A Wonderful Career in Crime: Charles Cowlam's Masquerades in the Civil War Era and Gilded Age by Garmon Jr, Frank W.

A Wonderful Career in Crime: Charles Cowlam's Masquerades in the Civil War Era and Gilded Age

Charles Cowlam's career as a convict, spy, detective, congressional candidate, adventurer, and con artist spanned the Civil...
$152.90 AUD
$152.90 AUD
SKU: 9780807182161
Product Type: Books
Please hurry! Only 0 left in stock
Author: Frank W. Garmon Jr
Format: Hardcover
Language: English
Subtotal: $152.90
10 customers are viewing this product
A Wonderful Career in Crime: Charles Cowlam's Masquerades in the Civil War Era and Gilded Age by Garmon Jr, Frank W.

A Wonderful Career in Crime: Charles Cowlam's Masquerades in the Civil War Era and Gilded Age

$152.90

A Wonderful Career in Crime: Charles Cowlam's Masquerades in the Civil War Era and Gilded Age

$152.90
Author: Frank W. Garmon Jr
Format: Hardcover
Language: English

Charles Cowlam's career as a convict, spy, detective, congressional candidate, adventurer, and con artist spanned the Civil War, Reconstruction, and Gilded Age. His life touched many of the most prominent figures of the era, including Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, and Ulysses S. Grant. One contemporary newspaper reported that Cowlam "has as many aliases as there are letters in the alphabet." He was a chameleon in a world of strangers, and scholars have overlooked him due to his elusive nature. His intrigues reveal how Americans built trust amid the transience and anonymity of the nineteenth century. The stories Cowlam told allowed him to blend in to new surroundings, where he quickly cultivated the connections needed to extract patronage from influential members of American society.

Whereas historians of capitalism have uncovered the vulnerabilities of an economic system dependent upon trust and personal relationships, Cowlam's life exposes the liabilities of a political system constructed on the same foundations. Rather than perpetrating frauds against average citizens, Cowlam reserved his most fantastic schemes for officials in the highest levels of government. He is the only person to receive presidential pardons from both Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis during the Civil War. When the fighting ended, he conned his way into serving as a detective investigating Lincoln's assassination, later parlaying that experience into positions with the Internal Revenue Service and the British government.

Reconstruction offered additional opportunities for Cowlam to repackage his identity. He convinced Ulysses S. Grant to appoint him U.S. marshal and persuaded Republicans in Florida to allow him to run for Congress. After losing the election, Cowlam moved to New York, where he became a serial bigamist and started a fake secret society inspired by the burgeoning Granger movement. When the newspapers exposed his lies, he disappeared and spent the next decade living under an assumed name. He resurfaced in Dayton, Ohio, claiming to be a Union colonel suffering from dementia in an effort to gain admittance into the National Soldiers' Home. In A Wonderful Career in Crime, Frank W. Garmon Jr. brings Cowlam's stunning machinations to light for the first time.

Author: Frank W. Garmon Jr
Publisher: LSU Press
Published: 07/23/2024
Pages: 242
Binding Type: Hardcover
ISBN: 9780807182161

About the Author
Frank W. Garmon Jr. is assistant professor of American studies at Christopher Newport University.

Returns Policy

You may return most new, unopened items within 30 days of delivery for a full refund. We'll also pay the return shipping costs if the return is a result of our error (you received an incorrect or defective item, etc.).

You should expect to receive your refund within four weeks of giving your package to the return shipper, however, in many cases you will receive a refund more quickly. This time period includes the transit time for us to receive your return from the shipper (5 to 10 business days), the time it takes us to process your return once we receive it (3 to 5 business days), and the time it takes your bank to process our refund request (5 to 10 business days).

If you need to return an item, simply login to your account, view the order using the "Complete Orders" link under the My Account menu and click the Return Item(s) button. We'll notify you via e-mail of your refund once we've received and processed the returned item.

Shipping

We can ship to virtually any address in the world. Note that there are restrictions on some products, and some products cannot be shipped to international destinations.

When you place an order, we will estimate shipping and delivery dates for you based on the availability of your items and the shipping options you choose. Depending on the shipping provider you choose, shipping date estimates may appear on the shipping quotes page.

Please also note that the shipping rates for many items we sell are weight-based. The weight of any such item can be found on its detail page. To reflect the policies of the shipping companies we use, all weights will be rounded up to the next full pound.

Related Products

Recently Viewed Products