Lincoln's Secret Spy: The Civil War Case That Changed the Future of Espionage by Jane Singer and John Stewart
Lincoln's Secret Spy: The Civil War Case That Changed the Future of Espionage by Jane Singer and John Stewart
A month after Lincoln's assassination, William Alvin Lloyd arrived in Washington, D.C., from the former Confederacy to press a claim against the federal government. He was due money for serving as the president's spy throughout the Civil War. According to Lloyd, Lincoln had promised him a salary of $200 a month. Alleging that he'd never been paid, Lloyd convinced Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt that his story was true -- but was it?
For many years Lloyd had been hawking his Southern Steamboat and Railroad Guide throughout Dixie, and it was his thorough familiarity with the South and its people -- and their familiarity with him -- that would have given him a good cover when the time came. In July 1861, now desperate for cash, Lloyd crossed enemy lines to collect debts owed by advertising clients in the South. After just a few days in the Confederacy, officials jailed Lloyd for bigamy, not for being a Yankee spy as he later claimed. After bribing his way out, he crisscrossed the Southern states, trying to collect enough money to stay alive.
Between riding the rails he found time to marry plenty of unsuspecting young women only to ditch them a few days later. His behavior drew the attention of Confederate authorities, who nabbed him in Savannah and charged him as a suspected spy. But after nine months they couldn't find any incriminating evidence or anyone to testify against him, so they let him go. A free but broken man, Lloyd continued roaming the South, making money however he could. In May 1865, he went to Washington with an extraordinary claim and little else: a few coached witnesses, a pass to cross the lines signed "A. Lincoln" (the most forged signature in American history), and his own testimony.
Lincoln's Secret Spy is a riveting slice of history about a man who was either one of the Civil War's most top-level spies or an incredibly audacious con artist.
Lyons Press, Hardcover, 1st Edition, 2015
THIS IS A BRAND NEW BOOK.