Lincoln's Minister of Mystery

For the first time, the little-known life of "secret service" agent Henry Shelton Sanford is revealed in this new biography. Based upon Sanford's original correspondence, this book covers the entire life of Lincoln's unofficial Secret Service and C.I.A. chief based in Europe during the Civil War. Sanford bought rifled guns, hired private detectives to spy on Confederate purchasing agents and developed a comprehensive intelligence network throughout Europe at this time. That espionage web provided the U.S. State Department with the data and the insight necessary to allow Abraham Lincoln to have "one war at a time" and save the country. In the end, primal ambition, powerful enemies, extravagant living and having married what many considered to be the most beautiful woman in America at the time, Henry Sanford died in debt and was quickly forgotten by history. This work brings back the power and the mystery of this unknown figure and gives him the credit due for his "secret service" work during the American Civil War.

David D. Perry is a retired university lecturer in American and European history. He has visited and studied every major battlefield from the American Civil War to those of the Crimean, First and Second World Wars. He has been a Revolutionary and Civil War enthusiast who has marched with the celebrated Old Guard, 3rd US Infantry Regiment. He lives in Florida.