Part 62

War Department, Adjutant General's Office. Washington, October 19, 1865.

General Court Martial. Orders No. 584.

The action of Major General Hancock, Commanding the Middle Department, designating the Penitentiary at Albany, New York, as the place of confinement in the case of Captain D. L. Beckwith, 22d Regiment Vet. Reserve Corps, Assistant Commissary of Musters, sentenced by a General Court Martial "to forfeit all pay that is now or may become due him to the date of promulgation of this sentence; to be cashiered and to be forever disqualified from holding any office of trust or emolument in the service of the United States, and to be confined for two years without pay, at hard labor at such penitentiary or Military Post as the Commanding General of this Department may direct."

This sentence to be published as presented by the 85th Article of War, as promulgated in General Orders No. 23, dated Headquarters Middle Military Department, Baltimore, Maryland, Oct. 10, 1865. Is approved. By order of the Secretary of War.

E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant General.

Official. E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant General.

Headquarters, Middle Military Department, Office Provost Marshal General, Baltimore, Oct. 29, 1865.

Special Order No. 127.

I. Special Officer, H. B. Smith, with one guard will proceed to Albany, New York, in charge of prisoner D. L. Beckwith. On arriving at Albany he will deliver the prisoner with accompanying papers to Amos Pillsbury, Superintendent of the Albany Penitentiary; receiving receipt he will report with the guard at these headquarters without delay.

Quartermaster's Department will furnish transportation.

By command of Major General Humphreys.

JOHN WOOLLEY, Bvt. Brigadier General & Provost Marshal.

The "one guard" detailed to accompany me was General Woolley. He wanted a little rest and availed himself of this opportunity. Upon our arrival in Albany I hunted up my cousin, Edgar Jerome, who spent the evening with us at the Delevan House. We had a delightful evening listening to the General's stories. He was a charming story teller. Ed will remember especially his rendering of "The Arkansas Traveller."

Now, Nettie, don't find fault with your history because your Uncle is not mentioned in its lines. In the histories of great events, such as our Civil War, it is an honor to be, even though hidden, "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 Respectfully, Your obedient servant, JOHN WOOLLEY, Bvt. Brigadier General U. S. Vols. Provost Marshal General M. M. D.

The field was entirely new to me. All the way to Cincinnati and the rest of the way to Carlisle, Illinois, I put in much of my time in speculating as to the best course to adopt on landing in a small town, among a lot of villagers, who were banded together in this scheme. My name was to be Comings, and I came from New York; that was all settled in my mind; but what was my business there? I expected to be there a few days, and there was the rub; finally, after failing to fix up a story I concluded to "keep mum," entirely. Later you will see the fix which that conclusion came near leading me into.

I arrived there at night. I asked the landlord not to put me high up in the hotel, and he didn't; I learned the next morning that the hotel was only two stories high. I lounged about the tavern and the village two or three days, making myself aware of the surroundings. I tramped out to the fork of the Kaskaskia river, where the affidavits alleged the boy was buried in 1836. The river was a muddy little brook. No grave was to be found, but some little distance away was a burying ground. I went there searching for the grave. I found it not, but lying up against a fence was a headstone having the boy's name on it, and the date of his death.