With never-before published contemporary photographs, facsimile documents and other illustrations, this book presents the true story of The Northwest Conspiracy. It was a daring plan that came close to destroying the Union from within, by getting Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to join the Confederacy while New York City was in flames. Chicago was ready for rebellion, 100,000 Northern Confederates stood ready to strike. Based on official papers hitherto suppressed by the U.S. War Dept.--the secret and unpublished diaries of Capt. Thomas H. Hines, C.S.A., official agent of the Confederate government and mastermind of its underground. The story of a grim and deadly phase of the Civil War not fought on battlefields, but with spies, counter-spies, mysterious women, and shadowy conspiracies--finally brought to light.