Lincoln's Secret Spy

A month after Lincoln’s assassination, William Alvin Lloyd arrived in Washington, DC, to press a claim against the federal government for money due him for serving as the president’s spy in the Confederacy. Lloyd claimed that Lincoln personally had issued papers of transit for him to cross into the South, a salary of $200 a month, and a secret commission as Lincoln’s own top-secret spy. The claim convinced Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt—but was it true?For many years Lloyd had been hawking his Southern Steamboat and Railroad Guide throughout Dixie, and it was this thorough familiarity with the South and its people—and their familiarity with him—that would have given him a good cover when the time came. In July, 1861, and now desperate for cash, Lloyd crossed enemy lines to collect debts owed by advertising clients in the South.After just a few days in the Confederacy, officials jailed Lloyd for bigamy, not for being a Yankee spy as he later claimed. After bribing his way out, he crisscrossed the Southern states, trying to collect enough money to stay alive. Between riding the rails he found time to marry plenty of unsuspecting young women only to ditch them a few days later. His behavior drew the attention of Confederate authorities, who nabbed him in Savannah and charged him as a suspected spy. But after nine months, they couldn’t find any incriminating evidence or anyone to testify against him, so they let him go. A free but broken man, Lloyd continued roaming the South, making money however he could. In May 1865, he went to Washington with an extraordinary claim and little else: a few coached witnesses, and a pass to cross the lines signed “A. Lincoln” (the most forged signature in American history), and his own testimony. So was he really Lincoln’s secret agent or nothing more than a con man? And was Totten vs. United States—inspired by Lloyd's claim and which set precedent for espionage law based on a monumental fraud?  Find out in this completely irresistible and wholly original work. 

“Con man, charlatan, bigamist, perjurer, Alvin Lloyd managed to convince government officials and U. S. senators that he had been a secret spy for Abraham Lincoln operating in the Confederacy during the Civil War.”

  It was a tissue of lies, as the authors of this detailed study demonstrate in a tour de force of historicaldetective work. -- James M. McPherson, Civil War historian and Pulitzer Prize-winner for "Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era"
The characters of our Civil War included a plethora of spies from the North, South and abroad. Most espoused loyalty to one side or the other. Some were in the game because of the excitement of it. Others for greed. This is the tale of a scoundrel who defies a label. Was William Alvin Lloyd President Lincoln’s espionage agent or was he a bounder taken with himself? One thing is certain, his claim for money for his alleged wartime service as a spy was decided in his favor by the Supreme Court – or was it? The authors, in an entertaining and very readable way, attempt to sort fact from fiction by wrestling with one of the conundrums of war.  -- Frank J. Williams, Retired Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court and founding Chair of The Lincoln Forum
Beginning with a genuine pass written and signed by Abraham Lincoln, Singer and Stewart untangle the elaborate fraud perpetrated on the United States government by “Union spy” William Alvin Lloyd and his attorney, using that pass.  Carefully distinguishing fact from fiction, half-truths from lies, the authors explain how a pro-Confederate con man, self-promoter, and bigamist emerged from the ruins of the Confederacy and converted a simple pass from the martyred President into gold—literally.  And how after his death in 1869, his widow and attorney continued to press his claims in Congress and the Supreme Court, creating a doctrine that still affects claims by secret operatives today. -- Daniel W. Stowell, Director and Editor of "The Papers of Abraham Lincoln"

Jane Singer is a Civil War scholar and author of The Confederate Dirty War, on which the History Channel based the two-hour special Civil War Terror. She served both as historical consultant and as primary onscreen narrator for the project. Her work has been featured in the Washington Post Magazine, Washington Times, and Chicago Sun-Times. She lives in Venice, California.John Stewart is the author of Confederate Spies at Large and Jefferson Davis’s Flight from Richmond. The winner of numerous reference book awards, he lives in West Jefferson, North Carolina.

A month after Lincoln's assassination, William Alvin Lloyd arrived in Washington, DC, to press a claim against the federal government for money due him for serving as the president's spy in the Confederacy. Lloyd claimed that Lincoln personally had issued papers of transit for him to cross into the South, a salary of $200 a month, and a secret commission as Lincoln's own top-secret spy. The claim convinced Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt--but was it true? For many years Lloyd had been hawking his Southern Steamboat and Railroad Guide throughout Dixie, and it was this thorough familiarity with the South and its people--and their familiarity with him--that would have given him a good cover when the time came. In July, 1861, and now desperate for cash, Lloyd crossed enemy lines to collect debts owed by advertising clients in the South.After just a few days in the Confederacy, officials jailed Lloyd for bigamy, not for being a Yankee spy as he later claimed. After bribing his way out, he crisscrossed the Southern states, trying to collect enough money to stay alive. Between riding the rails he found time to marry plenty of unsuspecting young women only to ditch them a few days later. His behavior drew the attention of Confederate authorities, who nabbed him in Savannah and charged him as a suspected spy. But after nine months, they couldn't find any incriminating evidence or anyone to testify against him, so they let him go. A free but broken man, Lloyd continued roaming the South, making money however he could. In May 1865, he went to Washington with an extraordinary claim and little else: a few coached witnesses, and a pass to cross the lines signed "A. Lincoln" (the most forged signature in American history), and his own testimony. So was he really Lincoln's secret agent or nothing more than a con man? And was Totten vs. United States--inspired by Lloyd's claim and which set precedent for espionage law based on a monumental fraud? Find out in this completely irresistible and wholly original work.

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