Thank you to Laurie for sending notice of forum member Jane Singer's new book.

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? Before the war, Lloyd hawked his Southern Steamboat and Railroad Guide wherever he could, including the South, which would have made him a perfect operative for the Union. By 1861, though, he needed cash, so he crossed enemy lines to collect debts owed by advertising clients in Dixie. Officials arrested and jailed him, after just a few days in Memphis, for bigamy. But Lloyd later claimed it was for being a suspected Yankee spy. After bribing his way out, he crisscrossed the Confederacy, trying to collect enough money to stay alive. Between riding the rails he found time to marry plenty of unsuspecting young women only ditch them a few days later. His behavior drew the attention of Confederate detectives, 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, 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 notorious con man? Find out in this completely irresistible, high-spirited historical caper.

http://www.amazon.com/Lincolns-Secret-Sp...1493008102

Sounds like a fascinating suspense novel!

Hello all!

Thanks to Laurie Verge for alerting Roger to my new book. I wanted to clarify that Lincoln's Secret Spy is a work of nonfiction. While it is a biography of a fascinating scoundrel, it is also a hard look at a Supreme Court precedent Lincoln's alleged spy inspired, a little-known, standing law that affects the legal rights of secret agents and assets employed by the U.S. government to this day.

I'd be happy to talk more about it.

Jane Singer

Hello, Jane!

So very glad to see you on the Forum! Please DO give us some more information regarding your new book - always delighted to hear from you!

Thanks a bunch -

Hi Betty!

So glad to be able to post again. Been so buried with the research and writing of the new book. Ever a fan of spy craft and always looking for new characters to write about I was drawn to the case of William Alvin Lloyd, Lincoln's alleged spy, and the standing precedent his claim inspired. John Stewart and I had been working on another project together and he joined the chase. The writing is mostly mine but without John's amazing research skills and agility with genealogy and timelines, the collaboration (my first ever) was a success.

The reckless, errant life and crimes of William Alvin Lloyd are front and center but just as importantly, I think, is the work we did on Lloyd's claim, his lawyer Enoch Totten. Totten was a bulldog, an opportunist who thrust the Lloyd case before the Supreme Court where it haunts and simmers to this very day.

If you have a Google or a gander at William Alvin Lloyd online, you will see him written about as Lincoln's secret agent throughout the war. The book examines the fraud, a crime, really, against the U.S. government.

Thinking and hoping it will appeal to readers across a wide spectrum as a good portion of it is an in-depth look at how a great fraud was constructed and at the witnesses, lovers and liars who parade through the pages.

I could go on and on ... how are you? Are you working on anything?

Wish I didn't live so far away!!!!!

All best,

Jane

Hello, Jane -

Your new book sounds wonderful! I Love The Confederate Dirty War - you did a masterful job on that one as well....Do keep us informed and let us know what's going on -

I'm working on the 2nd edition of Alias - with a lot of new information on Powell and his relationship with the Branson ladies. I've found a photo of the Branson boarding house, as well as basically enough information on these "girls" to write another book as well - perhaps in the near future --

Again, thanks so very much for letting us know about your latest, Jane! Wish you could come to the Conference this year.....think about it if you come East!

Best,

BettyO

The story sounds so far fetched, but truth is stranger than fiction. No offense intended, I'm interested, but a bit skeptical. Does the book have many source notes? I don't find him mentioned in the index of Fishel's book, "The Secret War for the Union".

Haven't read it, but is your main source Donald Markle's "Spies and Spymasters of the Civil War'? (It is heavily referenced in the Wikipedia article about Lloyd) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Alvin_Lloyd

Hello Gene,

The book has four hundred and thirty-five source notes and no, Markle was not a main source or a source at all, in fact. Of course, his work is in the bibliography, as are many other articles, including the CIA's history of spying. The astonishing thing John and I discovered is that everything that has been "written" about Lloyd's claim is derivative and nothing biographical about Lloyd had been explored. Nothing. The three years spent on this project have been a mixture of grunt work, eurekas, testimonies and analysis of primary source materials from the NARA, LOC, special collections, etc.
As many on this forum know, I'm a stickler for hard fact and would never have involved myself with an unprovable work of nonfiction.

Jane, thank you, that is what I wanted to know. I am not as familiar or as well educated on this subject as many on the forum are, so I enjoy the chance to learn more.

Thank you, Gene. I'm so proud of the work.

Thank you to all the posters here - this sounds like an intersting book on an interesting topic I would otherwise not have learned of!

Please tell me that I don't sense a feeling on the part of some here that Mr. Lloyd had to be a piece of fiction because Lincoln would never resort to spies... It would be a very silly leader of any sort who would not want to know what the enemy was up to. And, it would be an author/historian much beneath the standards of someone like Jane Singer who would try to foist such history on the public. Needless to say, I am a friend and fan of Ms. Singer, an excellent author/historian.

Thank you, my dear Laurie. I'm not at all concerned and glad to talk about the book to assuage any concerns. Best of all, it will be out April 1st and widely available. As Lincoln's words admonish all serious scholars, "History is not history unless it is the truth."

(11-08-2014 01:53 PM)L Verge Wrote:  ...because Lincoln would never resort to spies...

I have read that President Lincoln even used his podiatrist, Dr. Isachar Zacharie, to spy for the Union.

(11-08-2014 01:53 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Please tell me that I don't sense a feeling on the part of some here that Mr. Lloyd had to be a piece of fiction because Lincoln would never resort to spies... It would be a very silly leader of any sort who would not want to know what the enemy was up to. And, it would be an author/historian much beneath the standards of someone like Jane Singer who would try to foist such history on the public. Needless to say, I am a friend and fan of Ms. Singer, an excellent author/historian.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I just wanted some clarification on Ms. Singer's current book. Others reading this thread might be curious too. I am much more likely to purchase this now based upon her response to me.

Since I am not as familiar with her work as you are, I learned from Amazon that in addition to "The Confederate Dirty War", she had also authored a "novel" entitled "Booth's Sister". There is a fictional civil war period book "Alias Dragonfly by a Jane Singer published by the same company as "Booth's Sister. There is also another civil war era book titled "Two Bullets For Sergeant Franks" that is "based upon civil war fact and local legend" by a Sara Jane Singer.

http://www.amazon.com/Confederate-Dirty-...448&sr=1-4
http://www.amazon.com/Booths-Sister-Jane...905&sr=1-5
http://www.amazon.com/Alias-Dragonfly-Ja...905&sr=1-6
http://www.amazon.com/Bulllets-Sergeant-...99&sr=1-23

so I wanted some clarification about this book, Lincoln's Secret Spy.
Thank you again Ms. Singer for clarifying your book is non-fiction.