Secret Service

Albert Richardson was a daring reporter for Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune who took on the perilous task of going undercover in the American South, documenting the rising secession crisis. When the Civil War erupted in April 1861, he joined the Union armies as a war correspondent, tirelessly sending dispatches from the front lines for two years. His journey took a harrowing turn in May 1863 when he was thrown from a burning barge into the Mississippi River while trying to evade a Confederate battery near Vicksburg. Captured as a prisoner, Richardson believed his status as a civilian journalist would ensure a swift exchange, but instead, he endured 18 grueling months in various POW camps. Seizing a chance to escape, he embarked on a treacherous winter journey across the snowy Appalachians towards Union lines in Tennessee, aided by a clandestine network of slaves, Union supporters, and bushwhackers. His personal memoir, published in 1865, immerses readers in a gripping historical narrative, rich with the keen observations of a journalist who lived through the turmoil of war. (Summary by Maria Kasper)