Confederate Operations in Canada and New York

by John W. Headley

Originally published in 1906. This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies. All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume.

Genres: Civil War

480 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1906

About the author

John W. Headley (1841- )

Reviews

[Charles Rice · Rating 5 out of 5]

John William Headley was a young man from western Kentucky who went to war in 1861, serving first in then Lt. Col. Nathan Bedford Forrest's cavalry battalion, but later riding with John Hunt Morgan's famous cavalry. Headley took part in the disastrous Indiana and Ohio raid (which Morgan made in direct violation of his orders). Taken prisoner during that raid, Headley managed to escape and made his way to Canada, where he volunteered to take part in clandestine operations in the northern states. He describes them in detail and was himself one of the secret agents who attempted to burn New York City in retaliation for Sherman's burning of the city of Atlanta.

Headley had a gift for writing, and his story is fascinating. After the war, he married a woman who had been a daring Confederate agent herself, and went into the tobacco business in Evansville, Indiana. He served as Kentucky's Secretary of State from 1891 to 1894, but in the early 1900s he moved his family to California. John Headley died in Beverly Hills in 1930, an "unreconstructed" Rebel to the end. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.