Surveillance and Spies in the Civil War: Exposing Confederate Conspiracies in America’s Heartland by Stephen E. Towne (review)

Stephen E. Towne’s impressively researched study on Union army intelligence activities in the old Northwest—Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan—has one principal aim: to rescue anti-Lincoln conspiracies in the North from the historiographical grasp of Frank L. Klement, who dismissed them as “‘excursion[s] into the world of make-believe’” (p. 397n42). The book covers the breadth of spy activities in the Union heartland, explaining how intelligence agencies were formed and funded (ad hoc and never well), how and by whom evidence was generated (a network of soldier-infiltrators running spy rings of citizen informants in disloyal communities), what Union commanders knew (plans, arms shipments, and a surprising network of shared information from other departments), and the debates between those commanders and politicians at all levels about how to react to these threats (arrests and executions, airing evidence for political gains, or letting things fizzle out).

In this book, some reputations are made, like that of Indiana spymaster par excellence Henry B. Carrington. Some reputations are confirmed, like that of Kentucky spy and reliable memoirist Felix Grundy Stidger. Other reputations are redeemed, notably those of William S. Rosecrans and Ambrose E. Burnside, who tend to move offstage in Civil War historiography after losing command of major field armies. Likewise, District of Kentucky commander Stephen G. Burbridge’s enthusiasm for arrests and expulsions is rendered more understandable when contextualized by reports of coordination between John Hunt Morgan’s roving cavalrymen and anti-administration citizens north and south of the Ohio River.

All of these points make the book a worthwhile read. The way Towne has built his study, though, immeasurably enhances the book’s value. Towne has applied his skills and training as both a historian and an archivist. His notes provide the reader with a detailed roadmap through relevant record groups at the National Archives. Towne’s tour of the evidence includes stops at and commentary about fascinating documents overlooked or misinterpreted by Klement and other scholars. Consequently, Towne’s notes are required reading alongside his text. Impressively, while such thoroughness could make a lesser book tedious, Towne has organized his volume very well. Each of the short chapters is broken into digestible sections with descriptive headings—very useful for the reader who constantly flips between the narrative and the notes.

The book culminates in the months before the 1864 presidential election, when groups of conspirators were the largest and their never-to-be-realized plans the boldest. Towne’s narrative winds down—as did the spy efforts— after Abraham Lincoln’s reelection. Some important questions are thus left unanswered, beyond those about why the “men of action” never stepped forward from the ranks of “theorists” to revolutionize the region (p. 275). How did this history of plots and conspiracies influence governmental response to the one shocking conspiracy that did succeed—the assassination of Abraham Lincoln? The reader must infer Towne’s argument from his discussion (and, unsurprisingly, some detailed notes) about Joseph Holt’s faith in the scale and menace of the threats against the government. Other notable trials are missing, too. The name of Lambdin P. Milligan appears almost everywhere there is a plot to be found, yet there is substantially more time devoted to the evidence gathered against him than to the constitutional implications of his prosecution. But perhaps that only underscores Towne’s larger point. Historians need to be thoroughly grounded in their evidence and fully understand how it was generated and preserved before they make their interpretations. And any historian conducting research on law, civil-military relations, and the rights of citizens during wartime will want to pay careful attention to Towne’s work.