Abstract:
Intelligence and its collection is an everyday staple and necessity in the United States but it has
not always been this way. Forms of intelligence have been conducted for all of American
History, but it is widely believed that the true history of the intelligence began during the World
Wars in the early twentieth century. However, intelligence was conducted long before that and
through the examination of intelligence collection and methods during the Civil War this thesis
demonstrates exactly why that history should indeed begin with this major nineteenth-century
conflict and not the World Wars. During the Civil War many old forms of intelligence were used
but many new forms were devised and developed and it is these new methods that are the roots
of, and laid the groundwork for, the rise of intelligence during the World Wars.
