A Wonderful Career in Crime: Charles Cowlam's Masquerades in the Civil War Era and Gilded Age - Hardcoverby Frank W. Garmon Jr (Author), T. Michael Parrish (Editor) Charles Cowlam's career as a convict, spy, detective, congressional candidate, adventurer, and con artist spanned the Civil War, Reconstruction, and Gilded Age. His life touched many of the most prominent figures of the era, including Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, and Ulysses S. Grant. One contemporary newspaper reported that Cowlam "has as many aliases as there are letters in the