Lincoln's Secret Spy: The Civil War Case That Changed the Future of Espionage

by Jane Singer, John Stewart

Overview

A month after Lincoln’s assassination, William Alvin Lloyd arrived in Washington, DC, to press a claim against the federal government for money due him for serving as the president’s spy in the Confederacy. Lloyd claimed that Lincoln personally had issued papers of transit for him to cross into the South, a salary of $200 a month, and a secret commission as Lincoln’s own top-secret spy. The claim convinced Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt—but was it true?

For many years Lloyd had been hawking his Southern Steamboat and Railroad Guide throughout Dixie, and it was this thorough familiarity with the South and its people—and their familiarity with him—that would have given him a good cover when the time came. In July, 1861, and now desperate for cash, Lloyd crossed enemy lines to collect debts owed by advertising clients in the South.
After just a few days in the Confederacy, officials jailed Lloyd for bigamy, not for being a Yankee spy as he later claimed. After bribing his way out, he crisscrossed the Southern states, trying to collect enough money to stay alive.

Between riding the rails he found time to marry plenty of unsuspecting young women only to ditch them a few days later. His behavior drew the attention of Confederate authorities, who nabbed him in Savannah and charged him as a suspected spy. But after nine months, they couldn’t find any incriminating evidence or anyone to testify against him, so they let him go. A free but broken man, Lloyd continued roaming the South, making money however he could. In May 1865, he went to Washington with an extraordinary claim and little else: a few coached witnesses, and a pass to cross the lines signed “A. Lincoln” (the most forged signature in American history), and his own testimony.

So was he really Lincoln’s secret agent or nothing more than a con man? And was Totten vs. United States—inspired by Lloyd's claim and which set precedent for espionage law based on a monumental fraud? Find out in this completely irresistible and wholly original work.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493008100
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	04/01/2015
Pages:	328
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 12.00(h) x 3.60(d)

About the Author

Jane Singer is a Civil War scholar and author of The Confederate Dirty War, on which the History Channel based the two-hour special Civil War Terror. She served both as historical consultant and as primary onscreen narrator for the project. Her work has been featured in the Washington Post Magazine, Washington Times, and Chicago Sun-Times. She lives in Venice, California.

John Stewart is the author of Confederate Spies at Large and Jefferson Davis’s Flight from Richmond. The winner of numerous reference book awards, he lives in West Jefferson, North Carolina.

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

1 I Was the President's Spy 1

2 My Old Kentucky Home 9

3 Oh, to Be a Minstrel! 22

4 W. Alvin Lloyd, Publisher 36

5 Acolytes and Accomplices 48

6 Escape from New York 58

7 The Memphis Caper 67

8 Of Actresses and Wives 75

9 He Said He Would Hang Me 96

10 Grave Suspicions 130

11 Shot Down Like a Dog 143

12 By Order of President Jefferson Davis 157

13 Leaving Dixie 163

14 Anatomy of a Fraud 170

15 Lay of the Last Minstrel 193

16 Post Lloyd Ergo Propter Lloyd 216

Epilogue 257

Acknowledgments 263

Notes 265

Sources 285

Appendix 297

Index 300

Editorial Reviews

05/18/2015
Historians Singer (The Confederate Dirty War) and Stewart (Confederate Spies at Large) collaborate on what is, despite the subtitle's exaggeration, an interesting look at an obscure part of Civil War history, but their baroque language will alienate some readers. The authors introduce the title figure, William Alvin Lloyd, as a "comet, streaking through decades with impudence and impunity. A simmering broth of lust, indefatigable, energy, greed, and larceny, he was magical, priapic, musical, inventive, a survivor and a scoundrel." The overcooked prose continues throughout the account of Lloyd's life, leading up to his appeal to President Grant for payment for the covert work he supposedly undertook in the Confederacy for President Lincoln. The resolution of that claim, which reached the U.S. Supreme Court, has continued to influence judicial decisions on espionage contracts; still, it's a stretch to assert that Lloyd's case "changed the future of espionage." Readers who look past the hype and language will find Lloyd a colorful character, and hope that another book will do his unusual life justice. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Con man, charlatan, bigamist, perjurer, Alvin Lloyd managed to convince government officials and U. S. senators that he had been a secret spy for Abraham Lincoln operating in the Confederacy during the Civil War. It was a tissue of lies, as the authors of this detailed study demonstrate in a tour de force of historical
detective work.

James M. McPherson James M. McPherson

Critical acclaim for The Confederate Dirty War:

“A new perspective ... rich ... a somber reflection”
—Military Review

“Excellent”
—Journal of Southern History

“An encyclopedic study ... credible historical study on terrorism.”
—Georgia Historical Quarterly

“Well written ... well researched”
—Terrorism & Political Violence


Critical acclaim for Confederate Spies at War:

“Strongly recommended”
—Midwest Book Review

“Exciting”
—The Lone Star

From the Publisher

Beginning with a genuine pass written and signed by Abraham Lincoln, Singer and Stewart untangle the elaborate fraud perpetrated on the United States government by “Union spy” William Alvin Lloyd and his attorney, using that pass. Carefully distinguishing fact from fiction, half-truths from lies, the authors explain how a pro-Confederate con man, self-promoter, and bigamist emerged from the ruins of the Confederacy and converted a simple pass from the martyred President into gold—literally. And how after his death in 1869, his widow and attorney continued to press his claims in Congress and the Supreme Court, creating a doctrine that still affects claims by secret operatives today.

Daniel W. Stowell

The characters of our Civil War included a plethora of spies from the North, South and abroad. Most espoused loyalty to one side or the other. Some were in the game because of the excitement of it. Others for greed. This is the tale of a scoundrel who defies a label. Was William Alvin Lloyd President Lincoln’s espionage agent or was he a bounder taken with himself? One thing is certain, his claim for money for his alleged wartime service as a spy was decided in his favor by the Supreme Court – or was it? The authors, in an entertaining and very readable way, attempt to sort fact from fiction by wrestling with one of the conundrums of war.

Frank J. Williams

Con man, charlatan, bigamist, perjurer, Alvin Lloyd managed to convince government officials and U. S. senators that he had been a secret spy for Abraham Lincoln operating in the Confederacy during the Civil War.  It was a tissue of lies, as the authors of this detailed study demonstrate in a tour de force of historical detective work.

James M. McPherson