Recent posts over the last two weeks sent directly have never
appeared so I am trying the "reply" route.
I have the Owen Parry book but have yet to read it. Spying in
the US Civil War is a fascinating area. The confederate
general Longstreet had a personal spy, a former actor, who
pops up now and then (notably at Gettysburg).
Allan Pinkerton was closely associated with US General George
McClellan, who for a time commanded the Army of the Potomac.
A great organizer and beloved by his troops, McClellan's flaw
was an overly cautious nature. Consistantly, Pinkerton
grossly overestimated the strength of the enemy to McClellan
and bears some responsibility for missed opportunities
McClellan had to deliver crushing blows. Never bold, as a
Grant or Sherman, McClellan always believed he was facing
armies twice the size of reality thanks to the Pinkerton
estimates. When McClellan was relieved from duty by Lincoln
in November 1862, Pinkerton also left.
Richard Moore
-- # To unsubscribe from the regular list, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # majordomo@icomm.ca. This will not work for the digest version. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 19 Dec 2001 EST