By all means, you should start another thread on this.
In 1864, the confederate government authorized and funded a formal espionage operation in Canada.
Among other plans, there was the Northwest Conspiracy to start a rebellion in the North by freeing confederate prisoners of war on Johnson's Island on Ohio's Lake Erie, arming these freed officers men with weapons cached ahead of time, and then enrolling northern men who were southern sympathizers. It was much more involved that this, and only one of the several plots hatched (another was the raid on St. Albans, Vermont, especally a raid on the gold in the local bank!)