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Built on impressive research, Stephen Towne's Surveillance and Spies in the Civil War reveals the very real danger posed by pro-Confederate Copperheads and other disloyal secret societies in the Old Northwest during the Civil War. In a fascinating and in-depth look at antiwar subversion in the Midwest, he painstakingly illustrates how the government, specifically the U.S. Army, monitored treasonous activities and prevented outbreaks of violence aimed at subverting the Union war effort and sowing political dissent against the Lincoln administration. Towne's study convincingly argues that Copperheads and other subversive factions were not merely impotent fringe groups but truly dangerous provocateurs whose threat to Northern internal security was more real than imagined.

Built on impressive research, Stephen Towne's Surveillance and Spies in the Civil War reveals the very real danger posed by pro-Confederate Copperheads and other disloyal secret societies in the Old Northwest during the Civil War. In a fascinating and in-depth look at antiwar subversion in the Midwest, he painstakingly illustrates how the government, specifically the U.S. Army, monitored treasonous activities and prevented outbreaks of violence aimed at subverting the Union war effort and sowing political dissent against the Lincoln administration. Towne's study convincingly argues that Copperheads and other subversive factions were not merely impotent fringe groups but truly dangerous provocateurs whose threat to Northern internal security was more real than imagined. A welcome addition to the relatively scarce literature on subversion and espionage ... Surveillance and Spies in the Civil War is a valuable book, certain to be of interest to scholars and general readers alike who seek to understand the history of government domestic surveillance in the United States. -H-Net The great strength of Towne's work is his unwavering attention to the military perspective and records. The book gives us the fullest understanding to date of the varied means by which the army gathered information on civilians away from the front. - Robert M. Sandow, The Journal of the Civil War Era Stephen E. Towne's Surveillance and Spies in the Civil War: Exposing Confederate Conspiracies in America's Heartland convincingly revises one long held view of anti-war dissent in the North and contains much of interest to today's intelligence officer. Studies in Intelligence

Built on impressive research, Stephen Towne's Surveillance and Spies in the Civil War reveals the very real danger posed by pro-Confederate Copperheads and other disloyal secret societies in the Old Northwest during the Civil War. In a fascinating and in-depth look at antiwar subversion in the Midwest, he painstakingly illustrates how the government, specifically the U.S. Army, monitored treasonous activities and prevented outbreaks of violence aimed at subverting the Union war effort and sowing political dissent against the Lincoln administration. Towne's study convincingly argues that Copperheads and other subversive factions were not merely impotent fringe groups but truly dangerous provocateurs whose threat to Northern internal security was more real than imagined. A welcome addition to the relatively scarce literature on subversion and espionage ... Surveillance and Spies in the Civil War is a valuable book, certain to be of interest to scholars and general readers alike who seek to understand the history of government domestic surveillance in the United States. -H-Net

Author Information

Stephen E. Towne is an associate university archivist at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis. He is the editor of A Fierce, Wild Joy: The Civil War Letters of Colonel Edward J. Wood, 48th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment.

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