tion centering in
Philadelphia.

"As to Baltimore, this simplified our task, and shortly
General Schenck's sagacity was again vindicated--those working
in the prohibited business were ladies who moved in the upper
circles of society.

"Should I arrest the fair sympathizers? What was the use? The
simple appearance of distress was enough with the President;
and if that were so with a man in concernment, what would it
be with a woman? In sight of the hopelessness of effort on my
part, over and over, again and again, in the night often as in
the day, I took counsel of myself, 'What can be done?' At last
an answer came to me, and in a way no one could have
dreamed--the purest chance.

"A woman in high standing socially, alighted from a carriage
at the Camden station of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad,
carrying a mysterious-looking box. At the moment she was
stepping into a car my chief of detectives arrested her. The
box being opened, there, in velvet housings, lay a sword of
costly pattern inscribed for presentation to Colonel ----, a
guerilla officer of Confederate renown.

"A commission was immediately ordered for the woman's trial.
The word and the inscription upon it were irrefutable proofs
of guilt, and she was sent to a prison for females in
Massachusetts. The affair was inexcusably gross, considering
the condition of war--so much, I think, will be generally
conceded--still, seeking the moral effect of punishment alone,
I specially requested the officials of the institution not to
subject the offender to humiliation beyond the mere
imprisonment. In a few days she was released and brought home.
_The sword I presented to Captain Smith._"

General Wallace makes a slight error. I did not arrest the woman at the
station, but captured her messenger with the sword, and upon his person
were credentials to Gilmor, which I used myself, and of which I will
tell later on. Later on I arrested the woman herself.

FILE II.

1861-1862 New York Harbor--Fort Schuyler--Fort Marshal--Aunt Mag.

During the first year of the war ('61) I remained at home, but I was
really ashamed to be found there when service called. Burdette was
already in the Army, and A. P., though equally patriotic, was compelled
to remain home to "fight for bread" for the family. I started to go but
m