Traitors

"A myth has grown that there were no traitors during the period leading up to the American Civil War. Edward S. Cooper debunks that myth in this book. He provides documentation that officers on active duty in the army and navy of the United States secretly negotiated for positions in the Confederacy, surrendered their ships, forts, and posts to state authorities, conspired in the seizure of other forts, deserted their posts and advised their subordinates to join them, and wrote letters detailing how the Confederacy could defeat the very army and navy in which they were serving. Members of the president's cabinet ensured southern arsenals were stocked with northern weapons, posted southern sympathizers to forts and arsenals in the south, and sold weapons to agents for states that had announced their intention to secede. Other cabinet members urged states to secede and gave southern states advance notice of United States troop movements.^ Members of the United States Congress, collectively and individually, used their positions to warn southern states of Federal troop movements, obtain plans of arsenals and forts and how they were manned, and acquire lists of military officers along with their pay in order to seduce them into Confederate service. The governors of some slave-holding states had men seize forts and arsenals, burned bridges to impede the movement of Federal troops, and allowed Confederate troops into their states before they had seceded or even called conventions to consider secession." "In her 1904 memoir, Virginia Clay referred to the Secession period as a time when "men eyed each other warily and spoke guardedly, save to the most tried and proved friend.^ Many a scene secret, grave, and treasonable took place those last lowering weeks." The author has ferreted out those who spoke and acted guardedly as well as those who spoke and acted openly, committing treason while holding office or commissions and having sworn allegiance to the Constitution, distinguishing them from others who, like Virginia's husband Senator Clement Clay of Alabama, resigned their offices or commissions before acting on behalf of the Confederacy. This is a rogues' gallery of the dishonorable or disingenuous. The author has thoroughly mined primary sources: captured documents and confiscated letters, diaries, autobiographies, and memoirs, and hearings before the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, and presents a list of traitors alphabetically, chronologically, by state, and in an informative Introduction by the nature of the treasons.^ He narrates individual misdeeds and reveals their conspiracies." "The author contrasts traitors' behavior with those in similar situations who behaved more honorably. Thus he excludes Southerners like Jefferson Davis, Alexander Stephens, Robert E. Lee, and Joseph E. Johnston from any accusation of wrongdoing." "This book highlights one of the factors that makes a civil war so interesting, and the War for Southern Independence so fascinating to scholars and aficionados alike. Treating those who committed treason during the Secession period as a group provides a valuable contribution to the literature on the Civil War."--book jacket.