

E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Barbara Kosker, Irma Spehar, and the
Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net)



Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
      file which includes the original illustrations.
      See 24541-h.htm or 24541-h.zip:
      (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/2/4/5/4/24541/24541-h/24541-h.htm)
      or
      (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/2/4/5/4/24541/24541-h.zip)


      +--------------------------------------------------------+
      | Transcriber's Note:                                    |
      |                                                        |
      | Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has  |
      | been preserved.                                        |
      |                                                        |
      | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. For  |
      | a complete list, please see the end of this document.  |
      |                                                        |
      | A list of illustrations is provided for the reader's   |
      | benefit.                                               |
      |                                                        |
      +--------------------------------------------------------+





BETWEEN THE LINES

Secret Service Stories
Told Fifty Years After

by

BVT. MAJOR H. B. SMITH

Chief of Detectives and Assistant
Provost Marshal General with
Major General Lew Wallace
Civil War







[Illustration: H. B. SMITH.]




Booz Brothers
114 West Fifty-Third Street
New York

Copyright, 1911, by
Henry Bascom Smith

Press of J. J. Little & Ives Co.
New York




                                 DEDICATED
                                    TO
                            SAMUEL GRAHAM BOOZ


                  TO WHOSE PERSISTENCY IN THUMPING OUT ON
                    HIS TYPEWRITER THE WORDS HEREIN HAS
                  RENDERED IT POSSIBLE FOR ME TO INFLICT
                  MY FIFTY-YEAR-OLD STORIES ON MY FRIENDS




CONTENTS
                                                                      PAGE

APOLOGY                                                                 17

                                  FILE I

The Harry Gilmor Sword--General Wallace's Comments                      21


                                  FILE II

1861-1862 New York Harbor--Fort Schuyler--Fort Marshal--Aunt Mag        25


                                  FILE III

1862-1863 Fort McHenry--General Morris--Colonel Peter A. Porter--
Harper's Ferry--Halltown--Trip to Johnson's Island--Lieutenant-General
Pemberton and other Confederate Officers--Ohio Copperheads--Incident
of York, Pa., Copperheads--Dramatic incident on July 4th, 1863, at
Fort McHenry                                                            30


                                  FILE IV

A taste of the Draft Riots, July 13th, 1863, when conveying wounded
Confederates from Gettysburg to David's Island, New York Harbor--
Governor Seymour's questionable conduct--A mysterious Mr. Andrews of
Virginia--"Knights of the Golden Circle"--"Sons of Liberty" and a
North Western Confederacy--Uncle Burdette--The Laurel incident          37


                                  FILE V

Appointed Assistant Provost Marshal at Fort McHenry, where I began
my first experience in detective work--Somewhat a history of my
early life--Ordered to execute Gordon by shooting                       50


                                  FILE VI

Detective work required an extension of territory--A flattering
endorsement by Colonel Porter--Introducing Christian Emmerich and
incidentally Charles E. Langley, a noted Confederate spy                57


                                 FILE VII

Investigator's education--I branded E. W. Andrews, adjutant-general
to General Morris, a traitor to the Colors                              63


                                 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                                                              66


                                  FILE IX

General Wallace assumes command of the Middle Department--General
Schenck's comments on Maryland--Colonel Woolley                         79


                                  FILE X

Here begins my service as an Assistant Provost Marshal of the
Department and Chief of the Secret Service--Confederate General
Winder's detectives--E. H. Smith, special officer, War Department
--Mrs. Mary E. Sawyer, Confederate mail carrier--W. V. Kremer's
report on the "Disloyals" north of Baltimore                            83


                                  FILE XI

Mrs. Key Howard, a lineal descendant of the author of "The Star
Spangled Banner," forgetting her honor, prepared to carry a
Confederate mail to "Dixie"--Miss Martha Dungan--Trip on the steam
tug "Ella"--Schooner "W. H. Travers" and cargo captured--James A.
Winn, a spy--Trip to Frederick, Maryland                                92


                                 FILE XII

F. M. Ellis, Chief Detective U. S. Sanitary Commission--Arrest of
W. W. Shore, of the New York "World"--John Gillock from Richmond       100


                                 FILE XIII

Ordered to seize all copies of the New York "World," bringing in one
of the great war episodes, the Bogus Presidential Proclamation--
Governor Seymour's queer vigor appears                                 103


                                 FILE XIV

Arrest of F. W. Farlin and A. H. Covert--The Pulpit not loyal,
reports on Rev. Mr. Harrison and Rev. Mr. Poisal--Comical reports
on a religious conference and a camp meeting--Seizure of Kelly &
Piet store with its contraband kindergarten contents--Sloop "R. B.
Tennis" one of my fleet, and an account of a capture of tobacco,
etc.--Arrest of Frederick Smith, Powell Harrison and Robert
Alexander--Harry Brogden                                               109


                                  FILE XV

General pass for Schooner "W. H. Travers"--Trip down the Bay after
blockade runners and mail carriers--Gillock and Lewis, two of my
officers captured by Union pickets--Commodore Foxhall A. Parker--
Potomac flotilla--Arrest of J. B. McWilliams--My watch gone to the
mermaids--The ignorance of "poor white trash"                          121


                                 FILE XVI

Captain Bailey makes a capture--Sinclair introduces me (as Shaffer)
to Mr. Pyle                                                            132


                                 FILE XVII

A Confederate letter                                                   136


                                FILE XVIII

Confederate army invades Maryland in 1864--General Wallace's masterly
defence of Washington--Trip outside our pickets--Confederate General
Bradley Johnson and Colonel Harry Gilmor--The Ishmael Day episode--
Uncle Zoe--Arrest of Judge Richard Grason--Report on certain
"Disloyals"                                                            138


                                 FILE XIX

Trip to New York regarding one Thomas H. Gordon                        149


                                  FILE XX

Thomas