Show SOUTHERN SPIES I WOJl X WHO EVTIUGUED DESPERATELY DESPER-ATELY FOR THE C EEiC The Old Capitol Prison A Duger ous Role Played by ib Girl In the Confederate Signal Corps A Chapter Chap-ter of Unwritten History Altogether the strangest feature of our greaA civil war of 186165 was the I pre part played by the gentle maidens I maid-ens O the south ID the spy system of the confederacy They outnumbered the men and were shrewder more zealous and unscrupulous During the war it was hard t find a woman south of Mason and Dixons line no matter how fair her face and refined her character char-acter who was really a noncombatant For the first two years of the war all a > id and comfort for the confederacy north of the Potomac were mainly derived I de-rived from the ladies of the ancient I regime at Washington These ripe anii languid beauties who had formed I the court and assisted in the cour assISe te ceremonies ceremo-nies of successive administrations learned with speed and ceriaraty many o the most important secrets of Lin colns administration and imparted them to their friends in the uth As long a this continued Lees spy sy tem was perfect He knew the Union army organization its numbers and its position while the federal generals II were absolutely in the dark in respect res-pect to his In the third year of hostilities this position of affairs became intolerable and the federal government organized a bureau of military information which had command over all the spies the I I ball room and the signal corps As a I I natural consequence the government I soon ascertained the numbers and commanders com-manders of every brigade and regiment in the Confederate army and could tell ai any time within a few thou and Lees entire numerical force HISS MART WATSON One of the means of communication these intriguantes had wa by signall ing across the Potomac to their agents on the Virginia side of the river The I chief among the spies was Miss Mary Wats jn the daughter O Major Roderick Roder-ick G Watson who resided upon a bluff at least one hundred feet above the Potomac river w Popes creek near Port Tobacco Charles county Md Miss Watson was a remarkably pretty girl 23 or 2 years of age with a mop of block hair dark eyes shaded by long lashes and heavy black brows Her carnage was erect and figure slender which made her appear a little above the average height She loved the Confederacy with an ardor so Intense In-tense that it Is believed she would have made any sacrifice for its cause She was the chief female Confederate mat earner with Thomas f Jones north of the Pntnmfl from ahrmt March 1862 to the close rthe war She and Mr Jones successfully managed aged to transmit south all the Confederate Con-federate mail entrusted to their care by the Confederate agents north o the Potomac and received the mail from the south which was to he distributed at the north or t be transmitted to the Confederate agents in Canada and Europe I was owing to her vigilance and untiring zeal that not one of the Confederate mails was captured during j dur-ing the war notwithstanding the neighborhood neigh-borhood of her home was infested with federal detectives spys and soldiers i She also kept up during the entire four years a signal station in one of her I fathers high garret windows by means I of a black shawl The house of Thomas I I Thom-as A Jones with whom she operated j a the headquarters of the Confederate I Confeder-ate SDysA I A FAMOUS V A JAIL The character of the prisoners con I fined in the old capital w a matter of wide variation differing in this I dieling s particular ticular from any other place of confinement I con-finement It held prisoners of state I particularly such a parties charged I with active disloyalty ait the north bounty frauds counterfeiters of Uni I ted States notes and other treacherous otIel tea contractors wno la swindled the government gov-ernment a Confederate spies gv Of the secret agents or spies in the service of the Confederate government there were some who achieved nora rLty a least and they were well represented repre-sented at the old capitol among the latter being the famous Belle Boyd who did the Confederacy some service by her alertness and enterprise as r spy On a particular daring expedition expedi-tion she was arrested and imprisoned as a spy After remaining a prisoner in the old capitol about eleven months she was exchanged for Colonel Michael Corcoran of the Meakhers New York Irish brigade brIgdeTO ARCH SPIES Miss D at the outbreak of the war was a lovely fragile looking girl of 19 remarkable for the sweetness of h e temper and the gentleness of her disposition dispo-sition A few days before the battle otf Bull Run a country market cart stopped stop-ped in the Confederate lines at the door of General