In this dramatic, first-of-its-kind Civil War novel, shocking new information about the nation’s president is uncovered that throws the North’s entire military effort into doubt, and, indeed, challenges Abraham Lincoln’s legal right even to hold office. What’s worse, the incriminating documents are in the hands of a desperate adversary.
What are these new allegations? Could they possibly be true? What must the North do to protect its war effort and Lincoln’s presidency, and thus save the Union?
The responsibility for a counter-espionage operation is assigned to Colonel Lafayette C. Baker, head of the War Department’s Secret Service, who turns to his long-time friend Aaron Putnam to scuttle the rumors and protect the war effort. Putnam is well aware that he faces the hangman’s harsh noose as well as the loss of his treasured Union if he fails. He enlists the aid of southern Unionists led by America’s greatest heroine, Elizabeth Van Lew, to help ensure the success of his mission.
What is Lincoln’s shocking secret? What must Putnam do to preserve the war effort? And, most intriguing, why have these scandalous allegations remained secret for 150 years?
