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[A Transcribers' Note follows the text.]

[Illustration: _Photo by Brady._ _Eng^d by Geo E Perine N.Y._
Albert D. Richardson]




 THE
 SECRET SERVICE,
 THE FIELD, THE DUNGEON,
 AND
 THE ESCAPE.

 "Wherein I spoke of most disastrous chances,
 Of moving accidents, by flood and field;
 Of hairbreadth'scapes i' the imminent deadly breach;
 Of being taken by the insolent foe,
 And sold to slavery; of my redemption thence."
 OTHELLO.

 BY
 ALBERT D. RICHARDSON,
 TRIBUNE CORRESPONDENT.

 Hartford, Conn.,
 AMERICAN PUBLISHING COMPANY.
 JONES BROS. & CO., PHILADELPHIA, PA., AND CINCINNATI, OHIO.
 R. C. TREAT, CHICAGO, ILL.
 1865.

 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865,
 BY ALBERT D. RICHARDSON,
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for
 the District of Connecticut.

 TO
 Her Memory
 WHO WAS NEAREST AND DEAREST,
 WHOSE LIFE WAS FULL OF BEAUTY AND OF PROMISE,
 THIS VOLUME
 IS TENDERLY INSCRIBED.




List of Illustrations.


 I.--PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR                         Facing Title-page.
 II.--A GROUP OF ARMY CORRESPONDENTS:                   Facing page 17
     Portraits of Messrs.
     Charles C. Coffin, Boston _Journal_;
     Junius H. Browne, New York _Tribune_;
     Thomas W. Knox, New York _Herald_;
     Richard T. Colburn, New York _World_;
     L. L. Crounse, New York _Times_;
     William E. Davis, Cincinnati _Gazette_, and
     William D. Bickham, Cincinnati _Commercial_
 III.--THE MISSISSIPPI CONVENTION VIEWED BY A         Opposite page 83
     TRIBUNE CORRESPONDENT
 IV.--OPENING OF THE BATTLE OF ANTIETAM.--GENERAL    Opposite page 281
     HOOKER
 V.--FACSIMILE OF AN AUTOGRAPH LETTER OF PRESIDENT            page 321
     LINCOLN
 VI.--THE CAPTURE, WHILE RUNNING THE REBEL BATTERIES Opposite page 343
     AT VICKSBURG
 VII.--INTERIOR VIEW OF A HOSPITAL IN THE SALISBURY  Opposite page 415
     PRISON
 VIII.--THE MASSACRE OF UNION PRISONERS ATTEMPTING   Opposite page 419
     TO ESCAPE FROM SALISBURY, NORTH CAROLINA
 IX.--ESCAPING PRISONERS FED BY <DW64>s IN THEIR     Opposite page 441
     MASTER'S BARN
 X.--FORDING A STREAM                                Opposite page 471
 XI.--"THE NAMELESS HEROINE" PILOTING THE ESCAPING   Opposite page 501
     PRISONERS OUT OF A REBEL AMBUSH




CONTENTS.


