, "between the
lines." Thousands who are mentioned in written history to-day will not
be there when it becomes more ancient. Later on, when other great events
crowd, only three names may remain. Lincoln, Grant, Lee. Perhaps still
further on, only Lincoln, the martyr for liberty's sake, may be found.

Much of my work was between the lines of the two contestants, a more
dangerous place than in the lines, for I was exposed to the bullets and
sabres of both Southern and Northern Armies.

FILE XLVIII.

Trip to Carlisle, Illinois, to unravel a fraudulent claim--John H. Ing.

We closed our headquarters in December, 1865, packing all records in
finely arranged cabinets, which were then transferred to the War
Department in Washington.

When my relation with the government was terminated, through the
instrumentality of General Woolley (Woolley had recently been
brevetted), I was engaged by Mr. Archibald Sterling, an attorney (a
prominent Union man), to go to southern Illinois to ravel out a
contested will case. The contestants were a group of neighbors, headed
by a shrewd woman.

If I remember right, under the Maryland laws, if a child died before
maturity, there was no inheritance. Mr. Sterling claimed that the young
man was not of age when he died, and that he died in 1835; but he had no
evidence to prove it. He had only a death notice clipped from some paper
with no date on it. But he had an anonymous letter signed: "Veritas,"
postmarked at Carlisle, Illinois, in which the writer, for a
consideration, offered to put Sterling in possession of evidence that
would defeat the claim; this letter was a few months old. Mr. Sterling
could not comply. He could pay for no evidence without compromising his
clients. With these facts only and equipped with the following letter of
introduction, I started West:

Headquarters,
Middle Military Department,
Office Provost Marshal General,
Baltimore, Dec. 27, 1865.

Capt. Silas F. Miller,
Burnet House,
Cincinnati, Ohio.

My Dear Sir.--I shall be greatly obliged if you will make
Lieut. Smith, the bearer, acquainted with one or more of the
conductors of the O. & M. R. R. Co.

Lieut. Smith is one of my officers, and comes west on business
which takes him on the line of that road.

This is not for the purpose of securing a pass, but in order
to get information. I have the honor to be,

Very Respect