When the Civil War broke out, code-breaking, deception, and covert surveillance were tried-and-true weapons in the arsenal of espionage. Both the Confederate Secret Service Bureau and the Union’s Bureau of Military Information relied on operatives in the classic mold, such as Timothy Webster, who was hired by Allan Pinkerton to infiltrate Richmond’s elite, and pro-South Rose O’Neal Greenhow, who used ciphers to smuggle secret reports.
But this American conflict produced new innovations in snooping that would change the way intelligence was gathered: wiretapping and overhead reconnaissance. Clayton Laurie, a historian in the Center for the Study of Intelligence at the Central Intelligence Agency, demonstrates how this bloody conflict became a battle of wits as well as strength and military expertise as he examines how both sides used new intelligence techniques that influenced the outcomes of key battles.
