April '65: Confederate Covert Action in the American Civil War (Eastern European Studies; 1) - Hardcover

Tidwell, William A

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0873385152 ISBN 13: 9780873385152

Publisher: Kent State University Press, 1995

Synopsis

William A. Tidwell establishes the existence of a Confederate Secret Service and clarifies the Confederate decision making process to show the role played by Jefferson Davis in clandestine operations. While the book focuses on the Confederate Secret Service’s involvement with the Lincoln assassination, the information presented has implications for various other aspects of the Civil War.

The most thorough description of the Confederate Secret Service to date, April ’65 provides previously unknown records and traces the development of Confederate doctrine for the conduct of irregular warfare. In addition it describes Confederate motives and activities associated with the development of a major covert effort to promote the creation of a peace party in the North. It shows in detail how the Confederates planned to attack the military command and control in Washington and how they responded to the situation when the wartime attack evolved into a peacetime assassination. One of the most significant pieces of new information is how the Confederates were successful in influencing the history of the assassination.

About this title

From the Back Cover

William A. Tidwell establishes the existence of a Confederate Secret Service and clarifies the Confederate decision-making process to show the role played by Jefferson Davis in clandestine operations. While the book focuses on the Confederate Secret Service's involvement with the Lincoln assassination, the information presented has implications for various other aspects of the Civil War. The most thorough description of the Confederate Secret Service to date, April '65 provides previously unknown records and traces the development of Confederate doctrine for the conduct of irregular warfare. In addition it describes Confederate motives and activities associated with the development of a major covert effort to promote the creation of a peace party in the North. It shows in detail how the Confederates planned to attack the military command and control in Washington and how they responded to the situation when the wartime attack evolved into a peacetime assassination. One of the most significant pieces of new information is how the Confederates were successful in influencing the history of the assassination.

Reviews

Tidwell takes up a subject on which not a great deal has been available. Moreover, he has ferreted out the lion's share of that material and incorporated it into a distinctly readable, often absorbing story. The Confederacy definitely conducted covert operations that included sabotage as well as spying on a much larger scale than has hitherto been commonly believed, and indeed, with the direct personal sanctioning of Jefferson Davis, even plotted to blow up the White House. Tidwell certainly seems to have an agenda of demythologizing the "Lost Cause" but does not let it lead him into rhetorical excess or conspiracy mongering. A worthwhile addition for big Civil War collections. Roland Green

In this sequel to his Come Retribution: The Confederate Secret Service and the Assassination of Lincoln (LJ 10/1/88), former intelligence officer Tidwell takes us on a flashlight tour into the labyrinths of neglected records and the nooks of Confederate espionage to show more organization, purpose, and success in the Confederate's clandestine activity in the North, Canada, and Europe than heretofore imagined?all to support his argument that John Wilkes Booth was part of a concerted Confederate strategy to disrupt the Union high command in 1865. After a failed effort to kidnap Lincoln and an aborted effort to blow up the White House, Booth improvised his own plan to kill the president and others in the line of command and thus to save the Confederacy. Tidwell's absolutely engrossing account will not answer all doubters about Booth's authority and role, but it should silence the conspiracy theorists who link prominent Union men with Booth in his plan and escape. An exemplary example of historical sleuthing for all libraries.?Randall M. Miller, St. Joseph's Univ., Philadelphia
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Kent State University Press
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0873385152
• ISBN 13: 9780873385152
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 280