GDG- Books on intelligence

[Tom Ryan]

<<I rely  on Fishel's "The Secret War for the Union" and Tidwell, Hall and
Gaddy's "Come  Retribution

Tom,
<<What other books on intel do you suggest?>>

Mike,

Regarding intel from the Union side, "Grant's Secret Service" by William
Feis is a good companion to Fishel's book.  It not only provides a detailed
description of Grant's intel service while he was operating in Mississippi,
but it picks up after Gettysburg and covers the Bureau of Military
Information during Meade and Grant's command of the AoP.

On the Confederate side. Tidwell's "April '65:  Confederate Covert Action in
the American Civil War" is a sequel to "Come Retribution."  Also useful is
"Spies of the Confederacy" by John Bakeless.  You might want to check out
John Keegan's chapter on Stonewall's intel ops in the Valley in his
"Intelligence in War."

A good overview on U.S. intel is "Honorable Treachery:  A History of U.S.
Intelligence, Espionage, and Covert Action from the American Revolution to
the CIA" by G.J.A. O'Toole.  Part 3 deals with the Civil War.  "The
Photographic History of the Civil War" also has a good section on "Secret
Service."

For intel on Gettysburg, Fishel devotes about the last seven chapters of
"The Secret War" and I wrote a five-part series on the subject in Gettysburg
Magazine (Issues 29-33) called "A Battle of Wits."

There are many other books on specific intel topics, mostly about spying but
also Signal Corps and use of Telegraph, etc., depending on what your
interest may be.

For the intel wonk there is "The Encyclopedia of American Intelligence and
Espionage" by O'Toole, which has a lot of entries dealing with Civil War
personalities and operations.

Regards, Tom