Existing comment:
The First "Secret Service"
Civil War Spies:
When the American Civil War began, neither the North nor the South had any significant intelligence or counterintelligence capability. Instead, generals personally operated espionage rings and recruited and directed spies.
In 1861, President Lincoln hired Alan Pinkerton to organize a professional "secret service." Before the war, Pinkerton's National Detective Agency had tracked down embezzlers, counterfeiters, train robbers, and strike organizers. Now, his detectives obtained military information and stopped intelligence from getting to the Confederacy. Working directly under General George B. McClellan, commander of the Union Army, Pinkerton's detectives were used throughout the Southern States. |