Four Years a Scout and Spy

Downs recounts his career as a scout and spy for the Union Army during the Civil War. He describes military life, battles, espionage and counter espionage, his use of disguises, meeting Confederate spies, missions behind enemy lines, intelligence gathering and near-death experiences. He writes in the preface, "I entered the army from purely patriotic motives. I had no vain ambition to gratify, but simply a desire to sustain and perpetuate the noble institutions that had been purchased by the blood of our fathers. I valued the cause of liberty as well worth all the sacrifice that it might cost to save it. I saw at once that the conflict was to be one involving great principles, and that in the end Truth and Justice?must prevail."