Henry Bascom Smith

“ 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. ”

“ We knew communication with the enemy across the line was unceasing; that interchange of news between Richmond and Baltimore was of daily occurrence; that there were routes, invisible to us, by which traffic in articles contraband of war was carried on with singular [23] success, almost as a legitimate commerce—routes by water as well as by land. General Butler, at Norfolk, exerted himself to discover the traders operating by way of the Chesapeake Bay, but without success ”

“ I had a little taste of the draft riots during that memorable week beginning July 13th, 1863. I was ordered to David's Island, New York Harbor, with seven hundred wounded Confederates from Gettysburg. The demonstrations of the mob of onlookers in Philadelphia were so very unfriendly that we had to use the butts of our muskets to control the crowd. ”

“ Pittman was very cautious; he said every other person in Washington was a detective. I assured him of my sympathy and told him that in New York we did not suffer from such surveillance. He said he was happy to become acquainted. He said he was so timid that he did not dare bring his bonds and scrip along, until after meeting me, when his confidence came to him, and said he would go over to Alexandria and return in the morning ready to do business. ”

“ The most unfortunate thing in connection with the Department and its [80] management is that it is only a pleasant morning's jaunt by rail from Baltimore to Washington. There is another thing you should know, without being left to find it out experimentally, Baltimore is headquarters for a traffic in supplies for the Rebel armies the extent of which is simply incredible. It is an industry the men have nothing to do with. They know better, and leave it entirely to the women, who are cunning beyond belief, and bold on account of their sex. ”

“ The object of seizing the newspapers, telegraphic instruments and records, was to prevent the disaster that must follow the further spreading of the impression created by the bogus message, that our Government was in dire distress.
Copperhead conspirators and Confederate agents here and in Canada, had been and were at work to undermine us by every means. Distress to us, however brought about, was their purpose. They sought to create in the minds of the masses the idea that the war was a failure. ”

“ During the bombardment Francis Scott Key, a prisoner on board the British fleet, wrote the "Star Spangled Banner."
I shall never forget July 4th, 1863. The crucial battle of the war, Gettysburg, was being fought. Meade had just succeeded Hooker in command of the army. Anxiously the wisdom of the change was being watched by every soldier. It was my fortune to be detailed as officer of the guard at Fort McHenry that day. Guardmount is always an inspiring exercise, for then troops are carefully inspected and instructed before entry on their tour of duty. ”

“ When Lee's army reached York, Pa., on the way to Gettysburg, these Copperheads went out to meet the Confederates, and assure them "how they had always loved them." The Confederates wanted tangible proof of this love; they demanded that one hundred thousand dollars in gold be paid at once; else the town of York would be burned. Now, wasn't that unkind! but lovers must ever be ready to prove, you know. ”

“ I expected when I reported to be allowed to take the oath of allegiance and to be allowed to remain at home. I prefer soldiering to anything else in the world, and if I was as strong a Southern man as I was when I first went away, I would stay in the Rebel army, no matter how much hardship I would have to endure. I think I could be a truly loyal citizen.
When I landed at Britton's Bay I did not go home because I wished to come to Baltimore and report. ”

“ The saddest day in our nation's history was Friday, April 14th, 1865. Early in the evening I was introduced to General Grant, in his private car; he was on his way from Washington to Philadelphia. The private car was standing on Howard just north of Camden Street. At that time the cars of through trains were hauled through Baltimore by horses up Howard, down Pratt to President Street, and to the depot.
Mr. Wm. G. Woodside, the paymaster of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, had asked me if I would like to be introduced to the General. We entered the car from the rear door. ”

“ I do not assume that any considerable portion of the Confederates were members of either of the secret societies; soldiers are seldom conspirators.
There were characters in the Confederate service whom a Union man could well admire: Lee, "Stonewall" Jackson, Alexander H. Stevens and others, but there should be contempt only for men who, while holding office under the protecting arm of a magnanimous government, bent every nerve to trip up their benefactor.
Uncle Burdette's service was exclusively with troops. ”

“ Smith is to be mustered out of service, I take pleasure in thus furnishing him with evidence of the meritorious service he has rendered, and my belief that he will be equal to any trust that may be reposed on him, and entirely worthy the confidence of all with whom he may be associated in civil life. ”

“ JOHN WOOLLEY FILE X. [83] 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.
The Secret Service, as its name implies, is the most confidential arm of the service. Its information intelligently guides the commanding general. It gives him to know of the conduct of the enemy and discloses weaknesses, if any exist, in his own armour. ”

“ We put in twenty-four lively hours with the "jumpers" and thieves at Callery's. One may wonder how a decent man could associate with such characters and not betray himself. It is a wonder, but somehow I managed to fit the niche under any circumstances.
Learning that Deegan had gone to New York and would probably be at his brother John's saloon in East 38th Street, I proceeded there. ”

