Ryan Book About Gettysburg-Related Intelligence Is Cited

Originally published March 2016 · p. 18

Ryan Book About Gettysburg-Related Intelligence Is Cited EASTON, Md. — Thomas J. Ryan’s Spies, Scouts, and Secrets in the Gettysburg Campaign: How the Critical Role of Intelligence Impacted the Outcome of Lee’s Invasion of the North, June-July 1863 (Savas Beatie) received Honorable Mention in the 2015 Delmarva Book Prize Non-Fiction category (see October 2015 CWN review). The book prizes, sponsored by the Eastern Shore Writers Association, were announced at a December presentation and reception in Easton. The competition for best books in the non-fiction and creative writing fields is open to Delmarva (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia) peninsula residents. Ryan’s groundbreaking Spies, Scouts, and Secrets in the Gettysburg Campaign is the first work to offer a comparative study of intelligence operations during the Gettysburg Campaign. According to award-winning author J. David Petruzzi, who has written about Gettysburg, Ryan tells for the first time how vital information collected by scouts, spies and civilians was processed and used by the opposing high commands and affected how the campaign developed and the battle ended with Lee’s defeat. Ryan is the former president of the Central Delaware Civil War Round Table and a longtime member of the Gettysburg Foundation and the Civil War Trust. He has published more than 125 articles and book reviews on Civil War subjects, many dealing with intelligence operations. In 2012 he published Essays on Delaware during the Civil War: A Political, Military and Social Perspective. Ryan served three years in the United States Army and more than three decades with the U.S. Department of Defense in various intelligence operations-related capacities before retiring.