Book Review Spies, Scouts, And Raiders Irregular Operations

Book Review: Spies, Scouts, and Raiders-Irregular Operations Confederate spies, secret traveling of the president-elect, and hidden clues to secret operations. All of these things can be found in the book Spies, Scouts, and Raiders-Irregular Operations by William C. Davis. This book brought up many subtle factors throughout the Civil War that were, indeed, crucial to the fight.The following review of William C. Davis’s Spies, Scouts, and Raiders-Irregular Operations will include a summary of the text as a whole, how significant the author’s thesis was, and the strengths and weaknesses of the the author throughout writing this book. To begin, the author, William C. Davis, has a subtle personal viewpoint throughout the text. Originally†¦show more content†¦Davis writes the book in a third person narrator point of view. â€Å"Currents of Conspiracy†, the first section of the book, explains the operations and secret procedures that were followed in the begin ning of the Civil War, mainly following the actions of Allan Pinkerton and Rose O’Neal Greenhow. Reading through the section, it has remarkable detail from beginning to end. I believe Davis covered the subject of spies during the beginning of the war very thoroughly. The information provided is detailed and chronologically organized. Much of the information is following Allan Pinkerton, the Union spy chief, and how he played a large role in espionage for the Union.(Davis) The author covers the topic with all necessary details. The sections â€Å"The Undercover Confederates† and â€Å"The General’s Network† explain what spies were like for the Confederacy and the Union respectively. The author chooses to cover the subject of Union and Confederate spies by including some of the most major spies for each side. Davis includes the background of each person in the sections, beginning with how they got into the war, how the Union or Confederate soldier became a spy or scout, and their role in certain key battles such as the Battle of Bull Run and Antietam. Some of the Confederate spies and scouts William C. Davis informs the reader about include Captain E. Porter Alexander, Captain William Norris, and Thomas Conrad. Union spies and scouts covered