Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-08-26
DECIDEDLY ROMANTIC.
a Confidence Operator is Arrested
and Tells of RIs Wonderful opera
Gfons I'm Richmond, Va. and Will
mInGton. N @.
Ne,r York Express. august 10.

Netc York Express, August 19.
At Vineland gang of coHnterfeiters
were arrested the other day. Among
those who were seooped into the police
drag net for being concerned in this
affair was Colonel Lewis J. Sherman,
one of the most celebrated confidence
operators in the country. Sherman
will be remembered as having practiced
the "boodle game" on New Jersey To-
cal preacher few years ago, when be
induced the greedy parson to part with
$3.50, the Jerseyman believing that he
was to receive in return $500 in counter
felt money, but the Colonel gave him a
neatly prepared roll of white paper with
a Confederate note on top. For thus
fooling the parson Sherman was sent to
the Eastern penitentiary for five years.
Shearman's history is romantic one.
and filled with that sort of spice OF
which dime novels are made. lie was
born in the southern section OF this city,
and while young he went to Whining
ton, N c., where he made bis home.
Here he remained for thirteen years, and
amassed considerable property. AT the
outbreak of the war he was proprietor of
the Janus Globe restaurant. and to all
intents was an honest man. He was sent
for to come to Richmond, where he went
in company with Hon. John Minor Bolts,
whom he met somewhere near the Dor
der. 1t was proposed to organize Sc
cIet society and company to aid in the
rebellion, and portion of the members
were to fire upon Fort Sumter. Against
this Sherman protested, and was joined
by DR.. Dudley, of Richmond. This bold
step came near proving fatal one, for
upon the night of the meeting, while a
party of the protesters were standing in
front of Dudley's house, on Main street,
several shots were fired. One of the bull
lets passed through Shearman's wind
pipe, but it failed to kill him. This set
tied his Unionism at any rate, and he
determined to remain loyal. When the
war began to wage Sherman came
North, and by some means secured a
Lieutenant-C olonelcy under General Eos
ter in the Sixth army corps.
He did not remain here long, but was
selected to go South as a spy. Then
those qualities for which the man was
and is yet so remarkable displayed them
selves. He has the address of a gentle
man, the GOODNESS and self-possession of
a stage villain at weekly salary, and a
cheek that would shatter the hoof of an
army mule should 1t come in contact
with it. Armed thus, Sherman started
on his perilous mission. He went direct
to Richmond, where he made the ac-
quaintance of Judah p Benjamin, then
Secretary of State of the Confederacy
and he secured passport, good inside
the Southern lines, under the name of
John A. Taylor. This passport was
signed by Mr.. Benjamin himself, and is
now in Shearman's possession. While
at the Confederate capital the daring
spy was not idle.
He must have robbed the Secretary's
Office thoroughly, for he soon paraded
the streets with pockets full of blank
passports, which he used for the purpose
of sending his agents North. Sherman
went down to Wilmington to see how
his property was faring, when he was ar
rested as being a Yankee sympathizer,
and held in Jail twenty-one days. He
was released, and then he made master
stroke in securing for our government a
survey of the harbor and approaches to
Wilmington. He made complete map
of all the Notifications, marking the tor
pedoes, chain distractions, etc. A por
ton of this map Sherman attempted to
send into the Federal lines, but the men
who carried the valuable docu.
ments were wrecked in Buzzard
bay. About this time Sherman
was sent to Jail again, and it became
a question of how many days would
elapse before his execution as a spy oc-
Cured. He bribed one of the officers of
the Jail, who allowed him to escape and
before the next night Sherman was at
sea in an open boat. Unfortunately, he
succeeded in getting much further away
from shore than he anticipated, and, be-
ing caught in storm, was carried sixty
miles to sea, where he was picked up by
the United States gunboat Monticello.
1t did not take Sherman long to make
himself known, and he displayed his
commission from the War Department,
which at once secured him kindly con-
sideration. In due time he went ashore,
sent his maps to General Grant and Gen
eral Butler, and received high praise tor
his courage and daring, his information
being very valuable just at that time to
the government. The maps were pre-
pared by the Coast Survey, and each
bore the imprint, Prepared from in-
formation furnished by L. ]. Shear
man"
At the close of the war Sherman re
turned South, and movement was made
to elect him Mayor of Wilmington, n
c., which honor he fatty refused. He
tried to regain his property, but never
succeeded. Then he retraced his steps
to Washington, and for a time was a Sc
cret service detective, serving under
Wood aud Whitley After losing his
place in the department he began the
rather precarious existence of living by
his wits. He started out as Doodle and
confidence man, and located in New
York city. While here, it is said, he
swindled John S. Morton out of So, 900
in single transaction, the ex.railway
President believing he was purchasing
counterfeit money at about 80 per cent
of its face value. Morton has denied
this story, but Sherman adheres to it,
He turned up in this city and spent five
years in the penitentiary.
The cause for the recent arrest of
Sherman was that he had been up in
Montgomery county for the ostensible
purpose of looking at farm which he
talked of purchasing, and soon after his
visit counterfeit halfdollars made their
appearance in numbers. At his daugh-
ter's residence was found satchel, con-
tanning 1925 in spurious coin, and the
key of that satchel, or one similar to it,
was found in Colonel Shearman's pocket
1t is promised that at the trial there will
be some rich developments, showing the
methods employed by those in authority
to weave a net about a person whom
they decide to put away. The trial of
Sherman and his patners will not occur