Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 74, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 March 1911 — A Spy of President Lincoln [ARTICLE]

A Spy of President Lincoln

By DONALD CHAMBERLIN

j ■ • - Copyright by American Press Association. 1911.

Few persons have ever been aware of the connection President Lincoln had with spies. It is singular how those can be found to db such work, especially since an ignominious death is the penalty for being caught. The strangest feature of the spy system is that the more delicate woman should have done her share in it. One day a' girl about twenty-four years old went to Allan Pinkerton, wbo was at the head of the United States secret service bureau, and told him that she had lived at Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy, and was supposed to be a secessionist. She proposed to go there, intending to offer her services to the Confederate government, to return to Washington and take back information to Richmond. In other words, by pretending to be In the Confederate service she hoped to get information of their intentions or condition for the Federal government. She said her object was to make money to lift her sick mother out of poverty. Pinkerton set several traps for her in order to test her fidelity to the Federal cause and, having satisfied himself of it, sent her to Mr. Lincoln. This was in 1864, when the struggle was drawing to a close. The work Mr. Lincoln gave her to do was to discover what commissary stores were in Richmond and what further supplies could be obtained. Kate Beale went to Richmond, going through the lines' without mnch trouble. Her accent, which she had acquired in the south, was distinctly southern and a great help to her. She wormed herself into the confidence of the wife of an important officer in the Confederate commissary department and asked him if there was not some plan by which she could assist southern sympathizers in the north in running eatables into the south. He told her there were only two ways, by blockade running and by getting a vessel to some spot of southern territory unwatebed by northern troops. She proposed to start an expedition on the last named plan. She was taken to President Davis and to the commissary general. She told them that she knew southern men in Baltimore who would run supplies through if sure they would be met by a southern force. After much discussion a point was named where supplies might be landed. During these discussions the spy learned that if Grant succeeded in taking Petersburg, all supplies being cut off from the south, the troops and people of Richmond ' had almost no provisions whatever to rely upon. The surrender must follow very soon. Having gained the information she wished for. Miss Beale made her preparations to return to Washington. The day before she intended to set out she was met on the street by a man—one of the many Washington southern sympathizers—who was carrying Information to Richmond and who had seen her not long before coming out of Allan Pinkerton’s office. He looked at her with a pair of steel gray eyes under bushy eyebrows and with a more than ordinary interest. She did not remember ever having seen him before, but considering her mission she felt sure she was in danger. She pretended not to notice the man’s interest in her. Walking on, but without turning to see if he followed her, she Spied an empty cab. Beckoning to the driver, he pulled up at the curb, and she entered, telling him to drive her tp the presidential mansion. As she was driven away she saw the man still looking at her. but pretending not to notice her. When she stopped at the president’s home and alighted the man came hurrying up. She went in and asked for Mr. Davis. He was busy at the time; but, having waited awhile to see him. she went away. When she passed out of the door the man withlhe bushy eyebrows had disappeared. Apparently her bluff game had succeeded. But she dare not remain in Richmond a minute longer. Not daring to go directly northward, she concluded to first go south and told the cabman to drive her to the battlefields that had been fought on by Lee and McClellan two years before, and, arriving there, she dismissed him. - Hiring vehicles where she could, walking where she could not hire them, sometimes floating in a stolen boat on the James river, she at last reached Fortress Munroe, In possession of the Federal forces. There she found a naval transport about to leave for the north and. reaching New York, took a train for Washington. When the name of Kate Beale was taken, up to Mr. Lincoln he muttered a “thank God’’ and directed that she should be immediately conducted to him. When she entered the room where he was and he arose to greet her it seemed to her that his tall, lank figure would never cease rising. He took both her hands in his. and his expressive eyes told her how relieved he was to see her. ‘Tbave important news for you, Mr. Lincoln.” she and she told him what she had learned. It was but a month after that that •Grant took Petersburg and the Confederacy collapsed. Kate Beale was paid a large sum from the secret service fund, with which she ministered to her mother’s wants. She said afterward that the work was so fascinating that bad the war continued longer she would have made another trip.