The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1898-08-31
SOLDIERS BUDGET.
A Plucky Spy.

Early in the winter of 1S63-6i a Gu
rious thing happened in the secret SER
vice in the war department. Some
time in the February or March before
a slender and prepossessing young fell
low, between twenty-five and twenty
six, apparently, had applied to the war
department for employment as a sly
within the Confederate lines.
The main body of the Army of
Northern Virginia was then lying at
Gordonville, and the headquarters Of
the Army of the Potomac were at Gull
pepper court house. General Grant
had not yet come from the West to
take command of the momentous cam
paign which finally opened with his
movement into the Wilderness on the
fourth of May.
The young man who sought this ter
rible service was well dressed and intel
ligent, and professed to be animated by
motives purely patriotic. He was a
clerk in one of the departments. ALI
that he asked was that he should have
, horse and an order which would
carry him safely through the Federal
| lines; and, in return, he undertook to
bring information from General Lees
army and from the government of the
Confederacy in Richmond. He under
stood perfectly well the perilous nature
of the enterprise he proposed.
Finding that the applicant bore a
good character in the Office where he
was employed, it was determined to
accept his proposal. He was furnished
with horse, an order that would pass
him through the Union lines, and,
also, l believe, with moderate sum of
money; and then he departed. Two
or three weeks later he reported at the
war department. He had been in
Gordonsville and Richmond; had Oh
tanned the confidence of the Confeder-
ate authorities, and was the bearer Of a
letter from Mr.. Jefferson Davis to Mr..
Clement G. Clay, the agent or the Con-
federate government in Canada, then
known to be stationed at st. Catharines
not far from Niagara Falls. Mr.. Clay
had as his official associate Jacob
Thompson of Mississippi, who had
been secretary of the interior in the
cabinet of President Buchanan, and
like Mr.. Clay, had been serving the
Confederate government ever since its
organization. The letter from Mr.. DG-
Wis the young man exhibited, but only
the outside of the envelope was exam
ined. The address was in the hand
writing of the Confederate chief, and
the statement Of our young adventurer
that it was merely a letter of recon-
mendation, advising Messrs. Clay and
Thompson that they might repose con-
fidepce in the bearer, since be was ar
IDENTIFY devoted to the Confederate
cause and anxious to serve the great
purpose that it had in view, appeared
entirely probable; and the young man
was allowed to proceed TO Niagara
Falls and Canada. He made some gen
eral report upon the condition of the
rebel army at Gordonsvllle, but it was
of no particular value except that, in
its more interesting features, it agreed
with our information from other
sources.
He was not long in returning from
St. Catharines with a dispatch which
was also allowed to pass unopened,
upon his assurance that it contained
nothing of importance. In this way
he went back and forward from Rich
mond to St. Catharines once or twice.
We supplied him with money to linn
tied extent, and also with one or two
horses. He said that he got some
money from the Confederates, but had
not thought it prudent to accept from
them anything more than very small
sums, since his professed zeal for the
Confederate cause forbade his receiv-
ing any thing for his travelling expenses
beyond what was absolutely necessary.
During the summer Of 1864 the &C.
tivity of Grants campaign and tie
fighting which prevailed all along the
line somewhat impeded our young
mans expeditions, but did not stop
them. All his subsequent dispatches,
whether coming from Richmond or
from Canada, were regularly brought
10 the War Department and were open
ed, and, in every case, copy of them
was kept. AS it was ne cessary to break
the seals and destroy the envelopes in
opening them, there was some diff.
Guilty in sending them forward in what
should appear to be the original wrap
pers. Coming from Canada, the paper
employed was English, and there was
a good deal of trouble in procuring pa
per of the same appearance. lremem-
Der, also, that one important despatch,
which was sealed with Mr.. Clay's seal,
had to be delayed somewhat while we
had an imitation seal engraved. But
these delays were easily accounted fol-
at Richmond by the pretence that they
had been caused by accidents upon the
road and by the necessity of avoiding
the Federal pickets. At any rate, the
confidence of the Confederates in oul
agent (and theirs) never seemed TO be
shaken by any of these occurrences.
Finally our despatch bearer reported
one day at the War Department with q
document which, he said, was of ex
traordinary conse quence. 1t was founC
to contain an account of scheme fol
setting fire to New York and Chicago
by means of clock-work machines thai
were to be placed in several of the
large hotels and places of amusement
particularly in Barnum's Museum in
New York, aid to be set eff simultane
ously, so that the fire department in
each place would be unable to attend tC