Lincoln's Enforcers: How the North Fought Disloyalty, Dissent, and Desertion During the Civil War

Midnight arrests, imprisonment without trial, infringement of free speech, invasions of privacy, loyalty oaths— the Union government carried out all of these and more against its citizens in an effort to combat disloyalty, dissent, and desertion during the Civil War. The uniformed soldiers of the Bureau of the Provost Marshal General had virtually unchecked authority to conduct their mission on the Northern home front, an effort that sent at least 10,000 and as many as 35,000 Americans to p...