The Civil War Spies and Saboteurs Across the Canadian Border

SpyCast

Education, News, History

4.4 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 12 May 2026

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s 1864, and against the backdrop of the US Civil War- a war the Confederacy is losing- a group of spies and saboteurs have set up a base in Montreal, Canada. Today we would call this a sanctuary or a safe haven. Canada would become home to several infamous Confederate missions, some of which are detailed in Tim Wendel's novel Rebel Falls. While this book is fictional, it's grounded in several real-life stories. Guest host Dr. Mark Jacobson sits down with Tim Wendel as he takes us across the border into the world of Civil War espionage. Subscribe to Sasha's Substack, HUMINT, to get more intelligence stories: https://sashaingber.substack.com/ For more information about the International Spy Museum, visit: https://www.spymuseum.org/ And if you have feedback or want to hear about a particular topic, you can reach us by email at spycast@spymuseum.org. This show is brought to you by N2K Networks, Goat Rodeo, and the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC. This episode was produced by Flora Warshaw and the team at Goat Rodeo. At the International Spy Museum, Mike Mincey and Memphis Vaughan III are our video editors. Emily Rens is our graphic designer. Joshua Troemel runs our SPY social media. Amanda Ohlke is our Director of Adult Education and Mira Cohen is the Vice President of Programs.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to the Cyberwire Network, powered by N2K.
0:09.7	Welcome to SpyC, the official podcast of the International Spy Museum.
0:19.3	I'm Dr. Mark Jacobson, filling in for Sasha Engberg today.
0:23.3	We're stepping into the hidden world of spies shaping events around the world. It's 1864,
0:30.5	and against the backdrop of the U.S. Civil War, a war the Confederacy is losing, a group of
0:36.2	spies and saboteurs have set up a base in Montreal, Canada,
0:39.5	in what we might term today as a sanctuary or a safe haven. Canada would become home to several
0:46.5	infamous Confederate missions, some of which are detailed in Tim Wendell's novel, Rebel Falls.
0:52.6	Now, while this book may be fictional, it's grounded in several real life stories. I sit down with Tim Wendell as he takes us across the border into the world of Civil War espionage. Tim, thanks so much for being here with us today. As you know, I'm a great fan of your works on baseball. But I want to talk to you about Civil War espionage today.
1:11.6	Oh, it's great to be with you, Mark. And yeah, let's talk about Civil War espionage. That'll be fun. So let's set the stage a little bit. It's the end of 1863. We're looking at General Lee, commanding general of the Confederate troops, being in a tough position after Vicksburg and Gettysburg. We're looking at Jefferson Davis,
1:28.2	the president of the Confederacy, not being left with many options, really. What is it that
1:34.8	creates a sort of desperation that encourages them to consider what we would call today in a regular
1:41.1	warfare campaign based out of Canada? Well, as you said, Martha, the Confederates at this point in time are desperate.
1:47.0	They're pinned down, Lee's pinned down in Petersburg outside of Richmond.
1:51.0	The war is not going well.
1:53.3	And so actually Jefferson Davis somehow finds a million dollars in gold and sends it up to the U.S.
1:58.7	Canadian border.
1:59.6	Why?
2:00.4	Well, Canada's neutral, and it looks like
2:02.4	they can create a lot of mayhem, potentially, and also they got their eyes set on the presidential
2:08.0	election. Lincoln is coming up for re-election. He's not sure if he's going to win. That's how bad
2:14.3	war fatigue, war-w wariness is in the north.
	...

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