Bridgeton pioneer., 1915-02-04
Secret
Dispatches
How They Were Obtained
For President LincOIn's
Inspection
By Captain F. A. mitchell

In acknowledging myself to have
been professional secret service man
1 must admit that l lose much Of the
sympathy of those who love the ro-
nance of war. But war is not ro-
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. be may be of more bene-
fit to a commander than an army.
During the big north and south strug-
gle Allan PinkertOn established a Sc
cret service bureau in Washington. |
was living there at the time. the Oldest
Of family of five children, orphans,
who were dependent on me for sup
port. | was nineteen; the next in or
der of birth was a girl of fifteen; the
next boy of thirteen, and so on down
to the youngest, boy of six. My ia
ther died several years before the war
broke out and left my mother to do the
best she could in feeding and clothing
us. |, being the oldest, soon became
her main reliance, and when in 1862
she died fell heir to the problem of
providing for the family necessities.
had lived till l was twelve years
old in Richmond. and my natural dia-
lect was southern. My sympathies
were neither with the south nor the
north. 1t occurred to me that was il
a position to earn money by going
south and bringing back information
for the federal government. l knew
of Allan Pinkerton's secret service bu-
reau, and one day l went in there and
had talk with him. He was at the
time furnishing spies for President
Lincoln and listened attentively to all
l said. When l had finished he sug-
gested that 1 would likely have more
success playing the part Of a girl than
a man.
His reason for this was that | had
feminine face at that time. no beard
and spoke with soft voice that would
be called contralto in a woman. He
questioned me a good while to assure
himself that l could be relied on to
serve the Union side, and. although |
confessed to him that / had no prefer
ence for either cause, 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 | had a 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. Mr.
Lincoln wished me to go to Richmond
to investigate the feeling at the CAPT
tai of those in power, to learn whether
it was an advantageous time to offer
terms for peace. If l came back with
the desired information l was to re-
ceive a very large sum of money. A
sum sufficient to take care of my
brothers and sisters during my absence
was given ME, and | was promised a
pension for them in case 1 was taken
| and hanged.
My sister Margie, though four years
younger than l, was nearly my height
and weight, and. having accepted Mr.
Pinkertons suggestion to dress as
girl, l used her clothes. With Mr. Lin
coins pass made out for Miss Alice
Hunter, l had no difficulty in getting
out of the Federal lines. l was ad-
mitted into the Confederate lines read
lily because it was much easier to pass
into Confederate territory than to
emerge from it. When l reached Rich
mond l sought a boarding house, where
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
l gave out that / had been studying
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 | 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 | 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.
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. ! made various attempts
to interview persons of influence, but
was not very successful. One person
in power whom | succeeded in getting
near found unwilling to give me his
real opinion. But I made up my mind
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. 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-
fodn 20 L. l. In, h.