Lincoln's Informer: Charles A. Dana and the Inside Story of the Union War

by Carl J. Guarneri

The index to Lincoln’s Informer has been revised since the book’s first printing. Albert Castel Book Award In a recent poll of leading historians, Charles A. Dana was named among the “Twenty-Five Most Influential Civil War Figures You’ve Probably Never Heard Of.” If you have heard of Dana, it was probably from his classic Recollections of the Civil War (1898), which was ghostwritten by muckraker Ida Tarbell and riddled with errors cited by unsuspecting historians ever since. Lincoln’s Informer at long last sets the record straight, giving Charles A. Dana his due in a story that rivals the best historical fiction. Dana didn’t just record history, Carl J. Guarneri he made it. Starting out as managing editor of Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune , he led the newspaper’s charge against proslavery forces in Congress and the Kansas territory. When his criticism of the Union’s prosecution of the war became too much for Greeley, Dana was drafted by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton to be a special agent—and it was in this capacity that he truly made his mark. Drawing on Dana’s reports, letters, and telegrams—“the most remarkable, interesting, and instructive collection of official documents relating to the Rebellion,” according to the custodian of the Union war records—Guarneri reconstructs the Civil War as Dana experienced and observed as a journalist, a confidential informant to Stanton and Lincoln, and, most controversially, an administration insider with surprising influence. While reporting most of the war’s major events, Dana also had a hand in military investigations, the cotton trade, Lincoln’s reelection, passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, and, most notably, the making of Ulysses S. Grant and the breaking of other generals. Dana’s reporting and Guarneri’s lively narrative provide fresh impressions of Lincoln, Stanton, Grant, and other Union war leaders. Lincoln’s Informer shows us the unlikely role of a little-known confidant and informant in the Lincoln administration’s military and political successes. A remarkable inside look at history unfolding, this book draws the first complete picture of a fascinating character writing his chapter in the story of the Civil War.

Genres: American Civil War, Biography, Civil War

528 pages, Hardcover

Published October 25, 2019

Reviews

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very worthy effort. The first major biography of Stanton's right hand man in over 100 years. We meet Charles A. Dana the man behind the scenes who really boosted the Union war effort. We follow his career from cub newspaper reporter to assistant secretary of war. We also meet a vast cast of supporting characters. I found this biography to be very compelling, and a book I would recommend all Civil War buffs consider reading.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. I chose the book because every day I drive over a short stretch of road named Dana’s Island Highway which connects to a small island(West or Dosoris Island on the map)once owned by Charles A.Dana. Most of my neighbors have never heard of Dana but I wanted to learn more about someone so famous as to have the road to his country home named for him. Now I understand. Dana was a confidant of Lincoln during the Civil War who, as an Assistant Secretary of War, sent coded dispatches from the front lines regarding the status of battles and the competence of the generals in charge. He became close to Ulysses S. Grant during the war only to turn against him after the war was over and Grant became President. After the war Dana bought the New York Sun newspaper and made it the most popular paper and a “must read” every day. He was one of the most famous men of his day. The grounds of his country home near me in Glen Cove NY were designed by his friend Frederick Law Olmsted who also designed Central Park. The book is well written and researched. I found it unfortunate that Grant , who doled out so much patronage, wouldn’t give his old friend Dana the custom collector job he wanted in New York thus causing Dana to become a bitter political enemy who happened to own the most popular newspaper and who savaged Grant daily. Thanks

[David Kent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-written story of one of those important people of the Civil War era you rarely hear about. Charles A. Dana was a newspaperman, serving as assistant editor for Horace Greeley's New York Tribune. After a falling out with Greeley, Dana became a critical messenger to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and President Abraham Lincoln - one of the first "embedded" reporters. His job was to report back to the government what was going on at the front (which the generals seemed both unwilling and incapable of sufficiently doing). As such he played important roles in decision making, serving both as adviser to military leaders and as a spy about them. This is a fascinating look at Dana, and while it often seems more of a Civil War book than a Lincoln book (the title is a clever, if not particularly accurate, hook), it gives an eminently necessary look at the influence of non-military men to the war, not to mention the antebellum and postbellum controversies.

[Shrike58 · Rating 4 out of 5]

The subject of this book had about as interesting a personal career as one could possibly imagine. Dana started out as a Brook Farm social reformer, before becoming Horace Greeley's right-hand man at the New York "Tribune," than achieving a certain notoriety as Secretary of War Edwin Stanton's field operative, only to go on to be his own boss, and achieve serious notoriety, as the publisher of the New York "Sun," and, apparently, repudiating everything he worked for during the Civil War. The impression that I come away with from this book is that Dana was willing to give his loyalty, but also was one of those people who just thought they knew better what was really going on, and who didn't betray much introspection; messianic might not be a bad one-word description. If nothing else this book is now the go-to study of Dana's life, as his supposed memoir (ghost-written by Ida Tarbell) is, to put it mildly, problematic.