Albert D. (Albert Deane) Richardson

Born in Franklin, Massachusetts, in 1833, Albert Deane Richardson built his career as a newspaper writer and became one of the best-known American correspondents of the Civil War era. He worked for several papers before joining the New York Tribune, where his reporting from the front helped make him widely read.

Richardson was not only a journalist but also a Union spy. During the war he was captured by Confederate forces and spent many months imprisoned before escaping. He later turned those experiences into The Secret Service, the Field, the Dungeon, and the Escape, a popular account that showed readers the danger and drama behind wartime reporting.

He also wrote a biography of Ulysses S. Grant and remained a prominent literary figure after the war. Richardson died in New York City in 1869 after being shot by Daniel McFarland, in a case that drew major public attention at the time.