This major addition to the history of the Civil War is a "fast-paced,
fact-rich account" (The Wall Street Journal) offering a detailed look
at President Abraham Lincoln's use of clandestine services and the
secret battles waged by Union spies and agents to save the
nation--filled 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. Lincoln's Spies
follows four agents from the North--three men and one woman--who
informed Lincoln's 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 McClellan's spymaster, delivering faulty intelligence reports
that overestimated Confederate strength.
George Sharpe, an erudite New York lawyer, succeeded Pinkerton as
spymaster for the Union's Army of the Potomac. Sharpe deployed secret
agents throughout the South, planted misinformation with Robert E. Lee's
army, and outpaced anything the enemy could field.
Elizabeth Van Lew, a Virginia heiress who hated slavery and disapproved
of secession, was one of Sharpe's 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 Pinkerton's 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. Lincoln's Spies is a "meticulous chronicle
of all facets of Lincoln's war effort" (Kirkus Reviews) and an
excellent choice for those wanting "a cracking good tale" (Publishers
Weekly) of espionage in the Civil War.
