PRYCE LEWIS WAS a Welshman, born in Wales to Welsh parents. Yet Britain in the mid-nineteenth century was a country indifferent to racial distinction, and Lewis was happy to call himself an Englishman (by which he meant Briton) regardless of whether he was playing a role in his work as a Civil War spy or discussing his background. Allan Pinkerton also described Lewis as an Englishman, even though he, a Scot, would have been aware of the difference. As Lewis is described in contemporary newspapers and military communiqués as “an Englishman,” I refer to him throughout the book as an Englishman and not a Welshman. This is for the sake of clarity, not because I want to receive sacks of letters from Welsh nationalists accusing me of being a narrow-minded Englishman!