The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-03-23
OLD BALTIMoRE FAMILIES.
RecolIections of Harry Gilmore and Other
Noted Confederates-A Fecund State for

city, who was once Baltimore politician,
and chief of staff of the rebel General Jen-
kins he told me to-day queer incident
about Harry Gilmore. Gilmore was the
Mosby of Maryland State which produced
a good many irregular soldiery and free
hooters like Semmes and the French Lady
and Booth. Harry Gilmore was giant
physically, and he put himself at the head
of a small command of partisans. or guer-
fillas and frequently raided into Maryland
on one occasion capturing Major-general
Franklin between Havre de Grace and
Baltimore. The rebel cavalry were SO tired
however that they fell fast asleep, and
franklin escaped during the night.
Quincy says that Gilmore was popular
man, with abundant friends and good i'm
, pulses, but that he had strong propensity
for liquor, which kept him poor. On one
occasion some social institution in Baltimore
picked up Gilmore, reformed him, and for a
year or two he did not drink drop. He told
Major Quincy that on one occasion he came
over to stay in New York, and getting in at an
early hour, he went to his hotel, and felt an
irresistible inclination to have a cocktail. His
conscience and resolution struggled with him
hard; still he was on the point of yielding
1t seemed to him that he would give the en-
tire city for that one drink Knowing the eff
feet of the first drop upon his temperament
he felt an agony of pain and remorse come
upon him anticipatively Finally he rushed
to his room, and fell on his knees at a chair,
and began to pray, strong and long, that the
Lord would take out of his mouth that in
tense thirst and out of his mind its insane
waywardness. There knelt man who had
been one of the toughest soldiers in the
world, some said a rebel who had killed
mum bers of men standing eye to eve, and
whose tremendous feats of strength equaled
the knightly performances of chivalry Yet
he was as weak as a woman under the pro-
pensity to drink. In the midst of his prayer
it suddenly came to him that the temptation
was over, and he took off his clothes and
went to bed instead of going to the bar-room,
and had a refreshing sleep of about three
hours, and when he got up again he had no
! disposition for liquor,
He was police commissioner awhile at
Baltimore. but it is said that the best he
could make there afterward was $4,000 to
So, 900 year in the insurance business The
book he published OF a great many hair
breadth escapes and feats of proves is
generally considered by his friends to be
harmless Munchausenism. He was one of
the most determined enemies of the Balti-
more & Ohio railroad during the war, and
was constantly burning its bridges, stopping
its trains. robbing the passengers, etc. His
men were accused on several occasions of
having stolen watches, purses and articles of
jewelry from civilians on the railroad.
General Sheridan called Gilmore the last
link that bound Maryland to the Confed-
eracy, and at the proper time he was cut all
to pieces, and brough into his own town
prisoner. There was a dashing way about
him, and when he saw Fred Douglass, who
was native of the Eastern shore of Mary
land several years after the war; he set an
example to more sullen rebels, by rising up
and saying: "Mr. Douglass, shake hands
over the bloody chasm."
I apprehend that the native Marylanders
who went into the Confederate service were
in the MAN, very unfortunate in subsequent
life. Most of the men who were concerned
ia
driven ont of the State, and led precarious
lives around Canada. number of them
were engaged in such operations as the st.
Adams raid, the Selling of steamers on the
lake and the running off of American rail
4 road trains Martin, who was one of the
parties in the capture OF the steamer ST.
Nicholas, at Point Lookout, and who had
been prosperous wine and liquor merchant
in Baltimore settled as a broker in Montreal,
and then went into the blockade-runnlng
business 1t is believed that he was blown
up bv his partner, Keith afterward known
as the scoundrel Thomassen, who was killed
by a premature explosion of an internal ma
chine on the Bremen steamer. 1t was told
to me by the late Marshal Kane that Martin
was put on a vessel to run the blockade,
heavily insured, and Keith was careful to
get the evidence of her sailing, and she was
never heard of again.
1t was this Martin who gave John Wilkes
Booth letters of introduction to the people
of Lower Maryland, from among whom he
came, and Booth proceeded by the aid of
those letters to organize the scheme to cap
ture Mr.. Lincoln. One of the first men he
met was the late DIR. Mudd, and he soon
after found Surratt, Atzerodt and Herold
Two other men he got in Baltimor5 among
his old schoomates. Another-PoweN or
Payne-was sent to him from Canada by the
rebel agents there. He tried to get two or
three actors to go in with him, one of whom,
by the name of Chester, Is still alive, and he
was used by the government as witness.
During the war General Crook, West
Pointer from Ohio, was captured with Cen
eral Kelly at Daeys Hotel Cumberland
by portion of McNeilPs rebel rangers, led
by Jim Daley, the landlords son. The uugal-
lant feature OF this surprise was the fact that
Crook was at the time counting Daileys sis
ter, the daughter OF the Inn-keeper, whom
he afterward married. After the war Crook
made this young fellow his sutler in Arizona
and the West, but think he had but little
thrift. He finally died among the very
scenes OF his youth, where he had burned
bridges during the war.
The Quantrell family originated in the
neighborhood of Hagerstown, Md, though
QuantTell himself was born in Ohio, about
Canal Dover. He was, however of Scotch
Irish stock on his fathers side the name
being spelled in Belfast Cantrell. On his
mothers side Quantrell was of Pennsylvania
Dutch stock.
Raphael SemmeS, VINO committed so much
destruction during the war to so little gen.
i eral purpose in assisting the fortunes of the
? Confederacy. was one of the old Mary land
Catholic stock. and had been before the war
one of the Commissioners OF the Navy. Mafit,
the other rebel privateer, though Mailing
from the further South, had an intimate con-
nection with Maryland, where his father had
been great revival preacher, and was in
volved in number of domestic scandals.
Marshal Kane, who commanded the police
at the time OF the Baltimore riots OF 1861,
died not long ago in but moderate circum-
stances. He always professed to me to have
been a lover of the Union. He told ME that
be was on the retreat of the rebel govern
ment from Richmond to North Caro-
Tina, and, being taken with brain