Hattie Lawton was a young Pinkerton detective who with her partner, Timothy Webster, spied for the U.S. Secret Service during the Civil War. Working in Richmond, the two posed as husband and wife. A dazzling blonde from New York and a handsome Englishman, both with checkered pasts, they were matched in charm, cunning, duplicity and boldness. Betrayed by their own spymaster, Allan Pinkerton, they fell into the hands of the dictator of Richmond, the notorious General John H. "Hog" Winder. This lively history, scrupulously researched from all available sources, corrects the record on many points and definitively answers the long-standing question of Hattie Lawton's true identity.

Nominating conventions were the highlight of presidential elections in the Gilded Age, an era when there were no primaries, no debates and nominees did little active campaigning. Unlike modern conventions, the outcomes were not so seemingly predetermined. Historians consider the late 19th century an era of political corruption, when party bosses controlled the conventions and chose the nominees. Yet the candidates nominated by both Republicans and Democrats during this period won despite the opposition of the bosses, and were opposed by them once in office. This book analyzes the pageantry, drama, speeches, strategies, platforms, deal-making and often surprising outcomes of the presidential nominating conventions of the Gilded Age, debunking many wildely-held beliefs about politics in a much-maligned era.