Modern Day Intel Analysis (from Union perspective) of 150 years ago in the Civil War.

[Poorlaggedman]

Here's the link explaining it:
http://www.dia.mil/News/Articles/tabid/3092/Article/9905/a-modern-look-at-history-intelligence-analysis-of-the-civil-war-1864-valley-cam.aspx

And here's the analysis. Pretty interesting:
http://www.dia.mil/Portals/27/Documents/News/Civil_War_Defense_Intelligence_Monocacy.pdf

[Jagger2013]

Good reading. So who was the foreign liason staff with the Army of Northern Virginia that was sending intelligence reports to the Union?

[Gray Fox]

Clausewitz wrote that when a commander uses a flanking movement to win a battle, it is often seen as an act of genius. It is not genius because he used a flanking movement, which is a basic tactic that even a junior officer would know. It is genius that a commander can ignore the hundreds of distractions in battle and focus on what exactly must be done to achieve victory. Grant had one mission, to end the war. He was correctly focused on achieving that goal to the exclusion of any distraction. If Lee wanted to take Washington and affect the election so as to secure the safety of the Confederacy, then Early would have opposed Grant and Lee would have assaulted D.C. with his army. Grant was unable to penetrate Lee's defenses that were no more than a line of trenches. Washington was the most fortified city in the world at the time. The very idea that 10k Union soldiers couldn't defend it from 20k Confederates is ridiculous. When Grant had marched on Vicksburg, Shelby outflanked him and burned up the equivalent of $100 million in today's money worth of Union supplies. Grant was forced to postpone his assault. He was not going to postpone the assault on Richmond because the Administration got their underwear soiled. This wasn't a failure of intelligence that might have lost the war. Grant knew that it was just another distraction.

[Le Ricain]

Good reading. So who was the foreign liason staff with the Army of Northern Virginia that was sending intelligence reports to the Union?

It could have been only one person: Colonel (CSA) Harry Paget Flashman, VC

[fusileer2002]

It could have been only one person: Colonel (CSA) Harry Paget Flashman, VC

That blasted Flashy gets everywhere!