I know little about the civil war between the North and the Southern states except a few paragraphs in my history book in Grade Nine. Hanging out with History majors, I have listened to impassioned lectures that the real issue of that war was economics and not about freeing the slaves. I saw many confederate flags hung in dorm rooms. In the eighties, I talked to quite a few southern old timers who still thought of themselves as confederate supporters. This book is about a civilian, Pryce Lewis, who was in the employ of the military of the North to spy on the South.
It is a shame that he risked the best part of his life to work for Uncle Sam and yet in his old age, they refused him a pension. It is unheard of that a war hero would have to jump to his death when he could no longer work for his own keep. During the time he was working as a spy, he was sentenced to death but later the execution was postponed. After many months of being imprisoned, he was released. It took a writer living in Paris to write out this real story that does not bring any glory to US of A.
Thousands took part in a battle. Hundreds of thousands were involved in a war. Reading a history text may be boring. But it has been interesting reading about a dare devil who infiltrated behind enemy lines. It is difficult to believe that high officials such as General McClellan could seem to be cowardly and indecisive in battles. My buddy the history major is correct, when research is done on a personal level, it is actually exciting to pursue. No wonder she spent hundreds of hours researching whatever interested her for her thesis and hardly slept in her senior year.
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