American naval hero and Confederate secret agent James Dunwoody Bulloch was widely considered the Confederacy's most dangerous man in Europe. As head of the South's covert shipbuilding and logistics program overseas during the American Civil War, Bulloch acquired a staggering 49 warships, blockade runners, and tenders; built ""invulnerable"" ocean-going ironclads; sustained Confederate logistics; financed covert operations; and acted as the mastermind behind the destruction of 130 Union ships. Ironically, this man who conspired to destroy the Union and kidnap its president later stood as the favorite uncle and mentor to another U. S. president, Theodore Roosevelt. Bulloch's astonishing life unfolds in this first-ever biography, an engaging chronicle of his rise as one of America's most admired maritime figures, his pivotal role as one of its most threatening enemies, and his transformation into America's greatest forgotten naval hero.