The Confederate Dirty War by Jane Singer

[Susan Higginbotham]

Has anyone read this? I'm engaged in the always pleasant task of putting together a wish list of books to buy.

[RJNorton]

Susan, Jane is a member here, and she talked ever so briefly about her book here. She has not posted in a long time, but I will drop her a line and try to persuade her to make a post devoted to that book.

[Wild Bill]

Very good book and I highly recommend it

[HerbS]

Outstanding book and author!

[L Verge]

I agree with Bill and Herb on both the book and the author. Jane is highly regarded in the field of Confederate espionage and the Lincoln conspiracy and was mentored (like me) under the wonderful tutelage of James O. Hall. She has another related book coming out in the spring, and I believe that Roger posted the advanced notice of it on this forum sometime this week.

[Susan Higginbotham]

Thanks, all!

[BettyO]

Quote:I agree with Bill and Herb on both the book and the author. Jane is highly regarded in the field of Confederate espionage and the Lincoln conspiracy and was mentored (like me) under the wonderful tutelage of James O. Hall. She has another related book coming out in the spring, and I believe that Roger posted the advanced notice of it on this forum sometime this week.

I also agree with all regarding Jane Singer and her wonderfully impeccable research. Jane is one of the newer Boothies who was lucky to fall under the tutledge of Mr. Hall - when it comes to Confederate espionage, she sure knows her stuff...... her work is highly recommended!

[HerbS]

I wish that I got to meet James O.Hall.Someday,hopefully,at the conference I will get to meet all of you.The only things that have held me back are-family circumstances,health,and weather.

[L Verge]

We would love to have you join us at the conference and finally meet you, my friend! The 2015 conference is the weekend of the spring equinox; tell your family to do without you for a few days; and getting to meet everyone will be some of the best medicine you could ask for...

[BettyO]

I fully agree with Laurie! We'd LOVE to meet you, m'dear! We're a really FUN group and the conference is a wonderful time of learning, fellowship and the exchanging of ideas. It's the best "tonic" available!

[HerbS]

I will try to be there-just give me the dates and registration form.

[Jane Singer]

Thanks so much for your interest in the Confederate Dirty War, Susan. And greetings to all the fine scholars on this forum who've been so complimentary. Sorry to have been so long away. I've been buried in work on Lincoln's Secret Spy and the second book in my YA Civil War spy trilogy.

My research into the thicket of Civil War sabotage took a turn a few years after 9-11 when I began to read about terror plots proposed and enacted by Confederate exiles in Canada during the last two years of the war. They were disturbingly redolent of terrorism in our own troubled time. All were aimed at innocent noncombatants: A bio-terror attack, a plot to burn New York, the proposed mining of the Lincoln White House, a chemical weapon and a plot to destroy the Union from within.

I knew I had to find primary source material, never exaggerate or connect unrealistic, unproven dots and agonized over how disturbing all this would be.

The Confederate Dirty War grew out of a numbing sense of "nothing changes," that desperate measures by a dying Confederacy, a few radicals, extremists who were willing to fight a different kind of war by any means necessary.

Thanks to the support of James O. Hall, David Gaddy, Laurie Verge, Ed Steers, Surratt Society members, and finally , the History Channel who produced Civil War Terror based in large part on my book, I was able to tell the story of the dark underbelly of the war-within-a-war.

Confederate Senator Williamson Simpson Oldham wrote to President Davis on February 11, 1865 that the chemical weapon created by Professor Richard Sears McCulloh would bring "terror and consternation" to the North. Had the war not ended, it would have been used.

I'd be glad to further illuminate. It disturbs me to this day.

[RJNorton]

(11-07-2014 08:36 PM)Jane Singer Wrote:  ...A bio-terror attack...

Although I don't know a lot about it I have always been fascinated by Dr. Luke Blackburn and the plan to spread yellow fever in the North by distributing clothing of deceased yellow fever victims who had passed away in Bermuda. A target in the plan was none other than Abraham Lincoln. A gift of dress shirts worn by yellow fever victims was to be delivered as a gift to the White House. Although they were not delivered and would not have worked, I would think this has to be viewed as an assassination attempt by the Confederate Secret Service. I do wonder how Lincoln would have reacted if these shirts had been delivered, and he found himself the recipient of (previously used) dress shirts given to him as a gift. Would he have worn them?

[Eva Elisabeth]

I, too, find that a fascinating incident.

(11-08-2014 05:14 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  I do wonder how Lincoln would have reacted if these shirts had been delivered, and he found himself the recipient of (previously used) dress shirts given to him as a gift. Would he have worn them?

...I would add - would Mary have let him wear them? My guess: she would have donated them to hospitals...

[HerbS]

It is always a pleasure to read Jane Singer's work!