After an elderly man jumped from New York's Pulitzer Building in
1911, his death made the front page of the New York Times: "World
Dome Suicide a Famous War Spy." By then Pryce Lewis had slipped
entirely offstage; but, as Gavin Mortimer reveals, the headline did him
justice, speaking to the dramatic, vitally important, and until now
untold role he had played in the Civil War.

Emigrating to the United States in 1856, Lewis was soon employed as
an operative by Allan Pinkerton in his newly established detective
agency. Early in the Civil War Pinkerton offered the agency to President
Lincoln as a secret service, spying on Southern forces and
insurrectionists. Civilian spies proved crucial to both sides early on;
indeed, intelligence gathered by Lewis helped give the Union army its
first victory, three days after the defeat at Bull Run. Within a year,
though, he and fellow Brit Timothy Webster, another Pinkerton operative,
were captured in Richmond, and their high-profile trial and conviction
in a Confederate court changed the course of wartime espionage. Lewis
was spared the hangman's noose, but Webster was executed, and thereafter
spying was left to military personnel rather than civilians.

Narrative history at its best, in recounting Pryce Lewis's gripping
story, Double Death offers new angles on the Civil War,
illuminating the early years of the Pinkerton Agency and the shadow
world of spying throughout the war, as well as the often overlooked
impact that Britain had on both sides.