Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-04-12

left Richmond Saturday morning before
the evacuation of that place and reached
Washington the following Monday at 4
o'clock pm. April g. 1865. AS soon as |
reached the Maryland shore I underst ood
that the detectives knew of my trip
south. and were on the lookout for me.
| had been south several times before
for the secret service. but had never
been caught. At that time I was carry
ing the dispatches Mr. BENJAMIN gave; iii
book entitled The Life of John
Brown During my trip and while read
ing that book II learned to my utter
amazement that John Brown was mar
tyr sitting at the right hand of God.
(Uproarious laughterD [ succeeded i'll
reaching Washington safely. and, in
passing up 18th street met one of our
party. who inquired what had become of
Booth. I told him where l Lad been;
| that l was then on my way TO Canada,
and that | had not seen or heard any
thing of Booth since our sepa ration. In
view of the fact that Richmond had fall
en-, and that all hopes of the abduction
| of the President had been given up,
advised him to go home and go to work.
That was the last time [ saw any of the
party. / went to a hotel and stopped
over that night. as detective had been
20 my house inquiring of the servant
my whereabouts.
In the early train next morning, Tues
day. April 1. 1865. I left for New York.
and that was the last time | ever saw
Washington until brought there by the
United States government a captive in
irons, all reports to the contrary not
withstanding.
On to Canada.
The United States as you will renleIn-
Der. tried to prove my presence in Wash
ington on the 18th of April, the day on
which Mr.. Lincoln met his death Upon
arriving i'm New York I called at Booth s
house and was told by the servant thai
he had left that morning suddenly. on the
ground of going to Boston to fulfill an en-
gagement at the theater. III the evening
OF the same day i took the cars for Mon
treal arriving there the next day. I put
up at the St. Lawrence Hotel, registering
myself John Harrison" such being
my two first names.
Shortly afterward / saw Gen. Edward
G. Lee, to whom the dispatches were di-
rected, and delivered them to him. Those
dispatches we tried to Introduce as evil
dence in my trial but his honor Judge
Fisher ruled them out. despite the fact
that the government had tried to prove
that they had relation to the conspiracy
to kill Mr.. Lincoln. They We're only ac-
counts of some money transactions-noth-
ing more or less. A week or so after
my arrival there Gen. Lee came to my
room and told me he had a plan on foot
to release the Confederate prisoners then
in Elmira, n. Y
He said he had sent many parties there.
but they always got frightened and only
half executed their orders He asked me
if I would go there and take sketch of
the prison. find out the number of pris-
oners, also minor details in regard to the
number of soldiers on guard. cannon
small arms. etc. l readily accepted these
new labors. owing to the fact that
could not return to Washington for fear
of the detectives. The news of the evac-
uation of Richmond did not seem to dis
turb the general much in his plan. as he
doubtless thought then that the Confed-
eracy wanted men more than ever no one
dreaming that 1t was virtually at an end
l was much amused at one expression