Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 105, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 May 1917 — Page 2

Famous Secret Service Agents in Civil War

TONEWALL JACKSON’S Valley campaign was one of ~ the great deeds of history. Not since Nap.>h'»n lime have men so gUSK dazzled as they were by that greaF exploit of his. Yet Stonewall might have gone down the Valley in defeat had it not been for a little college girl named Belle Boyd. On May 23, 1802, after Jackson (had routed Banks and driven him in confusion up the line of the Shenandoah, he wrote this letter: “Miss Belle Boyd: I thank you for myself and for the army for the Immense service that you have rendered your country today.” The Union General Shields was quartered at Miss Boyd’s house. He held a council of war there. Miss Boyd bored a bole in the floor of her chamber, which was over Shield's room, and lay there with her ear to It throughout the night. The next morning Stonewall Jackson was in full possion of the plans for a great battle, and was able to defeat the Unionnrmy. She kept* - up her valiant work for the Confederacy until the Union officers began to suspect her. and Jackson ordered her to move from her Shenandoah arrested by the Federtils anti had flirted her way to liberty—for she was a pretty girl, despite the libelous photographs of her. In Winchester. Jackson conferred upon her a commission as captain in the Confederate army. By this time the whole North had become aware of the services she was, rendering the Confederacy, and every officer and private was on tire, alert to get. her. Yet she escaped untiflSM.’w’hen she Was caught on a blockade runner. Her captor lost his heart to her, deserted the navy, and married her, and the prince of Wales, afterward Edward VII. atLeniled the wedding. -* Belle Boyd is the most famous of the spies, hut there are many others who deserve at least as much fame as she won. One of them was Elibabeth B. Van Lew, who had the incredible courage to act as a —Union - -spy in R iehmond ih roughOUf the war. There was not a moment during those four years when Lizzie Van Lew could hear a step behind her on the street without expecting to have somebody tap her on the shoulder and say, “You are my prisoner.” She did not confine her activities to spying and reporting what she had discovered to the Union generals: she hid escaped prisoners in her house, she dealt out messages to soldiers in Libby from their homes; her resources were endless. One of her favorite devices was a metal platter wßh-a-dmible bottom, in which she used to pretend to convey food to tlu* prisoners. Once a Coiifc.l.-i ;ii.- soldier, whose suspicion had been aroused, insisted on examining it: but that day Lizzie, who had teen expecting some move of this kind, had filled the false bottom not with secret messages but with scalding water, and the soldier dropped it with a shriek. Lizzie Van Lew had a secret recess in her house, a hiding place for dispatches. Sometimes she would move a hand idly toward this recess, and an hour or two biter some old negress. apparently dusting the foom. would slip her hand back of the mantel and find a dispatch which would go to Grant that da vr It vvas-Lizzie Van Lew who stole the body of Col. Ulric Dahlgren and smuggled it out of Richmond. one of the most daring exploits of the vvaf. Rosa B. Greenh'ow was a Confederate spy in Washington who dazzled the Union in the early days of the war. It was one of her assistants, a Miss Duval of Washington, who brought Beauregard the first news of McDowell’s advance and enabled him and Johnson to foil the Federal plans for the' campaign'of Bull Run. Mrs. Greenhow wnt Miss Duval to Beauregard on July » iv " j ng Idm lhe first news <»f ihe contemplated advance, and on July 16 she sent him word of the forces and the contemplated movement of the Union army. He promptly wired the information Davis, mid the word wns-sent to Johnson, which resulted in his advance and the terrible downfall of the Northern cause. The Northern secret service was technically under the direction of Gen. Lafayette C. Bakei, a man without scruple. After the war Baker Insisted on taking to himself most of the credit for what had been done In detective work, but as a matter of fact the. best work done in the war was done by volunteers, men and women, who were willing to risk a shameful death to serve their country. Many of them were private soldiers; some were enlisted among Allan Pinkerton's detectives. Of these the most famous was Timothy Webster, dne Of the lived. Webster succeeded in getting the South to believe in him to such an extent that he came near being made the colonel of an Alabama regiment; •nd in Baltimore he was a member of the Knights at Liberty. He even becatub a trusted emissary of the Confederate war department at Richmond, •nd at Pittsburgh a Union mob tried to lynch him •a a Confederate spy. Nothing saved him but the arrival of Allan Pinkerton, with a drawn revolver. «Dd Webster and Pinkerton bucked against the wall nnd stood off the mob until help arrived. Webster was fipally Captured in Richmond, ant!

