Spies

"In 1942, with a black-market chicken tucked under his arm by his mother, Leo Marks left his father's famous bookshop, 84 Charing Cross Road, and went off to fight the war. He was twenty-two. Soon recognized as a cryptographer of genius, he became head of communications at the Special Operations Executive (SOE), where he revolutionized the codemaking techniques of the Allies and trained some of the most famous agents dropped into occupied Europe."

At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, Benjamin Tallmadge, a young school headmaster, joins George Washington's army and becomes one of his most trusted officers. The author employed many primary sources, including Tallmadge's memoirs, to retell the story of this early American soldier and spy.

"Readers discover that Harriet Tubman--well-known to them as an ex-slave who led hundreds of her people to freedom along the Underground Railroad--was also a spy for the Union Army. More specifically she worked behind Confederate lines in South Carolina getting information about troop movement and Rebel fortifications from slaves that she was leading to freedom on the Underground Railroad."

The Civil War marked the only time that U.S. citizens went to war against each other. Discover how spies on both the Union and Confederate sides used the element of surprise to outsmart the enemy and gather important information.