Details the overseas diplomatic and intelligence contest between Union and Confederate governments Documents the historically neglected Thomas Haines Dudley and his European network of agents Explores the actions that forced neutrality between England and the Union The American Civil War conjures images of bloody battlefields in the eastern United States. Few are aware of the equally important diplomatic and intelligence contest between the North and South in Europe. While the Confederacy eagerly sought the approval of Great Britain as a strategic ally, the Union utilized diplomacy and espionage to avert both the construction of a Confederate navy and the threat of war with England.