Confederate Secret Services

During the American civil war (1861-1865), both the Union and the Confederacy were faced with the need for intelligence organizations. Some early attempts were of limited efficiency; but during the course of the war, intelligence gathering methods improved. The ability of both sides to obtain information from each other was enhanced by the new technologies of the time. Photography for instances was exploited for espionage purpose and an early form of microphotography may have been used. In 1865, as the civil war neared its end, the Confederate secret services devised several plots against Union leaders. Although these plots failed, some key conspirators continued to plot after the official Confederate surrender on April 9, 1865. The most ambitious of these plots was one to assassinate the Union president, Abraham Lincoln, the vice president and the secretary of war. John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor was selected to kill Lincoln and he shot him as he watched a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington on April 14, 1865; the president died later. Booth escaped from the theatre but later was found shot. A search of his possessions revealed a Confederate cipher device. In popular history Booth is considered to have acted alone in his assassination of Lincoln. But he definitely had connections with the Confederate secret service and questions remain about the group’s role. [extracted from Ultimate Spy]