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The Union’s Spy Game


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At the outset of the Civil War, neither the Union nor the Confederacy had a centralized military intelligence department — and yet the need for information on enemy troop movements, political developments and even simple things like geography was immediate. In the breach, they turned to a motley crew of amateur spies who were as untrained and untested as the soldiers who met on the early battlefields at Bull Run and Wilson’s Creek.

 

Despite the equally jumbled espionage operations in the North and the South, the Confederacy had several advantages. Even before the South seceded, secessionists had established spy rings in Washington, a hotbed of southern sympathizers, which gave them access to vital information at some of the highest levels of government. The South also benefitted from the stream of critical intelligence that came its way from the many former Union officers who swore their allegiance to the South after secession. And while the Union faced an enemy with a loosely assembled government still in its infancy, the Confederacy opposed an established and well-known target.

 

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/the-unions-spy-game/?src=un&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjson8.nytimes.com%2Fpages%2Fopinion%2Findex.jsonp

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I do recall, tellin'em Yankees dat we will and would fight y'all wif corn stalks..............................

 

 

But dey woodn't have any of it !!!

 

 

 

A very Proud Reb indeed !!

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So, Allen Pinkerton was one of the earliest Chicago thugs? :lol:

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