Surveillance and Spies in the Civil War: Exposing Confederate Conspiracies in America’s Heartland

by Stephen E. Towne

A History Book Club Reading Selection Surveillance and Spies in the Civil War represents pathbreaking research on the rise of U.S. Army intelligence operations in the Midwest during the American Civil War and counters long-standing assumptions about Northern politics and society. At the beginning of the rebellion, state governors in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois cooperated with federal law enforcement officials in various attempts—all failed—to investigate reports of secret groups and individuals who opposed the Union war effort. Starting in 1862, army commanders took it upon themselves to initiate investigations of antiwar sentiment in those states. By 1863, several of them had established intelligence operations staffed by hired civilian detectives and by soldiers detailed from their units to chase down deserters and draft dodgers, to maintain surveillance on suspected persons and groups, and to investigate organized resistance to the draft. By 1864, these spies had infiltrated secret organizations that, sometimes in collaboration with Confederate rebels, aimed to subvert the war effort. Stephen E. Towne is the first to thoroughly explore the role and impact of Union spies against Confederate plots in the North. This new analysis invites historians to delve more deeply into the fabric of the Northern wartime experience and reinterpret the period based on broader archival evidence.

Genres: History

488 pages, Hardcover

First published December 15, 2014

Reviews

[Matt Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stephen Towne’s Surveillance and Spies in the Civil War is a captivating and exhaustive analysis of the development of the US Military Intelligence apparatus. In his work, Towne finds that the Lincoln Administration was initially reluctant to provide regional law enforcement and politicians with clear guidance, leadership, and funding in response to threats of local insurgency; thus these local officials turned to the US Military for the aid in which they desperately needed. The central premise of Towne’s book is twofold, the first is to affirm that secret organizations, many of which with connections to the Democratic Party and/or Confederates, were both a present and grave danger to the political security and stability of the Northwest region. In this point, Towne aims to refute the “Klement Thesis” which (according to the author) stipulates that “the midwestern landscape harbored no widespread secret organizations that aimed to subvert the Union war effort” (6). The second component of Towne’s central premise is that the efforts of the US Military Intelligence system, while perhaps not holistically responsible, were undoubtedly instrumental in thwarting serious attempts of insurgency, especially during the later years of the war. Through the author’s near over-abundance of primary sources included ranging from personal testimonies of spies, to grandiose schemes of PoW camp liberations and Confederate-aided uprisings, Towne illustrates a thoroughly convincing narrative of the then imminent threat posed by secretive/dissenting groups during the Civil War era. Furthermore, his specific inclusion of military surveillance intervention in a potential uprising and arms shipment during the latter end of the war in Indiana is a compelling example of how valuable the spy apparatus was to local efforts at quelling insurgency. Overall, the abundance of primary evidence gathered presents a strong counter to the “Klement Thesis” as local insurgency seemed to be the premier threat to the midwest during the Civil War era. In critique, while the abundance of research present in is certainly impressive, the reader inevitably encounters a sense of deja vu reading about yet another report of local insurgency. Surveillance and Spies in the Civil War would likely be placed within the neo-liberal school of thought, Towne seems to celebrate and recognize the efforts/importance of US Government institutions throughout his comprehensive study.