Between the Lines Part 4

I approve of the proceedings of Lieut. Smith, who has my entire confidence as an upright and skillful officer. I have referred him to the Provost Marshal for advice, instruction, and authority.

P. A. PORTER, Col. 8th N. Y. V. Arty., Commanding 2d Separate Brigade.

On the same day the application was approved at Department Headquarters.

The centre around which this recruiting and other disloyal schemes revolved was one Christian Emmerich, a fas.h.i.+onable shoemaker on South Gay Street. His place was a convenient centre for all important Confederate sympathizers. His residence was in a fas.h.i.+onable part of the city. We were entirely successful, capturing the whole party, including a conductor on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, who was caught transporting these recruits, well knowing their character. We simultaneously seized the Christian Emmerich store on South Gay Street, and his residence; in the latter we found much incriminating evidence, such as orders for Confederate uniforms, gold braid, b.u.t.tons and Confederate letters. Emmerich was not a common mender of "old soles,"

but was the shoemaker to the bon-ton of Baltimore. We entirely destroyed the Confederate recruiting business conducted through that channel.

I have a photograph of the conductor referred to, taken together with his pal or partner, who was a spy. The spy's name was Charles E.

Langley. I will tell you all about him and his mysterious backing when I come to my regular work in December, 1864, where his statement is printed.

FILE VII.

Investigator's education--I branded E. W. Andrews, adjutant general to General Morris, a traitor to the colors.

In our prison were confined prisoners of all cla.s.ses, Confederate officers, spies, blockade-runners, pirates, civil and political prisoners. Our office was the reception room where these persons interviewed their "sympathizers," much of such interviewing taking place in my presence. Their mail pa.s.sed through our hands, what better place could there have been to develop an "investigator?"

War Department, Was.h.i.+ngton, Feb. 27, 1864.

General Morris, commanding at Fort McHenry, will allow Mr. W.

G. Woodside to see Thomas I. Hall and ---- Baylor, Rebel prisoners confined there. General Morris will be present at the interview.

By order of the Secretary of War.

(Signed) C. A. DANA, a.s.st. Secy. of War.

This was endorsed:

To the Provost Marshal:

You will allow Mr. W. G. Woodside, the bearer of this, to see the prisoners mentioned within, Hall and Baylor. Lieut. Smith will be present at the interview.

(Signed) P. A. PORTER, Col. 8th N. Y. V. Arty., Commanding-Brigade.

Fort McHenry, Feb'y 28, 1864.

Baltimore, Feb'y 15, 1864.

Sir.--Will you be kind enough to deliver the joined letter to Jules Klotz, a French subject, detained at Fort McHenry. He wrote to me to direct my letters to yourself.

I should be very obliged to you to let me know the reasons why he has been arrested and his true situation towards the American government.

Very respectfully yours, (Signed) A. SAUVAN, French Vice Consul.

To Mr. SMITH, Lieutenant, Fort McHenry.

You will see by these doc.u.ments that my survey of prisoners and their letters was always by authority and not merely to gratify my own curiosity.

The Adjutant General is the confidential reliance of a commanding officer. General Morris was advanced in years and depended implicitly on his Adjutant General, Captain E. W. Andrews. I branded Andrews _a traitor to the colors_. It was a serious position for a subaltern to a.s.sume, but I had the evidence to substantiate the charge. In searching the house of one Terrence R. Quinn, a noted blockade-runner, then a prisoner in Fort McHenry, I found evidence that Andrews was a partner in his crimes. And I found that my predecessor, the former a.s.sistant Provost Marshal, was also incriminated; then it became easier for me to understand how so many prisoners had been allowed to escape (as many as sixty-five in one night). Later on I will have two more references to Andrews, which will explain what became of him.

Andrews was a man of brains. He started in life, I believe, as a minister of the gospel, then turned to law. By his suavity and impudence, he gained control of General Morris. The post was important because it carried so great a number of prisoners. Andrews had his son made Provost Marshal, and the escapes of prisoners by one means or another, were made so easily that the scandal of it had appeared in many Southern newspapers. When I finally imprisoned Andrews on General Sheridan's order, in his half intoxicated condition he admitted his Confederate sympathies.

FILE VIII.

Initial trip down Chesapeake Bay after blockade runners and contraband dealers and goods, incidentally introducing Terrence R. Quinn, George G.

Nellis, and E. W. Andrews, Jr.--A description of a storm on the Chesapeake.

My initial trip down the Chesapeake Bay after blockade-runners was made under the following order:

Headquarters, Middle Department, 8th Army Corps, Baltimore, Mch. 22, 1864.

Special Order No. 73.

2d Lieut. H. B. Smith, 5th Regt. N. Y. Artillery, is hereby ordered to proceed down the Eastern sh.o.r.e, Virginia, and arrest ---- Jacobs (citizen) and such other persons as may be found in company with him. If Lieut. Smith has reason to believe that they are engaged in the practice of smuggling or running the blockade, and seize all contraband goods in their possession.

Lieut. Smith will seize and hold the following named vessels, viz.: Schooners "Trifle," "Frances E. Burgess," "Despatch,"

"Was.h.i.+ngton," and "Glib," wherever he may find them, and will convey them to the nearest place of safety within our lines.

Lieut. Smith will a.s.sume command of the steam tug placed at his disposal by orders from this office, and having accomplished the object of this order will return to this city, and make immediate report to the Commanding General.

Lieut. Smith is permitted to use his discretion as to the disposition of the vessels named in case of emergency. By command of

Major General LEW WALLACE, (Signed) SAM'L B. LAWRENCE, a.s.st. Adj. Gen'l.

Quinn, the prisoner referred to above was out on parole and was thus able to pursue his business. He was in the habit of purchasing much of his supplies from a certain s.h.i.+p chandler on Pratt street, a friend of mine, and, in fact, a good Union man, who so concealed me in his premises that I learned much of Quinn's plans from his (Quinn's) own mouth; and this order was to enable me to develop the matters he had disclosed.

Blockade running, mail carrying and "spy" carrying, along the Potomac and Chesapeake, was carried on in such a cute manner as to necessitate a peculiar service to meet and stop it. Gunboats nor troops could baffle it; it was done in skiffs, canoes (called cunnas), small sail boats with dirty sails hardly to be seen in broad day light. These little "creepers" would run right up under the bows of gunboats unnoticed; as soon as sh.o.r.e was touched, if a plug was pulled out of the bottom of a boat it would immediately and entirely submerge itself, until wanted for use again.

The price for carrying one person across the river was fifty dollars in gold, which tempted to the business the most dare devil men on either side of the line. As to merchandise, the plan was to "work" the local storekeepers, for in the North it was perfectly legitimate to allow all the merchandise desired to go to the line just on the borders of territory patrolled by us, which might be only an hour's sail with fair wind to put it at night within the reach of the Confederates. These stores were not in villages, as was the case further north, but were isolated, very frequently on a cross road in the woods.

Oystering was a favorite cloak for blockade-runners. Sometimes vessels of little value (three hundred dollars or so) were loaded in Baltimore with goods and purposely _swamped_ on the south side of the river to allow the Confederates to confiscate. I was "on the inside" once when a Captain was offered fifteen thousand dollars to allow his vessel to be loaded and to permit its destruction when in reach of the Confederates.