How Belle Boyd wdn a victoryfor Stonewall JacksonExploits of Tim Webster and Elizabeth Kan Lew for Union cause-Many interesting personalities of those other war times brought to mind by Memorial Day.

was betrayed by one of his associates, who confessed to a man he supposed to be a Uatholic priest. The man was not a priest, but a disguised Confederate soldier. The secrets of the Confessional, of course, did not apply in such a case, and the brave spy was hanged. Hattie Lewis, Webster’s sweetheart, got an audience with Mrs. Jefferson Davis and begged her, with tears in her eyes, to save the man she loved. Instead, Hattie Lewis Herself was convicted of being a Union spy and served a year’s imprisonment. There was one girl who won the rank of major in the Union army. She was Pauline Cushman, an actress, who became one of the best and most famous spies in the Union army. Often and often " "Major Pauline noted-as-a sort-of advance guanl to the Federal army. Twice the Confederates captured her. lint on both occasions she escaped. The first time she came near being released after a first search, but a second revealed the fact that in a hidden recess In her garters there were orders from Thomas. She was about to he hanged when Thomas captured Nashville and saved her. Secretary Stanton commissioned her as major in the Union army, and she was the only woman who held that rank except Maj. Belle Reynolds, the wife of a captain in the Seventieth Illinois, who went to the war with her husband and performed such prodigies of valor that Stanton honored her with a commission. Sam Davis, the boy spy of the Confederacy, left an imperishable record of heroism. was only fourteen when he joined the Confederate service, at first as a private soldier. His talents as a spy-werg-greaL and throughout Bragg’s long warfart* in Tennessee he continually made use of the brave little fellow. Davis was finally betrayed and.jeaptureiLliuNaslixil le.—He- - was takenbefore Gen. Grenville M. Dodge, whose story of the hearing makes a companion, piece to the last days of Nathan Hale. Here is the story as General Dodge tells It: . “I took him to my private office and told him it was a very serious charge brought against him; that he Wits a spy, and from what I found upon his person, he had accurate information .in regard to my army, and I must finow where he obtained it. I told him he was a young man and did not seem to realize the danger he was In. Up to that time he had said nothing, but then he replied in a most respecffiil and dignlfie<l"jnanner: “ ‘General Dodge. I knots the danger of my situation, and I am willing so take the consequences.' “‘I know that DI have to die. but I will not tell where T got the Information. And there is no power on earth that can make me tell. You are doing your duty as a soldier, and I am doing mine. If I have to die. 1 do so feeling that I am. doing my duty to God and my oountry.’ “I pleaded with him and urged him with all the power that I possessed to give me some chance to save his life, for I had discovered that he was a most admirable young fellow; with the highest character and strictest Integrity. He then said: ’lt is useless to talk to me. I do not intend to do it. You can court-martial me, but I will not betray the trust reposed in me.' "Hr thanked me for Hie interest I had taken in him, and I sent him back to prison. I immediately called a court-martial to try him." Even then the boy received offers of liberty if he would betray his confederate. He would not.

