Between the Lines Part 7

Headquarters, Middle Department, 8th Army Corps.

Office Provost Marshal, Baltimore, Apl. 24, 1864.

H. B. Smith, Lieut. and Chief:

I have the honor to report that I left Baltimore as per orders and proceeded to Reisterstown and stopped at a tavern and was accosted by a citizen who told me there were detectives in the house, and that he knew I was from the other side, and sent me to a woman named Mrs. Hofman, who keeps a hotel there. I went to her house and represented myself as a Rebel captain.

I had been there a short time when Mrs. Hofman took me upstairs in a bedroom that was in the back part of the house and told me if the detectives came upstairs, to get out of the back window and take a horse that she would have saddled ready for me; she said she did not care for the horse as the citizens would make it up to her.

The detectives did not come upstairs, but a man named C. L.

Alder came up to the room and told me to get ready and come down stairs, that he had a buggy ready to see me safe and that he would die before I should be taken and that he had helped many of the Rebels out of just such sc.r.a.pes by taking them to the Rebel lines.

We went about a mile and a half from Reisterstown and stopped at the house of Dr. J. Larsh, and held a conversation with him and another man that I could not learn the name of; about the best plan for me to adopt was to keep away from the detectives; he, the Doctor, told me that he was very busy or he would take me safe through himself, but told Alder to take me to Charles T. c.o.c.key's, and that he would see me all right.

We then went to C. T. c.o.c.key's and Alder explained to him who I was and Mr. c.o.c.key then introduced me to John C. Brown, of Busson Parish, La., and lately manager of the Rebel Secretary of War's plantation. Mr. c.o.c.key told me to remain there all night and he would see me safe, as he was engaged in the business ever since the war commenced, and had run off a great many men to the Rebel army; in fact he said that men from all parts of the country were sent to him to take across the lines, and that he always went into the Rebel lines with them.

Among the rest that he had taken across was Capt. Simms and Capt. Beard and Gus Williamson. He said when General McClellan was following Lee into Maryland, a man came to him from Washington and gave him the number of men that McClellan had, and the direction he was going to take, and that he went to Frederick, and gave the information to Lee; and would, he said, do so again, if it would do any good to the Southern cause.

c.o.c.key receives papers regularly from Richmond. He also said that Capt. Harry Gilmor stops at his house whenever he comes over the lines, and that a great many men from the South come to his house, and he always helps them. I remained at his house all night, and listened to him and John C. Brown cursing the government for everything they could think of, and telling what they would do if the Rebel army would come into Maryland again. C. T. c.o.c.key was also engaged at the time of Lee's raid into Pennsylvania; he took men to the Rebel army and was in the Rebel lines several times, and gave them all the information that he could get hold of that would do them any good.

Mr. J. C. Brown gave me the name of his brother, Benj. F.

Brown, of Frederick, Md., agent for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Co., and in charge of the government warehouse which he surrendered to the Rebels without endeavoring to destroy the goods, or to get them out of the way. J. C. Brown told me to go to his brother and let him know who I was and everything would be right, and that he would meet me there with a lot of recruits, and a Rebel mail to take south.

The next day, 21st April, I expressed a wish to go into Pennsylvania for a few days, and promised to meet Mr. Brown in Frederick. Mr. C. T. c.o.c.key took me in his buggy to T. D.

c.o.c.key of "I" at Ellingown, near Texas, on the Northern Central Railroad, where I met T. D. c.o.c.key, of "I".

T. Deye c.o.c.key and Philip Fendel, who are violent Rebels, say they have been running men off ever since the war commenced.

And T. Deye c.o.c.key says that he has been in the Rebel lines several times, and at one time took three recruits from Harford County to Hanover Junction, when the Rebels were there, and gave them all the information he could.

Richard Worthington, a very wealthy man, whom I met, offered me a horse, and any a.s.sistance in his power, to enable me to escape, and stated that he had rented his farm out, and was endeavoring to get his property fixed in such a way that the d.a.m.ned negro government could not confiscate it. He was going to leave the d.a.m.ned Yankees and go to Canada, and from there to Na.s.sau, and take a vessel and go to the Confederacy, where he would be free to do as he pleased. He said he had invested a portion of his money in Confederate bonds, and only wished he had a chance to invest more in them, as the greenbacks, or Yankee shinplasters were not worth a d.a.m.n.

