Secret Service is a memoir written by Albert Richardson, a reporter for the New York Tribune. During the Civil War, Richardson volunteered to go undercover in the American south to report on the secession crisis. After the war broke out, he became a war correspondent, sending dispatches from the front lines. In 1863, he was captured by the Confederates and spent the next 18 months in prison camps. After escaping, he crossed the snowy Appalachian Mountains in the dead of winter to reach Union lines. The book offers a unique perspective on the Civil War from the point of view of a journalist who was on the front lines.