Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 September 1884 — How Whisky Saved Washington. [ARTICLE]

How Whisky Saved Washington.

The story has often been told, but I do not know that. it was ever verified. Montgomery Blair told it to me himself a year or two before he died. We of Washington can never forget the threatening days in July, 1864, when the city was defenseless, and a large force of rebels, under Early and Breckinridge, was not ten miles distant from the capital. No one denies now that the rebels could have marched in and taken Washington almost unimpeded. The Sixth Corps of the Army of the Potomac was en route to defend the city, but it was not quick enough. The enemy was halted at Silver Springs, the country residence of the elder Blair, and very near the residence of Montgomery Blair. Upon the approach of the army the families of both

fled to Washington. The rebel officers searched the house and founain the cellar of Frank P. Blair’s house a barrel of whisky. This did the business. Nearly all the officers became doonk on this whisky, and many of the men were in a like condition. Snch an orgie was never known. The dresses of the ladies were taken possession of, and in them the officers masque aded and held a jollification the whole night long, falling into a drunken slumber in the morning, and unable to do any duty whatever. Early and Breckinridge, riding np in the morning, saw the situation, and merely said: “It is too late,” and so Washington was saved.—“Earnsdell,” in Philadelphia Press.