ULYSSES S. GRANT MAN AND. SOLDIER

—By a practically unanimous vertlict, I'lysses S; Grant is named as one of the few great military clneffains of~tife"Worßt; " And the closest scrutiny of his work will convince us that his fame rests upon the most substantial foundation; upon success unqalified and unquestioned r upon the carrying through to its fulfillment of the most stupendous projects, involving such perplexing and elusive problems as are only to be encountered in the art of war, Henry E. Wing writes in the New York Christian Advocate. And lu- won his success without any of the p {o^y--p^rs»ma4 -=advmrtages wltlr -which;-r-hr-the* ’popular fancy, the Ideal hero Is endowed; Grant was not h liandsqme man. I mean there was nothing, specially attractive in bis bearing. He Jiuxuigi beelL. InTrst*man F attd- he was. of a certain soft, riding, occasionally, the most fractious animals, and riding always like one of the furies. But. mounteti or afoot, he had a careless and almost slouching manner, and he cut a pretty poor figure by the side of the stately apd dignified side7oFSliw dashing Sheridan and Hancock, His Jiabitual conduct was exceedingly quiet and reserved, giving one the impression of innate diffidence, bordering on real liashfulness. His ordinary conversation was on the most commonplace topics, and I have no recollection of his ever giving expression, by look or language, to the extraordtriary genius with which he was-certainly endowed. The trait for which he was best esteemed, at the time I knew him. was his tenacity. But I am certain that it was not appreciated. How, while sturdily holding to his main purpose, he submitted the details of the campaign to almost and l sometimes most radical changes. His, message to General Halleck, from Spottsylvanla. “I purpose to fight It out on this line If it takes all summer," was interpreted! to mean that he would not alter hfs course qtie lota, whatever might happen. This did him great injustice, as representing him to be

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN. RENSSELAER, IND.

The only thing lie wrote was a short note to his mother saying that he had been captured and was to be hanged and was not afraid to die. As he stood on the scaffold a messenger arrived from General Dodge promising him immunity if he -would reveal fhe-ideiitity of his confrdertrfev-The- . rope was around his neck: the boy answered: “If I had a thousand lives I would lose them all here before I would betray my friends dr the confidence of my informant." Then be turned to the executioner and said casually, “I am ready.” The trap was sprung and one of the heroes of the Confederacy was dead. He was then sixteen years old. There was an underground railroad of Confederate sympathizers running through Maryland and Virginia, headed by Custis Grymes of Virginia. He came of the family which gave a wife to George Washington, and many of his emissaries were high-born women. One was a clergyman. Rev. Dr. Stuart, an irreproachable Episcopalian. When the dashing but hopeless raid on Vermont by a Confederate force in Canada was. ordered in 1864. Grymes sent a girl named Olivia Floyd, who e?meea led the order 4a her hair, 11 wat he fa shion then for women to wear a early net over their locks; and Olivia hid' the documents there and ”maffe“awild ride onTf bitter ratd ntght'trrtn the tines, where sin* delivered tin* oi*ders„thaL. resulted in the attack of St. Albans. Gen. Jim Lane had a woman spy named Elizabeth W. Stiles, whose husband was murdered before her eyes by Quantrell’s guerrillas in 1862. Border warfare was merciless-; there was something Indian about it. Mrs. Stiles devoted her life ta wngeance. She wasuqulte deliberate about it. She.went East and put her children in school. an d-then came back to the West and put herself under Lane’s orders. She faced death many a time; once she arraigned before Sterling “Price himself,~but she made him believe she was a Confederate spy, and he gave her a horse and firearms and sell! her on her way. Ong Union spy. Mack Williams, found himself in the Confederate line face to face with his own brother, a Confederate soldier. “I’m a Yankee spy,” said Williams; “you’re a rebel. Betray me if you want to-; it’s your duty.” It was a hard and delicate question, but the ties of nature won out over patriotism. General Baker lias recorded the fact that for two years a farm near Fairfax Court House was frequented by Union officers, none of whom had the least suspicion that a daughter of the house was a Confederate spy. She was. Baker says, “a young and decidedly good-looking woman, with pleasing, insinuating manners?’' She appeared to be a violent Union symirtlthl/.ei. yet al night she used to go out and meet Colonel Mosby and give him the information she had gained from the credulous Union officers. Baker finally caught her by sending a woman spy who gained her conJ fidence. —New York Times.

