The Press., 1915-03-31
Secret Dispatches How They Were Obtained For President LincOln's
 Inspection
By Captain F. A. MITCHELL


 In acknowledging myself to have been a professional secret service man sympathy of those who love the TO- nance of war. But war is not TO- nance; it is what General Sherman described it. The soldier is paid for
 standing up to be shot. The paid spy is as necessary to an army as the sol dier. Indeed, he may be of more bene- | fit to a commander than an army During the big north and south strug- l gle Allan PinkertOn established se- | cret service bureau in Washington. l | was living there at the time. the oldest 1 of a family of five children. orphans, | who were dependent on me for sup l port. l was nineteen; the next in or | der of birth was a girl of fifteen; the /! next a boy of thirteen, and so on down to the youngest, a boy of six. My fa- | ther died several years before the war broke out and left my mother to do the | best she could in feeding and clothing | us. I, being the oldest, soon became her main reliance, and when in 1862 | she died I fell heir to the problem of providing for the family necessities. I had lived till 1 was twelve years old in Richmond, and my natural dia- | lcct was southern. My sympathies l were neither with the south nor the north. It occurred to me that was in l position to earn money by going south and bringing back information R0. Al, of Allan Pinkerton's secret service bu- reau, and one day went in there and | had a talk with him. He was at the time furnishing spies for President Lincoln and listened attentively to all I said. When I had finished he sug- gested that I would likely have more success playing the part of girl than | man.
 His reason for this was that I had feminine face at that time. no beard and spoke with soft voice that would be called contralto in woman He questioned me good while to assure himself that I could be relied on to serve the Union side, and, although I confessed to him that had no prefer ence for either cause, 1 won his con idence simply by promising to stand by the interests of the federal govern ment.
 He sent me to President Lincoln, with whom I had private interview. The time was the summer of 1862. when the Federal armies in the west had little or nothing to oppose them, and had competent leaders then been in command the war could have been ended within very short period. Mir. Lincoln wished me to go to Richmond to investigate the feeling at the capi- tai of those in power, to learn whether l it was an advantageous time to offer terms for peace. If I came back with l the desired information I was to re- ceive very large sum of money. A sum sufficient to take care of my | brothers and sisters during my absence was given me, and I was promised a pension for them in case I was taken ! and hanged. My sister NIargie, though four years younger than l, was nearly my height and weight, and. having accepted MT. Pinkerton's suggestion to dress as a girl, used her clothes. With MT. Lin- colns pass made out for Miss Alice Hunter, 1 had no difficulty in getting out of the Federal lines. I was ad-
 mitted into the Confederate lines read fly because it was much easier to pass into Confederate territory than to emerge from it. When I reached Rich mond sought boarding house. where I settled myself to remain long enough to accomplish my mission.
 This was early in July. when the va cation period for schools had come. and in New York when the war broke out and preferred to remain another year in order to finish my course at north ern school. But 1 was very chary about making definite statements Mr Pinkerton had told me that Confed- crate spies were constantly passing be- tween Washington and Richmond and their number was legion. Realizing that I would be in more danger from them than any one else, l was suspi cious of all persons whose connections and occupations were not accounted | for
 I talked with a good many persons about the gloomy aspect of Confeder ate affairs in the west, but found few if any, who were in favor of giving up the struggle. I made various attempts to interview persons of influence, but was not very successful. One person in power whom I succeeded in getting near I found unwilling to give me his ,;ni0 pYY% do o{y,6 that, even if the leaders were willing to listen to terms for peace, the people were not, except on the acknowledg- ment of the independence of the Con- federate states. However, l learned through the wife of member of the Confederate cabinet that the govern ment was with the people in this re spect and looked for General Lee to make good in the east what other Con- federate generals had lost in the west. All the time l spent in Richmond I was very exclusive. though my story of having been at school in the north, which I told to avoid accounting for where really had recently been, drew forth numerous questions as to the feeling in the northern states. l 
 told them that there the feeling Was
 divided, there being many southern
 sympathizers.
 Having made up my mind that there
 was no hope of the southern people
 accepting any terms that the Federal
 government would offer, I left my
 boarding house, giving out that l was
 going to my home, plantation on the
 James river, intending to go there with
 view to striking Fortress Monroe, in
 possession of the United States forces,
 From there could easily proceed
 north by sea in government trans
 port.
 I succeeded in finding a steamboat
 carrying freight that was going down
 the river from Richmond as far as the
 hOat cOuld nrOcpod without nuoounfpr,