The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-06-14

" Morgan, with 1000 men, came with
in mile of here and took the old
Frankfort road, for Frankfort, as we
This is reliable
IN about ten minutes Lexington
again called Frankfort and I answered
the cali 1t was our old friend, Cen
eTal Ward. talking to General Finnell.
He repeated to his subordinate my
bogus dispatch about Morgan and his
1000 men, on the way to Frankfort.
and said it was reliable, hence the reg
irnent ordered from Frankfort to Mid
way in his first dispatch had better be
recalled. / receipted for this message
in the name of Frankfort and manu-
featured a message to confirm the
original false news sent to General
Ward. l then waited till the circuit
was occupied and broke in excitedly.
telling those at the keys that / must
have the wires and called Lexington.
Lexington answered with as much
spirit as l called, and 1 said:
Tell General Ward our pickets just
driven in. Great excitement. Pickets
say force of the enemy must be 20O0
'FRANKFORT.'
Morgan had decided to De off at
once for Georgetown. I ran a secret
ground connection and opened the cir
cult on the Lexington end. This was
a hint to Lexington that the Frank
fort operator had skedaddled or that
Morgan had destroyed the wires We
galloped on to Georgetown. / went at
once to the telegraph office and found
the operator with his instrument re-
moved. He said that the wires were
down and that he had sent them to
Lexington. l Immediately tested the
line by applying my tongue to the
xr-irn nd G.1
guard [ turned the operator over to
their mercy. Then 1 put in my instru-
ment and after listening to the Yam
KEGS talking their secrets for an hour
or two, | broke in the conversation,
signing myself Federal operator, as
l had done before, with success. The
game was becoming fascinating. All
the dispatches of Importance taken off
by men or sent out, were copied tn
duplicate for my own and General
Morgans files and ! can quote them
in full l first opened on Lexington,
and said to the operator:
Keep mum. / am in the Office
reading by the sound of my magnet, in
the dark. 1 crawled in when no one
saw me. Morgan's men are here
GEORGETOWN.
"Then Georgetown and Lexington
talked until Cincinnati broke in
To Georgetown: Keep cool; don't be
discovered. About how many of Nor
gan's men are there?
LEXINGTON.
To Lexington: l don't know. l did
not notice, as Morgan's operator was
asking me about my Instruments |
told him had sent them to Lexington.
He said On the luck, and went out.
GEORGETOWN.
To Georgetown: Be on hand and keep
us posted.
LEXINGTON.
To Lexington: will do SO. Tell Gen
eral Ward 1 will stay up all night if
he wishes. GEORGETOWN
Cincinnati then took the circuit and
asked if there were amy Confederates
at Georgetown. l answered:
Yes, Morgan is here
GEORGETOWN.
How can you be in the Office and not
be arrested?' CINCINNATI.
oh, 1 am in the dark, reading by
sound of the magnet.
GEORGETOWN.'
Question after question was asked
me and I answered to suit myself. FL
nally Lexington asked me where my as
SiStant was. Don't know l replied.
He asked, Have you seen him today?'
l answered, No Well from that mo-
ment on 1 could do no telegraphing in
the beautiful city of Georgetown, a
fact that CALLED my professional dig
nifty. As a means of getting even with
the fraternity, who evidently had de-
tected me, 1 sent out an order to the
operators on the line, word for w0l :,
as follows:
General Orders,
No. /.
Headquarters Telegraph Dept, Ken
lucky, c. S. A.
Georgetown. KY, July 18th, 1862.
When an operator is positively in
formed that the enemy is positively
marching on his station he will imme-
diately proceed to destroy the tele-
graph instruments and all material in
his charge. Such instances of careless
ness, as exhibited on the part of the
operators at Labanon, Midway and
Georgetown will be severely dealt with.
G.. A. ELLSWORTH.
General Military Superintendent c.
S. Telegraph.
Before sending this dispatch 1 had
raked the Georgetown instruments out
from under a bed in q. little room adj
joining the station. AT Cynthiana ana
Paris / found the wires out of order
and could do nothing. At Crab Orchard
where there was no telegraph Office, [
put my pocket magnet on at once and
took off message from General Boyle
at Louisville to Colonel Woolford, Dan
vile. Boyle said to Colonel Woolford:
Pursue Morgan, He is at Crab Or
chard going to Somerset
No sooner had the DanVille operator
=
Lebanon made a suggestion for the re-
peating office at Lebanon Junction to
send over the line. He said:
Would it not be well for Danville
and offices below here to put on their
ground wires when they receive or
send important messages, as Ellsworth.
Morgan's operator, may be on the line?'
The idea was agreed to- but Morgan
had no further use for the stolen
through messages. We made our last
halt that evening at Somerset. i soon
got the Office in working order and the
operator at Stanford called He asked
If there were any signs of Morgan at
Somerset and ] answered, signing the
| name Somerset that there were nc
signs of him. The operator then gave
me word of caution about Morgan
and l took the chance to ask when
| Colonel Woolford's force would be al
| Crab Orchard, as ordered by General
Boyle in the message 1 took off at Graz
| Orchard that morning. He said that
! Woolford had wired to Boyle that his
| force was not able to cope with Nor
gan. Morgan then prepared and l sent
out messages purporting to come from
| General Boyle countermanding all or.
| ders given for our pursuit.
| AS we were about closing cur opera.
tons to start on a long ride homeward
| for Tennessee, 1 concluded to take q
nights rest and told the Stanford oper-
ator that was going 20 bed but had