 I.--THE SECRET SERVICE.
 CHAPTER I.                                                          17
     Going South in the Secret Service.--Instructions from
     the Managing Editor.--A Visit to the Mammoth Cave of
     Kentucky.--Nashville, Tennessee.--Alabama Unionists.--How
     the State was Precipitated into the Rebellion.--Reaching
     Memphis.--Abolitionists Mobbed and Hanged.--Brutalities of
     Slavery.
 CHAPTER II.                                                         31
    In Memphis.--How the Secessionists Carried the Day.--Aims
    of the Leading Rebels.--On the Railroad.--A Northerner
    Warned.--An Amusing Dialogue.--Talk about Assassinating
    President Lincoln.--Arrival in New Orleans.--Hospitality
    from a Stranger.--An Ovation to General Twiggs.--Braxton
    Bragg.--The Rebels Anxious for War.--A Glance at the
    Louisiana Convention.
 CHAPTER III.                                                        43
     Association with Leading Secessionists.--Their Hatred of
     New England.--Admission to the Democratic Club.--Abuse of
     President Lincoln.--Sinking Buildings, Cellars and Walls
     Impossible.--Cemeteries above Ground.--Monument of a
     Pirate.--Canal Street.--The Great French Markets.--Dedication
     of a Secession Flag in the Catholic Church.--The Cotton
     Presses.--Visit to the Jackson Battle-ground.--The
     Creoles.--Jackson's Head-Quarters.--A Fire in the
     Rear.--A Life Saved by a Cigar.--A Black Republican
     Flag.--Vice-President Hamlin a Mulatto.--Northerners leaving
     the South.
 CHAPTER IV.                                                         57
     How Letters were Written and Transmitted.--A System of
     Cipher.--A Philadelphian among the Rebels.--Probable fate
     of a _Tribune_ Correspondent, if Discovered.--Southern
     Manufactures.--A Visit to a Southern Shoe Factory.--Where
     the Machinery and Workmen came from.--How Southern Shoes
     were Made.--Study of Southern Society.--Report of a
     Slave Auction.--Sale of a White Woman.--Girls on the
     Block.--Husbands and Wives Separated.--A most Revolting
     Spectacle.--The Delights of a Tropical Climate.
 CHAPTER V.                                                          71
     A Northerner among the Minute Men.--Louisiana Convention.--A
     Lively Discussion.--Boldness of the Union Members.--Another
     Exciting Discussion.--Secessionists Repudiate their Own
     Doctrines.--Despotic Rebel Theories.--The Northwest
     to Join the Rebels.--The Great Swamp.--A Trip through
     Louisiana.--_The Tribune_ Correspondent Invited to a Seat in
     the Mississippi Convention.
 CHAPTER VI.                                                         81
     The Mississippi State-House.--View of the Rebel
     Hall.--Its General Air of Dilapidation.--A Free-and-Easy
     Convention.--Southern Orators.--The Anglo-African
     Delegate.--A Speech Worth Preserving.--Familiar Conversation
     of Members.--New Orleans Again.--Reviewing Troops.--New
     Orleans Again.--Hatred of Southern Unionists.--Three
     Obnoxious Northerners.--The Attack on Sumter.--Rebel Bravado.
 CHAPTER VII.                                                        91
     Abolition Tendencies of Kentuckians.--Fundamental
     Grievances of the Rebels.--Sudden Departure from New
     Orleans.--Mobile.--The War Spirit High.--An Awkward
     Encounter.--"Massa, Fort Sumter has gone Up."--Bells
     Ringing.--Cannon Booming.--Up the Alabama River.--A
     Dancing Little Darkey.--How to Escape Suspicion.--Southern
     Characteristics and Provincialism.--Visit to the Confederate
     Capital.--At Montgomery, Alabama.--Copperas Breeches _vs._
     Black Breeches.--A Correspondent under Arrest.
 CHAPTER VIII.                                                      105
     A Journey Through Georgia.--Excitement of the
     People.--Washington to be Captured.--Apprehensions about
     Arming the <DW64>s.--A Fatal Question.--Charleston.--Looking
     at Fort Sumter.--A Short Stay in the City.--North
     Carolina.--The Country on Fire.--Submitting to Rebel
     Scrutiny.--The North Heard From.--Richmond, Virginia.--The
     Frenzy of the People.--Up the Potomac.--The Old Flag Once
     More.--An Hour with President Lincoln.--Washington in
     Panic.--A Regiment which Came Out to Fight.--Baltimore
     under Rebel Rule.--Pennsylvania.--The North fully
     Aroused.--Uprising of the whole People.--A _Tribune_
     Correspondent on Trial in Charleston.--He is Warned to
     Leave.--His Fortunate Escape
 II.--THE FIELD.
 CHAPTER IX.                                                        125
     Sunday at Niagara Falls.--View from the Suspension
     Bridge.--The Palace of the Frost King.--Chicago, a
     City Rising from the Earth.--Mysteries of Western
     Currency.--A Horrible Spectacle in Arkansas.--Patriotism
     of the Northwest.--Missouri.--The Rebels bent on
     Revolution.--Nathaniel Lyon.--Camp Jackson.--Sterling Price
     Joins the Rebels.--His Quarrel with Frank Blair.--His
     Personal Character.--St. Louis in a Convulsion.--A Nashville
     Experience.--Bitterness of Old Neighbors.--Good Soldiers for
     Scaling Walls.--Wholesome Advice to Missouri Slaveholders
 CHAPTER X.                                                         141
     Cairo, Illinois.--A Visit from General McClellan.--A little
     Speech-making.--Penalty of Writing for _The Tribune_.--A
     Unionist Aided to Escape from Memphis by a Loyal Girl.--The
     Fascinations of Cairo.--The Death of Douglas.--A Clear-headed
     Contraband.--A Review of the Troops.--"Not a Fighting <DW65>,
     but a Running <DW65>."--Capture of a Rebel Flag
 CHAPTER XI.                                                        151
     Missouri Again.--The Retributions of Time.--A Railroad
    