“ 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 [68] 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. ”

“ I remember my great regret was that if we should go down, no one could know what became of us, for I had not reported at Point Lookout and we were unknown on the peninsula. The severity of this storm became a matter of history. Seagoing steamers remained tied to their wharves. The shores of the Chesapeake Bay were strewn with wrecks. The "Adriatic" (our vessel) was iron bottomed and drew six feet of water. The Chesapeake can kick up a sea, give it a northeaster, that would gratify the most hungry tar. ”

“ Lincoln in a communication to Seymour regarding these claims, said: "We are contending with an enemy who, as I understand, drives every able-bodied man he can reach into his ranks, very much as a butcher drives bullocks into a slaughter pen; no time is wasted, no argument is used." ”

“ We did not want to delay innocent persons, so I allowed all to pass off who were of age sufficient to warrant the conclusion that they were not wanted. Then I searched the boat and found a mere boy who appeared to be not over fourteen years old; he was the one wanted. He had been tried and convicted, and was on his way to jail (I think the Albany penitentiary) when he escaped. We started him on again under a guard. When in the Thirtieth Street station of the Hudson River Railroad, in New York City, he was permitted to go into a water closet alone. He never came out the door. ”

“ I found Mr. Martin to be a man evidently well fitted for the job, in appearance tall, rather lank, energetic and gentlemanly. We visited off and on, nearly all day. He believed, from what I told him, that I and my friends were financially interested through Manahan. He explained his position as representing Mr. Trenholm, Secretary of the Confederate Treasury. He told how he had formerly run cotton through the lines on the Mississippi river.
Now that the tobacco had been seized, his plan was to press a claim upon our government, representing the tobacco to belong to Union people. ”

“ There is always a "cloud of mystery" thrown around it by outsiders. But its pursuit, on the inside, is not that of romance, but simply of cold facts; it deals with business propositions. In telling my stories, not being a story writer, I shall tell plain facts, leaving the reader to clothe them with the glamour that a fiction writer would usually apply. ”

“ Small bodies of troops were taken unawares. They never offered a front to large bodies; they would swoop [186] down on a defenceless train, or destroy railroad bridges.
Mosby was a valuable asset to the Confederacy, worth many times Harry Gilmor's Raiders.
I think, without doubt, it took twenty or thirty thousand of our men to guard against his intermittent incursions.
Mosby was an educated man. An impression was abroad then that he was a barbarian; he was not. He was loyally doing for the South what I would have done for the North. ”

“ New York polled about 730,000 votes; Mr. Lincoln's majority was only about 6,700; and of the total vote of 2,401,000 in the great States of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, if less than three per cent. had been cast on the other side, Lincoln would have been defeated and the Union destroyed. A twig may change the trajectory of a cannon ball; a letter "l" misplaced, may have saved the nation.
Will any one conclude that Ferry, the State's Agent, and Donohue and Newcomb, were not acting under orders from their superior, Governor Seymour? ”

“ I have a lot of documents and memoranda that are wearing out, liable to be mislaid or lost. In fact I have already lost one document, a letter from General Lew Wallace, a very valuable and important one (to me) ; it was his letter of presentation to me of the Harry Gilmor sword, written on the eve of his departure for Texas (on a secret mission, known only to Lincoln and [18] Grant) , to receive the capitulation of the Confederate General Slaughter, hence I feel that these matters ought to be recorded somewhere. ”

“ As you must be aware, the recent tragedy, so awful in circumstance, and nationally so calamitous, has, as it well might, inflamed the sensibilities of men and women who esteem their loyalty only a little less sacred than their religion. ”

“ Samuel Lewis was a member of the 9th Cavalry, Virginia. He states that he ran the blockade about June or July, 1863. He sailed from New York on a sloop with fifteen or twenty barrels of whiskey on board. They anchored under Ragged Point, Virginia, on the Potomac river, where they unloaded the whiskey. For some reason the men on the sloop got frightened and left him on the beach. He does not know the name of the sloop nor the name of the Captain, nor any person on board, and he, like the other two, did not know that the vessel intended to run the blockade. ”

“ Certain vessels running wood from near Leonardtown to Washington or Alexandria as a pretext, drop in on the Virginia shore and land goods and recruits for the Rebel Army, so I learned at the Court House.
"John J. Spaulding had a brother, a Doctor, in Leonardtown, who forwarded goods to the river shore for his brother John; he, Dr Spaulding, was drafted and ordered to report. He deserted and went over to the Virginia shore to his brother, and took Blair, Bailey Bowers, a son of the man who hauls goods, and Hayden; they were all drafted men. ”

“ I was arrested Sunday night on the street on my way home, by Government detectives. I gave them a false name. I never was in the Rebel army. Have never taken the oath of allegiance; have never been asked to take it; think my arrest was not justified. ”