Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-03-21

one OF the Few remaining survivors OF
Walkers illbustering expedition to Mica
ragua. He was also the first chief OF the
United States secret service when it be-
came part Of the Treasury Department.
The connection Of Col. Wood with the
civil war was unique. and his relations
with President Lincoln and Secretary STAN
ton were absolutely confidential.
His life was actively sought more than a
dozen times: one man crossed the ocean to
assaSsinate him: the confederates were de-
termined to capture and hang him. and
dozens. perhaps scores, OF times he escaped
from apparently inextricable dangers by
his extraordinary nerve, adroitness and
audacity, coupled with prodigious physical
strength and activity.
Life a Continuous Melodrama.
Col. Woods life was continuous meIo-
drama, bordering on the tragic. He was
born in Alexandra, Va. March IL. 1920.
His father was an engraver and die sinker,
and Wood became one Of the most expert
model makers die sinkers and mechanics
in the country.
When the Mexican war broke out he en-
listed in the mounted rifles of Gen. Sam.
H. Walker, the noted Texan ranger, whose
command soon became the Sd Regular
Cavalry, in which Wood was the daredevil
leader of the famous Company c. Serving
out Ibis time, he returned to Washington
and married Harriet Smith of Cumberland,
Md, by whom he reared a large family.
He had receded from the Catholic Church.
In which he was born and baptized, and
was a conspicuous leader in the Know
nothing. which was a mo popery," party.
He likewise was active conductor on
the underground railroad, and aided hum
dreds Of runaway slaves to escape safely
to Canada and New England.
Wood drilled men to take part in John
Browns raid at Harper's Ferry, in 1859.
Having In the Mexican war and elsewhere
become proficient in military matters he
tactics gotten out for the instruction of the
abolitionists who were to Join Brown in all
parts Of the country to wipe out slavery.
Admonished John Brown.
Wood would have had charge of the en-
terprise, but objected to crossing state lines
under arms. Unable to convince Brown
that the methods he wished to Dur.
sue would lead him to the halter il he
failed, as he was sure to do. Wood and his
men remained out Of the Harper's Ferry
raid and quietly disbanded after Browns
defeat and his death on the scaffoad.
When Edwin NJ Stanton became Secretary
of War he appointed Wood to be superin-
tendent Of the military prisons Of the Dis
trct Of Columbia, and concentrated the So
called state prisoners and all Others in the
Old Capitol prison. near the Capitol to
which was soon added. for females and citi-
zens, the Carroll buildings, called the Car
roll prison.
Into these structures Wood sent Spies
blockade runners. carriers Of contraband
dispatches. foreign officers armed with pass
ports who were caught serving the confed-
eracy, leaders Of the Knights of the Golden
Circle. opponents Of the draft, ETC., and to
him, too. came all the captured mail of the
locality to be deciphered and, IL important,
turned over to the proper officers Of the War
Department.
Prisoner Liked Him.
While maintaining strict, almost tyran-
meal discipline, the prisoners liked and re-
spected Wood. frequently adopting resolu-
tions to give expression to their feelings to-
ward him.
Probably Col. Woods most daring feat
was making repeated personal visits
to every militry prison in the south
Sometimes he effected an entrance
as agent of the federal government;
frequently he entered in the dis
guise of confederate soldier and
a few times he got in by permitting HIM
self to be taken prisoner: In several in
stances he procured the statements Of in
mates as to prison conditions. written out
by stenographers in the presence of the
officials in charge. for the information Of
Lincoln and Stanton.
When charges of starvation and cruelty
to Union captives In confederate prisons
were most numerous and persistent and the
supplies sent to the incarcerated Union
soldiers from the north were intercepted
and eaten by the hungry confederates,
Wood. disguised as a North Caro-
lima volunteer secured entrance to Sails
bury Castle Thunder and other prisons and
distributed nearly quarter OF a million
dollars in confederate money, with which
the boys were able to purchase enough
food and clothing to ease and prolong II
not save, life
Capturing Counterfeiters.
Among his other numerous and hazard
Gus duties. Wood was charged by the
Treasury Department with capturing coun-
terfeiters, defrauders of the revenue,
bounty-jumpers and persons violating gov
eminent contracts for supplies.
When Lincoln was asSassinated Wood
was in Cincinnati searching for counter
feiters. telegram from Stanton brought
him i'm haste to Washington, where he was
first to learn positively that the assassin
was John Wilkes Booth. He secured from