This major addition to the history of the Civil War is a âfast-paced, fact-rich accountâ (The Wall Street Journal) offering a detailed look at President Abraham Lincolnâs use of clandestine services and the secret battles waged by Union spies and agents to save the nationâfilled with espionage, sabotage, and intrigue.
Veteran CIA correspondent Douglas Waller delivers a riveting account of the heroes and misfits who carried out a shadow war of espionage and covert operations behind the Confederate battlefields. Lincolnâs Spies follows four agents from the Northâthree men and one womanâwho informed Lincolnâs generals on the enemy positions for crucial battles and busted up clandestine Rebel networks.
Famed detective Allan Pinkerton mounted a successful covert operation to slip Lincoln through Baltimore before his inauguration after he learns of an assassination attempt from his agents working undercover as Confederate soldiers. But he proved less than competent as General George McClellanâs spymaster, delivering faulty intelligence reports that overestimated Confederate strength.
George Sharpe, an erudite New York lawyer, succeeded Pinkerton as spymaster for the Unionâs Army of the Potomac. Sharpe deployed secret agents throughout the South, planted misinformation with Robert E. Leeâs army, and outpaced anything the enemy could field.
Elizabeth Van Lew, a Virginia heiress who hated slavery and disapproved of secession, was one of Sharpeâs most successful agents. She ran a Union spy ring in Richmond out of her mansion with dozens of agents feeding her military and political secrets that she funneled to General Ulysses S. Grant as his army closed in on the Confederate capital. Van Lew became one of the unsung heroes of history.
Lafayette Baker was a handsome Union officer with a controversial past, whose agents clashed with Pinkertonâs operatives. He assembled a retinue of disreputable spies, thieves, and prostitutes to root out traitors in Washington, DC. But he failed at his most important mission: uncovering the threat to Lincoln from John Wilkes Booth and his gang.
Behind these operatives was Abraham Lincoln, one of our greatest presidents, who was an avid consumer of intelligence and a ruthless aficionado of clandestine warfare, willing to take whatever chances necessary to win the war. Lincolnâs Spies is a âmeticulous chronicle of all facets of Lincolnâs war effortâ (Kirkus Reviews) and an excellent choice for those wanting âa cracking good taleâ (Publishers Weekly) of espionage in the Civil War.