a very stubl>orn"-nnnr;~ while, on the contrary?among Grant’s most valuable characteristics were his operr-mindetln-ess-und-hls wonderful faculty of putting lessons once learned into practice. Behind that impassive face this silent man was holding a substantial scheme for putting down the secession. This scheme embraced the general movements of all the great armies of the United States and involved the intelligent co-operation of half a score of loyal general commanders. Grant had evidently such implicit confidence in this general phm that no incident of battle, march or siege <-ould disturb his equunimi ty. Only once-in my presence in that whole ettinpaign (lid hr betray the slightest perturbation or vexation. That was with his chief subordinate on The fatal morning of the Petersburg mine explosion. After the mine had been fired ir was absolutely necessary that rhe assault should be Instantly made. We ryalted a Iqng time to hear the cheersGof the men as»they would charge through tlie breach. At list, facing the stalwUrt y commander of the .army, lie cried: “Why don't the boys go in?” And on Meade—to whom this seemed a new idea—starting to stammer some reply. Grant gave 111 m one look of Intense disgust, and, wheeling his horse, rushed headlong to the front. An example of thi* resfllute faith occurred at the Wilderness. When affairs were in the most 4eFrßd4Lconfriri4m mi. mirJef t, an. rode-up. and reported; In an excited manner, that Han cock had been cut off and captured. Grant was sitting on the ground with his back to a tree. He did not even get to liis feet. He quietly took his pipe from his mouth and said that he did not believe it. And he was right. It was during this battle that he gave me a characteristic message to insert in my dispatch to the Tribune. “Tell the people that everything is going svziminingly down here," This was in the midst of an engagement which was at least Indecisive, and in which all,his plans were being frustrated. 7

Kin Hubbard Essays

NEW HOPE FOR THE FARMER

It wuz a message o' hope which Miss Germ Williams, editress o’ “Th’ Hen & Home.” delivered t* th' members o’ th’Aristie Ridge Grange last night. After payin’ a beautiful tribute t’ th’ silver spangled Hamburg, an’ incldentally Callin' attention t’ th' inestimable value o’ parched corn as an incentive t’ lay. Miss Williams spoke in cl*.’ most optimistic manner regardin’ th’ efforts now bein' put forward looking’ t’ a still closer comminglin’ o” pleasure an' plowin'. She said that th’ day wuz not fer distant when th' irksome duties o’ th’ farm would be minimized t’ such a degree that they would in no way interfere with 1 ' croquet an' motorin’.’ r I] . .77"? .. . - “Th' exodus from th’ fields t’ th’ citles." said th' speaker, “is doin’ much t’ cut down th’ operatin' expenses o’

“Agriculture, Unlike Other Professions. Will Never Be Overcrowded on Account o’ th’ Plowin’ an’ Those Who Are Left Behind Will Enjoy a Monopoly o’ th’ Food Producin’ Business o’ th’ Country.

th’ farm. Agriculture, unlike . other professions, will never be overcrowded on account o’ th’ plowin’, an' those o' you who are left behind will eventually enjoy a monopoly o’ the food producin’ business o’ th’_ country.” Miss Williams congratulated her hegrers on th’ fact thaLJjbLpresentJtariff schedule makes it possible fer a farmer t’ enjoy Argentine beef without feelte’ like he wuz robbin’ lumsudf After a long an’ interestin’ description o’ th’ winter beaches o’ America an’ th’ witchery o’ th' tropical sun.

TH’ HAT STORE LOOKIN’ GLASS

•Many things come up in life that cause us t’ halt fer th’ instant an’ take a hurried invoice, of ourselves — little things that set us t’ thinkin’— things that bring us t’ our senses an’ cause us t' ponder. Sometimes as a result our whole course in life is changed. Other avenues open before us, an’ we begin life anew. One o’ th’ most potent things along this line is th’ hat store mirror, th’ only means Ky which we kin see ourselves as others see us. Many of us go about our daily affairs absorbed in our own importance an’ all unmindful o’ th’ flight o’ time. Our face is entrusted t’ th’ care of an Indifferent barber, an’, aside from a hurried mornin 5 peep in th' home mirror, or a cursory glance in a plate glass window, we give no further thought. We’ve not forgotten how fine

We’re Appalled at th’ Things That Kin Happen t’ a Face Between a Spring an’ a Fall Hat. On Our Brow New Wrinkles Parallel th’ Ole Single Track System, While a Score o’ Competin' Lines Are Well Under Way Across Our Temples.

