Devil's Game: The Civil War Intrigues of Charles A. Dunham

Devil's Game: The Civil War Intrigues of Charles A. Dunham by Cumming, Carman. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780252028908.

The first book-length study of one of the Civil Wars most outlandish and mysterious characters, Devils Game traces the amazing career of Charles A. Dunham, double agent. Dunham was a spy, forger, "reptile journalist," and master of dirty tricks. Writing under different names for different newspapers, including New Yorks Tribune, Herald, and World, he routinely faked stories to promote the Norths war aims, sometimes writing contradictory stories for rival papers. Dunham also used his journalism to create new identities and sometimes stepped into them, playing (with the help of his wife, Ophelia) at least a half-dozen such roles. Dunham achieved his greatest infamy at the wars end. Called to testify in Washington, he was the most notorious of the witnesses who swore that Lincolns assassination had been plotted by conspirators in Montreal and Toronto, on orders from Richmond. That testimony (later discredited but never officially challenged) helped lead to the execution of several alleged associates of John Wilkes Booth. Dunhams postwar intrigues were almost as complex, as he continued to collect fake "evidence" of Southern war crimes. Finally convicted of perjury in these schemes, he worked in prison to produce evidence implicating President Andrew Johnson in the assassination, then reversed himself and sold out his associates to the President. Until now many parts of Dunhams wartime (and postwar) career have remained shadowy. Carman Cumming sheds new light on numerous escapades, including Dunhams effort to sell Lincoln on plans for a raid to capture Jefferson Davis and a complex effort in Canada to plan - and then betray - cross-border raids. Exhaustively researched, Devils Game is a portrait of a consummate chameleon. Drawing together previous Dunham scholarship, Cumming offers the first detailed tour of Dunhams convoluted, high-stakes, international deceits. A carefully crafted assessment of Dunhams motives, personality, and the complex effects of his schemes make Devils Game an important and original work that will change some basic assumptions about the secret operations of the Civil War.