president of the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College, serves as mayor of Blacksburg for about three months.
June 30, 1886 - After the Readjusters lose power in the General Assembly, Thomas Nelson Conrad is dismissed as president of the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College in Blacksburg.
1887 - For about one month, Thomas Nelson Conrad serves as mayor of Blacksburg.
May 1887 - Thomas Nelson Conrad writes articles for a Philadelphia newspaper about his espionage exploits during the American Civil War.
August 1887 - Thomas Nelson Conrad moves to Maryland to teach at Maryland Agricultural College.
1890 - Thomas Nelson Conrad moves to Washington, D.C., to become a statistician for the United States census.
1892 - Thomas Nelson Conrad publishes a ghostwritten reminiscence of his espionage exploits during the American Civil War.
1900 - Emma T. Ball, wife of Thomas Nelson Conrad, dies.
1904 - Thomas Nelson Conrad publishes a revised edition of his Civil War memoir, titled The Rebel Scout: A Thrilling History of Scouting Life in the Southern Army.
January 5, 1905 - Thomas Nelson Conrad dies in Washington, D.C., and is buried in the Westview Cemetery in Blacksburg.
1972 - The Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets honor Thomas Nelson Conrad by naming its new equestrian military team first Conrad's Troopers and then Conrad's Cavalry.