The National tribune., 1888-04-05
One dav to nv disgust as well as personal dis

comfort, COl. w OOuS br0ugnb gentleman 10 my
door, whom he introduced fellOw-rebel who !
would be compelled to share my room with me for /
awhile as he explained. because they were get
ting little crowded. The party introduced to |
me l recognized at once; that is, l remembered /
seeing his face somewhere, but couldn't exactly /
place him And when Col. Woods in a little |
further chat intimated that my associate would |
no doubt be a boon companion, as he was an !
original rebel, he left Us alone.
My new room mate was a man Of 30 or 40 |
years with face that ! should now denomi- |
nate rs hard. He was pleasant; indeed, his /
manner was made especially agreeable to me. I
The story he told me of the cause of his i'm !
prisonment served to satisfy me for the time !
being that had been in error in having sup |
posed that had ever seen him before,
He said he was arrested for having been inn |
plcated in an attempt TO recapture and return |
to Virginia some fugitive slave whom he had |
caught in the District of Columbia. He gave
me a long account Of the law as it then existed !
which, by the way is the fact, that in 1862 !
there was n fugitive slave law in the District !
will take only few lines to insert right
here as probably pertaining to this imprison- |
ment rs well rs to other troubles which befell
me. / had been through the South so much
and knew its people so well that had always
insisted from the beginning of the war that the
North would never succeed while fighting to
further ensave the negroes; it was the boyish
freshness, or, rs we say nowadays the too pre-
! like this that served to keep me in hot water
all the time. Another falacy in which in
dulged too openly during these war times was
! in the frequent quotation of a few familiar
/ words only of the Declaration of Independence,
/ which about comprised my knowledge OF the
! great State paper at the time; they were, 'AlI
/ governments rest upon the consent of the gov
/ erned."
! l had heard this repeated so much in the
! South that the words clung to me; and this,
with my habit of frequently injecting the same
/ sentence into the constant talk then so general
/ on the causes and rights of the South in the
/ war, served to surround me- in connection with
my Southern residence and unexplained trips
/ South, with a certain aroma of secession. 1t so
/ happened, too, that there were a set of fellows
| among my early associates who always seemed
/ TO hear my cheap talk and remembered every
/ word of it, but invariably lost sight of the in
/ disputable record ] had made as a Government
man at the risk Of an ignominous death by
| committing at Fort Pickens one among the
first if not the very first overt act of the war
after the fall Of Sumter. This note l have
mentioned as in part accounting for my arrest
and Imprisonment in Old Capitol Prison
As soon as my two partners in distress heard
Of this associate having been thrust upon us,
and dropped into our exclusive mess to become
4 our company, their suspicious were aroused.
The Euglishmau declared that the object of
putting this person III among US was to ascer-
tain what we had been SO thick about lately /
confess this had not once occurred to me. l
was simply annoyed at being obliged to be in
the constant company Of another person IN my
cramped little ballroom not that he was at
all disagreeabIe personally, but probably be-
cause we three had become rather exclusive
and wanted to select our company. II is likely
enough that we would have resented any per-
sons society from outside just then.
When the others expressed their conviction
H vygC a ia rgB my
seemed to have become opened, as l recalled
again my first impression, that had certainly
seen the man before When | mentioned this
fact TO Miss Boyd, she at once jumped to the
conclusion that he was a spy on US, which
opinion was shared by the EngishInan most
decidedly, who gave Us our orders, as our COM
mander, to be on the qui viye FOR him.
With this belief fully settled in our minds,
it was thought best that we should treat him
with the greatest possible coolness, but Of
course with decguCy. Indeed, our EHglishmau
was so exceedingly polite and gracious to the
newcomer and his assumed airs and comic ac-
| tons were SO amusing TO Miss Boyd and myself
that we could scarcely keep up our show Of
dignity. Miss Boyd performed the chilling
process, and she acted the part so well that the
poor man was frozen onto me, as the only one
TO whom he could talk sensibly. / talked lots
TO him when we were alone The opinions,
the very decided opinions he got from me on
employers would have made things more in
terestHg for him and ne, too
When / became satisfied, or thought I was,
and imagined that | had for my mate or
companion Pinkerton man, who had been pur-
p0sely sent in there by some of the War De
partment officials to manufacture testimony
against US, We all took the greatest delight in
filing him up.
The first night when alone talked him to
sleep. ! told him all my grievances, at least
that part that / wanted the War Office 10 hear
officially. / was careful to only tell one story
correctly, and that was the exact character and
object of the Englishman's business in this
country. l saw that my listener was interest
ed in it from his involuntary actions and ques-
tioning; so that l gave him the full details
2 for a purpose, / knew, or suspected very
strongly, that he would make report Of it to
2 the Secretary, and !, though victim Of the
PiukertOn clique, was willing that they, as de-
tectives, should have the credit Of uneartbing
5 that story.
Ny only object and desire was to defeat the
Eugiishman's purpose and TO benefit this Gov
, ernment, whose officials were prosecuting me,
when ] knew that / was entitled to a reward.
. We made him sick / think at least the fol-
S lowing day he complained Of being unweIl and
z under this pretense he was allowed to 90 osten-
sibly % the hospital, which was located "a an
other part Of the building.
? His name was Horton or Norton. I have for
gotten which. / learned IN couple OF weeks
! following that he was the detective we had sus-
:, pectod him Of being When / mentioned to
t my brother that ] had seen him before, he told
t me that I had probably met him in Eckert's
J. telegraph room at the War Office, where he had
o been specially employed.
o There we're incidents and stories and secret
q histories, which 1 heard from the actual actors
e or participants ia that old prison during the
IT three weeks Of my incarceration that would
d make most interesting reading. 1t will be re
e membered Old Capitol Prison contained the
'- cream Of the cOnspiratOr5 who Lad been capt
e ured while operating in the North. / saw auC
n talked with many Of these people during those
c three weeks Of August and September, 1862
r but as / am a&mOnished that my story is be
rs coming tedious, shall get down to the facts il
e my own eXperince.
d Oar trio Of supposed consprators, after hay
ing got rid Of the PinkcrtOn detective, which
n by tic way, was my own private work in th,
n interest Of the United States Government a
IS against the Engiishmans scheme, who sup
i posed all the time ! was his most Teiab
v friend, we set about with renewed energy &
N put into operation the plan we had now abou
q matuTed for my escape.
v If you could have seen the enthusiasm witt
" which Miss Belle Boyd entered into th
preparations for this scheme-pretty much j.