we looked last-May when we bought a straw hat, so what’s th’ use o’ worrytn’? Sometimes an ole acquaintance acts strangely when we greet him, but we think it’s only our imagination. Sometimes we’rg snubbed or slighted, but we attribute it t’ jealousy, or t’ somethin’ we’ve said or dpne. It never occurs t’ us that our face is out o’ drawin’. How could it be? Didn’t It look all right in May, when we bought a straw hat? If we ask our wife t’ go t’ th’ theater or a card game she withers us with a pityin’-glance an’ declines. We wonder if she’s ailin’ an’ hates t’ tell us. Surely she’s not growin’ tire<l o’ anyone that looked as good in May as we did. Along about, th’ middle o’ November, after we’ve concluded that we wuz mistaken -in thinkin’ we could git by another season in our last winters derby, we trip Mght-heartedly t’ a hat store. "Show me a 7% in whatever they’re wearin’ this fall. Joe,” we say t‘ th’ clerk, who pretends t’ know us. Then comes th’ awakenin’. One good, cloae range suryey of our face an’ our ole self-satisfied expression is sone

Miss Williams discussed certain aspects o’ Paris and London. Returnin’ t’ th land she told her hearers that tires Juuiki now be sent by parcels post an’ that it costs our government fer more t’ shave our United States senators than it would cost t’ arrest th' ravages <>’ hog cholera in North America. “Th’ revenue from one hog t’day.” said thp speaker, “makes it possible fer th’ most remote farmer t’ hear th’ clear, distinct notes o’ th' most celebrated singers in th world right in bis own drawin’ room.” Miss Williams advised farmers t’ devote th' leisure hours between feeding durin’ th’ harsh months o’ th’ year t’ readin’ up on th’ 1018 models an’ famillainzin* 'ems<*lveN with th* many new inventions makin' fer greater lux-ui-y nif speerl. —Farmers' wives were cautioned not t’ allow the’r love o’

home t’ blind ’em t’ th' duties they owe t’ society. “With th’ currency question out o’ th’ way an’ so many inventions under way," said th’ speaker,'“fer motor driven and ’ self operatin’ Implements th’ farmer may well be happy in th’ prospects of a fer greater return fer less work in th’ future.” “Th’ dawn o’ a new era is gittln’ in “an’ a long delayed day is jest around th' corner when ther'll be nothing t’ do on th’ farm but dress fer town.”

like a dream,-closely foilered by our - well known optimistic, views o' life. We’re appalled at th' things that kin happen't’ a face between a spring an’ fall hat. On our brow many new wrinkles parallel th’ ole single track system, while a score o’ competin’ lines are well under way across our temples. ’Here an’ there a liver spot is startin’ in business. Growin’ bolder, we take a look at th’ side elevation o’ our face ah’ our.fears are confirmed. Our profile has undergone many important changes fer th’ worst since we bought a straw hat. We note an embryo chin. It is jest formin’ under our reg’lar chin. Th’ lines of our summer smile refuse t’ disappear when we frown. They’re there t’ stay. Our healthy fullness o’ face has dropped about seventy points an’ settled in our neck. Our ear lobes are shrinkin’ an’ inclined

t* cu rl. P repu red fertlTworst we take a took at th’ back o’ our head. Th’ barber has been neglectful an’ we hardly know th- place.- Soberly turnin’ t’ th’ clerk we close th’ deal like we wuz buyin’ a shroud. Once out In th’ bracin’ fall air we regain our Strength an’ buy a pair o’ Indian clubs an’ a jar o’ massage cream. We’re growin’ ole an’ must Join th’ allies against th’ ravages o’ time. A woman is as young as she’s dressed, but a man is as old as he feels after he looks in a hat store mirror. (Copyright, Adams Newspaper Service.)

All Ways.

Husband—ls you don’t care for motoring, why are you so insistent about my getting an automobile? Wise —Because, dear, we must keep in the running.

Too Long.

Paul’s father wanted to know why he did not like to practice his music lesson. "Aw, It takes me all day t«L practice a half hodr,” he repllak