[7] During the American Civil War, Hattie Lawton continued to work with the Pinkerton Detective Agency.

[11] Hattie Lawton tended to Timothy Webster when he fell ill at the Monument Hotel in Richmond,[12] which prevented intelligence reports from being sent back to Allan Pinkerton.

[10] John Scobell, an African American Union spy, worked with the "twenty-five-year-old beauty", Hattie Lawton, during this time, posing as her servant.

[5][13] Allan Pinkerton sent two agents, Pryce Lewis and John Scully, to Richmond, Virginia, to find out what happened to Webster and Lawton.

They found Webster and Lawton, but Lewis and Scully were recognized as Pinkerton agents, arrested and later released as part of a prisoner exchange on March 18, 1863.