The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1865-02-16

/, they are accordingly sent on board the
: receiving ship North Carolina. But, q
i few hours later, Mr. John Devlin, who
seems to have been one of those most ex-
extensively engaged in the forge
ries, goes to the Office where these men
were enlisted, and through his confeder-
ate. the Chief Clerk, or his assistant Tur-
nier, obtains access to the register, and
makes memorandum Of the twenty new
ly registered names, with the particulars
attending their enlistment. Then, re-
turning to his own Office, he deliberately,
with the assistance of few others con-
cerned, makes twenty duplicate enlistment
papers, forges the respective names at the
bottom, signs his own, afixes his notary
seal and stamp, and the patriotic labor is
half completed. The next act is to forge
the receipts for the bounty money, which
the brokers are accustomed to take to pre-
!, sent for the bounty or bounties due there
on. Upon presenting these, it is neces-
sary that they should have accomplices in
the men who tell out the money The
forged signature of the United States re-
cruiting officer on board the receiving
ship, are ample evidence that the men have
been received; the fact the that names
of the recruits are identical with those
upon which the money has been already
paid, on ship-board or elsewhere, is not
known at the Office in question, and the
greenbacks are forthcoming.
| Eulisting into the army is a more sim
pie thing There is hardly recruiting
Office in the city which is not haunted by
brokers, with their experienced jumpers
some of whom have been through the
sham enlistment process upward of twen
ty times, and few of these fellows, if they
are adopts, will ever get SO near actual
service as peaceful Governors Island, af-
ter they have clutched the bounty and
divided it, according to the customary
rates, among their associates.
Once on the Island, if they ever get
that far, "a hours seldom elapses before
they return to the city, by system of
bribery equally ingenious But it must
be understood that this part of the pro-
gramme is distinct branch of the fine
art of bounty jumping.
Carron, whose name we have mention
ed as one of those now in custody, opera
ted In this line exclusively. His business
was not to get the men into the service,
but to get them out. The friends, or
broker Of an enlisted man offers Carron
say two hundred dollars to get their man
off the island He Immediately commu-
nicatcs with Sergeant Mulhorn, Brown or
Kceckan, pays the fee of fifty dollars, and
the Sergeant, as he has power to do, OBJ
obtaining a pass from the cemmandant,
and passes the jumper to the shore, where
perhaps the broker is, waiting for him, in
order to push him through another re-
cruiting Office.
Col. Baker has thoroughly tested the
whole affair by personal experience. Ac-
ting under his directions, his three sub
ordinates have repeatedly enlisted at diff
ferent Offices in this city, and regained
their liberty before evening of the same
day on which they enlisted. The Colonel
also tried it personally, and, through the
medium of money, had no difficulty in
obtaing their release One of his assist
ants enlisted in this city on the morning
of one day, got away at noon, with pleth-
oric pocket books, went to Trenton, n
j., enlisted again, got another bounty
and returned to New York by evening ol
the same day.
: FILLING QUOTAS WITHOUT MEN.
But probably the most startling feature
of the whole affair is the wholesale filling
Of town and county quotas by forged re
turns. Not long after his arrival in the
city, and having taken up his headquar
, ters at the Astor House, Col. Baker com
J municated with James Devlin, saying
: that he was an agent of a town in re
mote part of the State, and stating his de
sire to obtain enlistment papers to answer
for the quota Of the place. Upon being
asked what he could afford to pay, he sai'
that he would give $500 for each recruit
! or for each set of papers representing one
! The bargain was struck, the number o
;, recruits stated, and two thousand dollar
= Handed as a first installment to the bro
:, kers. They thereupon departed, and il
= due time returned with the necessar.
, number OF bogus documents, having work
;, ed many hours in preparing them. The
: received their money! large sum, be
i tween ten and twenty thousand dollars
;, and began to congratulate the ps@edo
q gent upon his new "recruits" before the
discovered that they were in snare.
The Colonel Immediately arrested then
confronted them with the many sigma
ar lures, which he proved to have bee
k written by their own hands and by thos
ID of their associates in crime and won COZ
= fession from them in regard to their pa
hit operations. Others were implicated, an
is one after another, the ringleaders wei
er captured, but SO silently and skillful
ut that sheif manner of exit from their a
lie cnstorned haunts was complete myster
ed to their numerous confederates who =
I'd mained at large. No arrests were mac
as without abundant proof being first cole
a ted, in the shape Of forged document
or and, as an instance of the wonderful S