The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-04-07
CHAPTER XIX.

The wcoing and winning Of Miss
Adele Eldridge by Captain Ledyartl
| Oal,man would form ii delightful story
of itself, but it is not our purpose to
F, dwell upon it. In due time lie found
| tho necessary pretcHt for journeying
southwark and when he presented him
| self at the hCmo of General Arthur FL
bridge he was warmly welcomed by the
! old veteran, his stepsUn, Captain Ten
holm, the latter's mother and astly by
the Young lady herself
On piece Of coed fortune was III the
hands Of the exuuion officer. He pos
! scsS2l abundant means. His southern
section, were Impoverished by the war.
Oakman could not OFFER them pecnG.ary
heir, Int he did persuade Captain Tren-
holm to join him i'll ii business venture
in which the knowledge AMI experience
of tire ex-COnfederato formed a fair
.lf~t 10 the capital Invested by Oak
man Then, too, !, valua bic iron deposit
was located on the plantation Of Gener
al F!tlrid%e, which, being developed, the
soldier, before he was aware, found him
self in comfortable circumstances. And
then the wedding followed in due
cUulse.
But several years passed before the
harry husband Cared TO tell the hal ny
wit. the secret of that first visit of his
to t"o old plantation in Georgia.
II is fact which may not be gen aral-
ly known that among the most valuable
spies in the south were numbers of
northern wGmen who went thither and
en-, aged iu teaching when it became
lear that wal would 5oon break out be-
), the sections.
his statement was made to me by
Gen, Sherman himself ana i'll my
atch Of that great Union leader l
Lave given typical incident rs it FIJI
from his lips. One Of the nest daring
and valuable female SPIES was Marian
Hartman from Fcw England As has
be II stated elsewhere she secured an
81 q a!ient AS gOvernces and cumpan-
in-i in The family Of Gcnei Al EldridGe
with tn real pUl pose OF gatherirr i'll
furualltn for the Union armies Cen
eral sherman knew her exact location,
and wien lie started on his march from
A,lp1ta to the sea and approached her
nrirhoorho1d he detached Lieutenant
Gakllan and one Of his scouts to COM
lH'nicate wlth Miss Hartman and
bring hack whatever she might lave to
scpd to him.
r'rcyIOrs to the visit of the officer,
Sam iorland. The scout, lp'r'sed her Of
the situation so that she was expecting
The visit IF the lieutenant The two
knew each Other when they met, and it
will he conceded that they played their
parts VOL. The woman was SO bitter in
her sentiments that she was rebuked by
Mrs. E.ldriuga and her daughter. She re-
fused to remain under the same roof
with the Union officer, which WAS a
convenient arrangement, since it gave
her the opportunity she needed to carry
out her farTeaching schemes. She made
her homo with Mrs. Benware and her
sister, they being the only two persons
in that section whom she trusted with
her secret. Thus located only few
miles distant, she was able to meet
Oakman now and then secretly and
maintain perfect understanding with
him.
Her well known sympathies enabled
her to gain tho confidence of several Of
the Confederate leaders, from whom she
obtained valuable information. She
proved her nerve by riding a consider
able distance to their headquarters, and
through arts intuitive with her sex she
wove together in the form Of drawings
and memoranda on the sheet of paper
that which Lieutenant Oakman declared
General Sherman would pay fortune
to obtain
The chief difficulty with the female
spy was to get the paper to the Union
commander. It was imprudent for her
to undertake its delivery, and the visit
of Oak,nan to that section, therefore,
was to secure it from her.
It will be understood that when he
was captured in the home of Mrs. Ben
ware the call was close one, not only
for himself, but for Miss Hartman.
Had the all important document been
discovered. it inevitably would have
been traced to her, despite every effort
Of the young man, and it often happens
in time of war that the sex Of spy
does not render her an immune"
The legeldemain used on that occa-
sion would have done credit to the late
Hermann. Lieutenant Oakman passed
the document to Miss Hartman, and
she, in tho most natural manner con-
ceivaba, stood just behind and at his
side, denouncing him in scathng terms.
And tho feat was accomplished under
thu cy Of the eada1 Of irregular guer-
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