The obscurity of George Sharpe’s BMI not only brought about the first official all source intelligence gathering organization in United States military history but it also didn’t initially leave behind too many external details. Sharpe himself was humble when it came to boasting about his or his men’s exploits, compared to many others from the time. It was only near the very end of his life that he was convinced to put together his memoirs but alas death hid away all of the details he knew. Fortunately there have been enough written records discovered from various sources within the BMI and many saved correspondences to shed enough light into its operations.

Below are our must reads on the original BMI and the scouts and spies that operated through it during the war. Each can be found on various sites online. The first, “Major General George H Sharpe and the Creation of American Military Intelligence in the Civil War” by Peter G Tsouras, is what we call the “bible” for any initial research on George Sharpe and the BMI.