Aaron Van Camp Aaron Van Camp ( June 23 , 1816 – September 15 , 1892 ) was an espionage agent for the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War . He and his son Eugene B . Van Camp were members of the Rose O ' Neal Greenhow Confederate spy ring , which in 1861 was broken up by Allan Pinkerton , head of the newly formed Secret Service . At the time of the Civil War , Van Camp was a well - known dentist in Washington , D . C . . After his arrest and imprisonment in the Old Capitol Prison , he was paroled in early 1862 . During the remainder of the Civil War , he continued spying for the Confederacy . He had taken his family to California during the Gold Rush of 1848 , and then traveled in the South Pacific . In the 1850s he operated a whaling supply company in Samoa , where he was appointed as Commercial Agent for the United States in the Navigator Islands ( now American Samoa ) from 1853 to 1856 . Later in 1881 he was appointed as Commercial Agent in Fiji , serving until 1884 . Early life and career . Van Camp was born in 1816 in Luzerne County , Pennsylvania . He married Maria L . Bestor of Harper ' s Ferry , Virginia , in about 1836 . Their son Eugene B . Van Camp was born in Louisville , Kentucky , in 1838 . As a young man and Rebel soldier , Eugene assisted the elder Van Camp in his espionage activities for the Confederate States of America . Aaron Van Camp practiced dentistry in Kentucky , Tennessee , Maryland , and Washington , D . C . During the California Gold Rush period of the late 1840s , he took his family to California . In 1851 , Van Camp went on a voyage into the South Pacific and became interested in supplying whaling ships , with the Navigator Islands as his base . He established a whaling resupply outpost in Apia , Samoa , in 1852 . In 1853 , Van Camp was appointed as Commercial Agent to the Navigator Islands ( Samoa ) and to the Friendly Islands ( Tonga ) by the U . S . Secretary of State . He held that position until 1856 , when he returned to the United States to resume his dentistry practice in Washington , D . C . Upon his return to Washington , D . C . Van Camp strongly expressed his pro - slavery views , especially after John Brown ' s unsuccessful raid on Harpers Ferry , WV . Espionage during the Civil War . In April 1861 , shortly after the Civil War began , Van Camp ' s son Eugene enlisted in a Confederate cavalry unit and became an orderly for General P . G . T . Beauregard before the First Battle of Bull Run . Aaron and his son Eugene assisted Rose O ' Neal Greenhow , who was operating a spy ring in the capital , in smuggling information pertaining to Union troop movements prior to that battle . Shortly thereafter , Greenhow ' s spy ring was broken up by Allan Pinkerton of the newly formed Union Intelligence Service . In late December , 1861 , the elder Van Camp was imprisoned as a suspected spy in downtown Washington in the Old Capitol Prison . Van Camp was released from custody on parole in March 1862 after signing an oath of allegiance to the Union . After release , Van Camp most likely linked up with the Confederate Secret Service . In January 1864 , both Van Camps were reported to have been engaging in spying activities for the Confederates in the Vicksburg , Mississippi , area , according to a confidential letter sent to U . S . Secretary of War Edwin M . Stanton by a Union sympathizer . They were alleged to be conducting such espionage under the cover of trading in cotton . No arrests were made . In April 1864 , Van Camp arranged to secure a trading permit for Eugene to open a store at the Union - controlled Fort Pillow in Kentucky . In an attack by Confederate cavalry under the command of Nathan Bedford Forrest a few days later , Eugene was badly wounded by a Confederate minie ball and was evacuated by Union forces to Illinois and then to New York for treatment . In January 1865 , Van Camp sent a letter to President Abraham Lincoln seeking that Eugene be " protected from the draft " which was denied . Eugene was permitted to return with Van Camp to their family home in Washington , D . C . In April 1865 , an anonymous letter was sent to Union General Christopher C . Augur , who was investigating the Lincoln assassination , accusing Van Camp , and his son Eugene of being involved in the President ' s assassination and the attempt on the life of Secretary of State William Seward . There is no evidence that either Van Camp was involved in the conspiracy . Postbellum activities . Between 1881 and 1884 , Van Camp served as U . S . Commercial Agent at Levuka , Fiji . He died in Washington , D . C . , on September 15 , 1892 and was buried in Glenwood Cemetery ( Washington , D . C . ) .