These men were under the impression that I was the Rebel Capt.

Harry Thompson, who, as it was published, had made his escape from a Federal prison. I told them I had escaped from the Old Capitol.

Very respy., WM. V. KREMER, U. S. D. 8th A. C.

You will notice Mr. Kremer speaks of T. D. c.o.c.key of "I." That is a common way in Maryland and Virginia to designate the lineage of that T.

D. c.o.c.key, to obviate confounding him with some other T. D. c.o.c.key.

Later on, in July, when the Confederate Army swung around north and east of Baltimore, the information contained in Mr. Kremer's report became very valuable to us.

FILE XI.

Mrs. Key Howard, a lineal descendant of the author of "The Star Spangled Banner," forgetting her honor, prepared to carry a Confederate mail to "Dixie"--Miss Martha Dungan--Trip on the steam tug "Ella"--Schooner "W. H.

Travers" and cargo captured--James A. Winn, a spy--Trip to Frederick, Maryland.

Headquarters, Middle Department, 8th Army Corps, Baltimore, Apl. 28, 1864.

Special Order No. 48.

Lieut. H. B. Smith, Chief Officer, Secret Service Bureau, 8th Army Corps, will proceed to Washington, D. C., in charge of prisoners, Miss Martha Dungan and Mrs. Key Howard.

On arrival you will deliver prisoners to Mr. Wm. P. Wood, in charge of Old Capitol Prison and receive receipt for same, after which you will report to Hon. C. A. Dana, a.s.st. Secy. of War, deliver all papers in prisoners' cases and return to these headquarters without delay.

Quartermasters will furnish transportation.

By command of Major General Lew Wallace.

JOHN WOOLLEY, Lt. Col. and Provost Marshal.

Here is a sad incident ill.u.s.trating what Hamlet meant when he said: "To what base uses may we return, Horatio!" Mrs. Key Howard, a lineal descendant of Francis Scott Key, author of the "Star Spangled Banner,"

having obtained a personal pa.s.s direct from Mr. Lincoln, permitting her to pa.s.s our lines, had actually gathered a Confederate mail, to carry through, under its protection. Honor of a truly "Blue Blood?"--it was absent.

The pa.s.s was written on a plain card, and read:

Pa.s.s Mrs. Key Howard through the lines.

A. LINCOLN.

I might have retained the card, but turned it in with the case. Mrs.

Howard, in discussing with me the lack of honor in so abusing a great favor, became very angry; she said: "Lincoln was vulgar, not a polished man; he sat with legs crossed while talking to me." Young and inexperienced as I was, I was so forcibly struck with the shallowness of _pretended culture_ that I have many times told the story to ill.u.s.trate.

I have no doubt that Mrs. Howard traded upon her family name with President Lincoln. He undoubtedly trusted her, believing that she had honor in her composition.

Blockade running schemes were without limit as to variety or manner of evasion. Vessels were loaded in Baltimore, clearing for any port.

Trading schooners were loaded, taking shipments for various stores on the rivers and bays of the Chesapeake Bay; some of the shipments would be honest transactions, but others would be especially designed for Confederate consumption.

In April, 1864, the schooner "Wm. H. Travers" (Captain Rice) had been under surveillance. She was loaded at Baltimore with a mixed cargo, part of which was of honest shipments. I learned that it was intended to swamp the vessel within reach of the Confederates, thus permitting them to take the entire cargo regardless of ownership. I allowed its loading and permitted the captain to leave port with her, but after she got well down the stream I overhauled her with the steam tug "Ella," and brought her back to Baltimore. Her cargo was worth about six thousand dollars.

Mr. Blackstone, of St. Mary's County, was the guilty party.

Depot, Quartermaster's Office, Baltimore, Md., April 30, 1864.

Captain, Steam Tug Ella:

You will proceed with your tug under the orders of Lt. H. B.

Smith, and render such service as he may require; after performing those duties you will return to Boston wharf and report to me.

Respectfully, A. M. c.u.mMINGS, Chief Quartermaster.