author
Henry Bascom Smith
d. 1916
A Civil War spy memoir brings readers inside the Union’s hidden war, from secret investigations to dangerous missions behind the scenes. Written decades after the conflict, it has the vivid, personal feel of someone remembering a life that was anything but ordinary.
1 Audiobook
Between the Lines: Secret Service Stories Told Fifty Years After
by Henry Bascom Smith
About the author
Best known for Between the Lines: Secret Service Stories Told Fifty Years After (published in 1911), this author left behind a firsthand account of Union intelligence work during the American Civil War. Library records identify him as Henry Bascom Smith and note his death in 1916.
In his memoir, he describes serving as an assistant provost marshal and as chief of the Secret Service in the command of Major General Lew Wallace in Baltimore. The book mixes espionage stories, military paperwork, and personal recollection, giving modern readers a close-up view of surveillance, counterintelligence, and wartime intrigue.
Because reliable biographical information about him is limited, his own writing remains the clearest window into his life. What stands out most is the combination of official duty and lived experience: he was not just writing about the Civil War from a distance, but recalling the tense, hidden work he said he carried out inside it.