Part 11

(Signed) C. A. DANA, Asst. Secy. of War.

This was endorsed:

To the Provost Marshal:

You will allow Mr. W. G. Woodside, the bearer of this, to see the prisoners mentioned within, Hall and Baylor. Lieut. Smith will be present at the interview.

(Signed) P. A. PORTER, Col. 8th N. Y. V. Arty., Commanding-Brigade.

Fort McHenry, Feb'y 28, 1864.

Baltimore, Feb'y 15, 1864.

Sir.--Will you be kind enough to deliver the joined letter to Jules Klotz, a French subject, detained at Fort McHenry. He wrote to me to direct my letters to yourself.

I should be very obliged to you to let me know the reasons why he has been arrested and his true situation towards the American government.

Very respectfully yours, (Signed) A. SAUVAN, French Vice Consul.

To Mr. SMITH, Lieutenant, Fort McHenry.

You will see by these documents that my survey of prisoners and their letters was always by authority and not merely to gratify my own curiosity.

The Adjutant General is the confidential reliance of a commanding officer. General Morris was advanced in years and depended implicitly on his Adjutant General, Captain E. W. Andrews. I branded Andrews a traitor to the colors. It was a serious position for a subaltern to assume, but I had the evidence to substantiate the charge. In searching the house of one Terrence R. Quinn, a noted blockade-runner, then a prisoner in Fort McHenry, I found evidence that Andrews was a partner in his crimes. And I found that my predecessor, the former Assistant Provost Marshal, was also incriminated; then it became easier for me to understand how so many prisoners had been allowed to escape (as many as sixty-five in one night). Later on I will have two more references to Andrews, which will explain what became of him.

Andrews was a man of brains. He started in life, I believe, as a minister of the gospel, then turned to law. By his suavity and impudence, he gained control of General Morris. The post was important because it carried so great a number of prisoners. Andrews had his son made Provost Marshal, and the escapes of prisoners by one means or another, were made so easily that the scandal of it had appeared in many Southern newspapers. When I finally imprisoned Andrews on General Sheridan's order, in his half intoxicated condition he admitted his Confederate sympathies.

FILE VIII.

Initial trip down Chesapeake Bay after blockade runners and contraband dealers and goods, incidentally introducing Terrence R. Quinn, George G. Nellis, and E. W. Andrews, Jr.--A description of a storm on the Chesapeake.

My initial trip down the Chesapeake Bay after blockade-runners was made under the following order:

Headquarters, Middle Department, 8th Army Corps, Baltimore, Mch. 22, 1864.

Special Order No. 73.

2d Lieut. H. B. Smith, 5th Regt. N. Y. Artillery, is hereby ordered to proceed down the Eastern shore, Virginia, and arrest ---- Jacobs (citizen) and such other persons as may be found in company with him. If Lieut. Smith has reason to believe that they are engaged in the practice of smuggling or running the blockade, and seize all contraband goods in their possession.

Lieut. Smith will seize and hold the following named vessels, viz.: Schooners "Trifle," "Frances E. Burgess," "Despatch," "Washington," and "Glib," wherever he may find them, and will convey them to the nearest place of safety within our lines.

Lieut. Smith will assume command of the steam tug placed at his disposal by orders from this office, and having accomplished the object of this order will return to this city, and make immediate report to the Commanding General.

Lieut. Smith is permitted to use his discretion as to the disposition of the vessels named in case of emergency. By command of

Major General LEW WALLACE, (Signed) SAM'L B. LAWRENCE, Asst. Adj. Gen'l.

Quinn, the prisoner referred to above was out on parole and was thus able to pursue his business. He was in the habit of purchasing much of his supplies from a certain ship chandler on Pratt street, a friend of mine, and, in fact, a good Union man, who so concealed me in his premises that I learned much of Quinn's plans from his (Quinn's) own mouth; and this order was to enable me to develop the matters he had disclosed.

Blockade running, mail carrying and "spy" carrying, along the Potomac and Chesapeake, was carried on in such a cute manner as to necessitate a peculiar service to meet and stop it. Gunboats nor troops could baffle it; it was done in skiffs, canoes (called cunnas), small sail boats with dirty sails hardly to be seen in broad day light. These little "creepers" would run right up under the bows of gunboats unnoticed; as soon as shore was touched, if a plug was pulled out of the bottom of a boat it would immediately and entirely submerge itself, until wanted for use again.

The price for carrying one person across the river was fifty dollars in gold, which tempted to the business the most dare devil men on either side of the line. As to merchandise, the plan was to "work" the local storekeepers, for in the North it was perfectly legitimate to allow all the merchandise desired to go to the line just on the borders of territory patrolled by us, which might be only an hour's sail with fair wind to put it at night within the reach of the Confederates. These stores were not in villages, as was the case further north, but were isolated, very frequently on a cross road in the woods.

Oystering was a favorite cloak for blockade-runners. Sometimes vessels of little value (three hundred dollars or so) were loaded in Baltimore with goods and purposely swamped on the south side of the river to allow the Confederates to confiscate. I was "on the inside" once when a Captain was offered fifteen thousand dollars to allow his vessel to be loaded and to permit its destruction when in reach of the Confederates.