Steven Wilson

President Lincoln needs someone to investigate an explosion at an ammunition dump in Delaware and then to search for an important scientist that has disappeared. The President turns to Colonel Dunaway who has been wounded and is convalescing in Washington, D.C. Was the explosion an accident? Was it an act of sabotage by Southern sympathizers? What does the disappearance of Phillip Abbott have anything to do with the explosion? Has Abbott been kidnapped or has he gone to the other side freely? These are the questions that Colonel Dunaway and his wife must seek answers to as they travel from Delaware to Quebec City to New York City and back to Washington D.C. Will the answers that they find expose a peril to the Union and will they find all of the answers in time?

Steven Wilson has done an excellent job of bringing a little known part of the Civil War to the pages of President Lincoln’s Secret. Most of us recognize the names of the major battles of the Civil War and maybe even some of the skirmishes that took place close to where we live, but little is known by the general public about the secret wars that took place between the secret agents or spies of both sides. Mr. Wilson takes us into this dark side of the war and gives us a view of how it may have operated. His characters are realistic and the reader comes to understand why they are on the side that they are. Through this story Mr. Wilson shows how the country was split with Col. Dunaway being from Tennessee and his wife’s brother being a southern sympathizer. The reader also gets a glimpse of Lincoln and his Cabinet and the give and take in their meetings. Being the Assistant Director of the Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum, Mr. Wilson is able to make Lincoln’s conversation seem real and possible with Lincoln’s telling of stories to ease tensions in a room. We also catch a glimpse of the struggle Lincoln had with the Radical Republicans and the ones who wanted him out of office.

I found President Lincoln’s Secret to be a rousing good read. Whether you are a Civil War scholar or someone looking for an interesting mystery set in the time of the Civil War you will enjoy this work. Mr. Wilson has given us a look at the secret war that was carried on behind the scenes of the great battles that were wages across this country.… (meer)