The lion and the fox : two rival spies and the secret plot to build a Confederate Navy

"James Bulloch, a sea captain turned Confederate agent, arrived in Liverpool at a crucial moment during the U.S. Civil War: a Union blockade was preventing Southern cotton exports from reaching Britain, threatening to destroy what was left of the Confederate economy-unless Bulloch could secretly arrange for the construction of a fleet of warships to break the northern grip on the South. Shortly thereafter, Union operative Thomas Dudley, a pious Quaker and radical abolitionist, arrived in Liverpool to stop the Confederate spy. Either man's mission, if successful, would determine the war's outcome and the country's fate. From master of historical espionage Alexander Rose, The Lion and the Fox uncovers an enthralling, unknown story at the core of the Civil War: an intense duel between two international agents who almost single-handedly decided America's war and changed the course of history"--

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Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Hardwood Creek Library (Forest Lake)	973.75 ROS	Searching... Unknown
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury)	973.75 ROS	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Stillwater Public Library	973.75 ROS	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Valley Library (Lakeland)	973.75 ROS	Searching... Unknown

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From the New York Times bestselling author of Washington's Spies, the thrilling story of the Confederate spy who came to Britain to turn the tide of the Civil War--and the Union agent resolved to stop him.

In 1861, soon after the outbreak of the Civil War, two secret agents--one a Confederate, the other his Union rival--were dispatched to neutral Britain, each entrusted with a vital mission.

The South's James Bulloch, charming and devious, was to acquire a cutting-edge clandestine fleet intended to break President Lincoln's blockade of Confederate ports, sink Northern merchant vessels, and drown the U.S. Navy's mightiest ships at sea. The profits from gunrunning and smuggling cotton--Dixie's notorious "white gold"--would finance the scheme. Opposing him was Thomas Dudley, a resolute Quaker lawyer and abolitionist. He was determined to stop Bulloch by any means necessary in a spy-versus-spy game of move and countermove, gambit and sacrifice, intrigue and betrayal. If Dudley failed, Britain would ally with the South and imperil a Northern victory. The battleground was the Dickensian port of Liverpool, whose dockyards built more ships each year than the rest of the world combined, whose warehouses stored more cotton than anywhere else on earth, and whose merchant princes, said one observer, were "addicted to Southern proclivities, foreign slave trade, and domestic bribery."

From master of historical espionage Alexander Rose, The Lion and the Fox is the astonishing, untold tale of two implacable foes and their twilight struggle for the highest stakes.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Historian Rose (Washington's Spies) delivers an entertaining chronicle of the battle of wits between a Confederate spy and a Union agent in England during the early years of the Civil War. In 1861, ex-Union Navy officer James Bulloch sailed for Liverpool seeking to build a clandestine Confederate navy in order to break the Union blockade of Southern ports. His nemesis was U.S. consul Thomas Dudley, whose "Quaker rectitude, stiff-necked temperance, and remorseless work ethic" provided a jarring contrast to Bulloch's "designedly aristocratic style." Tracing Britain's 1861 Proclamation of Neutrality to the British view that the Civil War "was yet another of their rancorous colonial cousins' periodic fits of madness," Rose documents how Bulloch--aided by a well-placed mole in Britain's Foreign Office--exploited a loophole in the British Foreign Enlistment Act of 1819 to convince Liverpool's shipbuilders to manufacture the commerce raiders CSS Florida and CSS Alabama. The 1863 Emancipation Proclamation helped turn the tide in Dudley's favor, however, as Britons came to view the war as "a humanitarian crusade to free the oppressed," rather than a fight to preserve the Union. Rose's indelible character sketches and firm grasp of the industrial and political milieu of 19th-century Britain enrich the contest of wills between Bulloch and Dudley. This spy-versus-spy tale delights. (Dec.)

Library Journal Review

Historian Rose (Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring) masterfully delivers an exciting tale of plots and schemes among the shipyards, docks, and government offices of Liverpool and London. At the onset of the American Civil War, the Southern states lacked a navy. The North blockaded southern ports, cutting off cotton to foreign markets. Confederate leaders dispatched James Bulloch (1823--1901) to England to raise a small fleet of commerce raiders. These ships wreaked havoc among Union shipping and drew needed warships away from the blockade effort, allowing southern merchants to ply their trade. Northern leaders were concerned that the Confederates would seek out assistance and recognition from European governments, especially those of France and Great Britain, where cotton was in high demand. So, the federal government sent a new consul, Thomas Haines Dudley (1819--93) to Liverpool, England, then a hotbed of Confederate sympathizers, to ferret out clandestine Southern activities. Dudley soon suspected that Bulloch and English sympathizers worked to raise funds and construct warships with the aid of middlemen and fictitious companies. VERDICT Based on archival and primary research, this well-written account of intrigue will appeal to readers of Civil War history and real-life tales of spies and espionage.--Chad E. Statler

Prologue: The Bloody Spot	p. 1
1 On Secret Service	p. 11
2 The White Gold	p. 21
3 The Black Crow	p. 35
4 The Crowning City	p. 53
5 A River in Sicily	p. 67
6 The First Raider	p. 83
7 The War Rules	p. 95
8 The Magician	p. 115
9 The Dead Letter	p. 127
10 Traitor to His Benefactor	p. 145
11 The Lucky Shoemaker	p. 159
12 The Man with No Hands	p. 177
13 The Great Red God	p. 185
14 Retribution	p. 201
Acknowledgments	p. 215
Notes	p. 217
Bibliography	p. 247
Illustration Credits	p. 257
Index	p. 259

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