The war between the spies

the long version

The War Between the Spies is the first comprehensive history of Civil War espionage and counterespionage ever published. Noted historian Alan Axelrod tells a story filled with treachery, heroism, and suspense but also leavened with an aspect of comedy, for espionage during this conflict was an epic amalgam of passion and bumbling, of amateur agents dealing in matters of life and death. Like the soldiers who fought and died in this struggle of brother against brother, the spies of the Civil War were ordinary citizens pressed into missions of espionage that were poorly planned and often hopelessly vague in purpose. Axelrod tells the adventure-filled stories of these intrepid and colorful spies and conveys as well the full sweep of the war in the best tradition of narrative history. He takes us on Abraham Lincoln's harrowing inaugural journey through conspiratorial Maryland on the eve of the war, follows the exploits of the Confederacy's seductive female spies, travels the "Secret Line" and other rebel avenues of covert communication in and out of Washington, and brings to light the clandestine careers of laborers, itinerant peddlers, doctors, and dentists who turned spy for one side or the other. The Civil War has yet to release its hold on the nation's heart and imagination, and The War Between the Spies details one of the struggle's little-known and least-documented aspects.