his imprisonment. At the fort
the money which he had in his pockets was taken from him, and he
was placed in solitary confinement in a room ordinarily used for
quarters of enlisted men. No letter was allowed to leave him or
reach him without the most rigid inspection. Under this close
_surveillance_, with an armed sentinel pacing before the door of
his room, without opportunity for outdoor air or exercise, he was
kept for forty-nine days. He applied at different times to the
military authorities in Washington for a statement of the charges
against him, for a speedy trial, for access to the records of his
own office and his own headquarters, for a change of the place of
his confinement. To none of these applications was answer of any
kind returned. After he had been nearly two months in prison he
asked that his wife might be allowed to visit him. She was in the
deepest anguish, and her society in his imprisonment could have
subjected the government to no danger, because she would have been
under the same restraint and espionage as her husband. This natural
and reasonable request, made only after his confinement promised
to be indefinite, was peremptorily and curtly refused by the War
Department.

On the fiftieth day the place of his imprisonment was changed from
Fort Lafayette to Fort Hamilton near by, and the opportunity for
open-air exercise within the fort was accorded him, though always
under the eye of a sentinel. Here he renewed his request for the
charges against him, without eliciting answer. He applied to the
officer in command of the fort to learn of what possible crime he
was accused, and the officer replied that he knew nothing of it;
he was absolutely ignorant of any ground for General Stone's
imprisonment. After striving for more than sixty days to ascertain
the nature of his offense, and secure an opportunity to vindicate
himself, the prisoner adopted another course. He applied for
suspension of arrest with liberty to join the army just setting
forth under General McClellan for the Peninsular campaign. No
reply was made to his request. A few weeks later, when the Union
forces under General Banks were defeated in the valley of the
Shenandoah, he again asked the privilege of active duty, and again
was treated with contemptuous silence. On the 4th of July he
telegraphed directly to President Lincoln, recalling the honorable
service in which he had been engaged just one year before. Remindin