The Silver Bugle

Judah Benjamin, the rebellion's Mephistopheles, Attorney General, Secretary of War and State and spymaster of the C.S.A., created a Mona Lisa in the black art of espionage. Lincoln's reluctant general, George McClellan, A.P. Hill, one of Lee's favorite generals and Nelly Marcy McClellan, George's wife and Hill's clandestine lover were transformed from a love triangle into a spy network. Hill and Nelly softened George for Benjamin's pitch that hooked the "little Napoleon," code named, "Le Clarion D'argent," French for the silver bugle. Both Benjamin and McClellan were fluent in French; all communications between them were in their favorite language. Resultant of counterespionage by the Union's spy mistress in Richmond, Elizabeth Van Lew, he was unmasked and neutralized but never made aware of his discovery. He resigned his commission, became governor of New Jersey and died failing to fulfill his burning desire to become president of the United States of America.