Secret Service, Security, and Spies of the Civil War

Pinkerton on horseback.

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Grant's Secret Service: The Intelligence War from Belmont to Appomattox
William B Feis .
Feis offers us the first scholarly examination of the use of military intelligence under Ulysses S. Grant's command during the Civil War. Feis makes the new and provocative argument that Grant's use of the Army of the Potomac's Bureau of Military Information played a significant role in Lee's defeat. Feis's work articulately rebuts accusations by Grant's detractors that his battlefield successes involved little more than the bludgeoning of an undermanned and outgunned opponent  Paper 330 pp.  $16.95
Bookguy price $11.87

BRT004  Union In Peril.  The Crisis over British Intervention in the Civil War   
Howard Jones
The Lincoln administration feared that Great Britain would officially recognize the Confederacy during the Civil War, thereby granting legitimacy to secession and undermining the U.S.  constitution.   Paper   528 pp.   
Bookguy Price $15.95

SPY006  A Yankee Spy In Richmond.  The Civil War Diary of "Crazy Bet" Van Lew  
 ed. by D. Ryan
One of the most effective, and least known spies, was a woman living in the heart of Confederate Richmond.  Elizabeth Van Lew was called "Crazy Bet" by her suspicious and condescending neighbors, but she maintained contact with Union authorities through most of the war and earned the thanks of Gen. U.S. Grant, among others, at the war's end.  Her diary notations reveal her fears, her triumphs, and the constant dangers she faced in sending information through the lines to the Yankees while helping Union prisoners in Richmond with their attempts to escape.  Hardcover.  176 pp.  Out-of-print  Only one copy left.
Bookguy Price $29.95