Benhams tent A peasant girl alighted from the cart and begged for an immediate interview with the general I was granted General Benham I believe said the Beha beleve young lady in tones which betrayed her superiority su-periority to the disguise she ha as j sncned The puHirag down her long black hair she took from its folds a > note small damp and crumpled But it was by acting upon this informal j dispatch that General Beauregard won j i the victory of Bull Rull < Miss Antonio T Ford was the Del I la by whom General Stcughtom was I I betrayed into the hands of the Confederates Con-federates at Fairfax court house Vir ginla gniaIs Ford was arrested a few days j aferar and conveyed to Old Capitol Capi-tol prison In her possession was found her commission QS honorary aidde camp to General Steuart and important impor-tant letters showing that she held the most intimate relations with the Confederates Con-federates and had been employed on many important missions A LIST OF NOTED PRISONERS I One of the most interesting characters I charac-ters in the old Capitol prison was Mrs I Rose 0 H Greenhow an alleged i southern spy who was arrested on the I Uth of August 1S61 and confined until l cL ik J May 31 1862 when she was sent to Old Point to be delivered into the Confederate I Confed-erate lines Mrs Greenhow was a lnes dashing widow rather tall of small facial outlines and graceful in movement move-ment Her husband had been employe1 in the state department as a translator She was a woman of letters and was born in the south although brought up in Washington She was confined with her own daughter Mrs Rose Green how after she was sent within the Confederate lines went to Paris where she left her daughter in a convent school and then attempted to return to the south but lost her life by drowning drown-ing near Wilmington N C in October Octo-ber 1864 while attempting to run the blockade Her body was recovered and she was burled there with imposing impos-ing military honors While Mrs Green how was incarcerated in the Old Capitol Cap-itol several other interesting southern ladies received the hospitality of Colonel Colo-nel Wood Among these may be mentioned men-tioned Mrs Mary E Gwin the wife of Senator Gwin of California Mrs Philip Phillips wife of an exmember of congress con-gress from Alabama and the sister of Mrs Greenhow and the Misses Fannie and Lena Phillips her daughters Mrs Levy a widow whose husband was formerly in the United States army Mrs Betty A Hopler a lady of fine education ed-ucation and of fascinating manners who was born and reared in Washington Washing-ton but whose husband was a southern south-ern man a Miss Bessie Ferine of Balti more for giving aid and comfort to more ging the enemy A REBELLIOUS CAPTIVE Mrs Baxley was arrested on the 23rd of December 1861 upon her return from 7 n k MISS D AM GOSXIEIVAX BRTJHAtt Richmond where i was said she was in I communication with Jefferson Davis and obtained from him a commission in the Confederate army for a Dr Brown She was a courageous woman and bore an intense hatred toward northern men Her whole soul was devoted to the southern cause and when incarcerated was inclined to be troublesome to the prison authorities Whije confined in the Old Capitol prison she refused to sleep under a blanket marked U S A black silk apron representing a Confederate Con-federate flag was sometimes hung from her window and though ordered by the guard r withdraw it itwas not often that she agreed t the request Colonel N T Colby the officer in immediate command of the prison said that while confined in the Old Capitol her irrepressible irre-pressible hatred to Tankeedom often precipitated tragedy rather than comedy com-edy Going once to the window of her room which was located in the second story of the building she began a scathing and contemptuous criticism of the sentinel underneath until goaded by her tongue he threatened t fire at her if she did not desist and leave the window Fire then you Yankee yu scoundrel you were hired to murder women and here is an opportunity to exercise your trade Stung by the words and thinking to frighten her he raised his piece but aimed above her head and fined the ball crashing through the window windolv over her Not a muscle stirred as she still coolly faced the window as before saying contemp tuously A shot worthy a Yankee load and try another While in the prison she saw her son a Confederate hi Jfk ir = j i I MRS BAXL03Y ATfD THE SBN E soldier die there and attended his funeral I fu-neral in the Congressional cemetery She was accompanied to the cemetery in the same carriage by Mrs Surratt who was afterwards hanged for alleged I complicity wa in the assassination of Presi complcity I dent Lincoln and a couple o guards j I derailed for the purpose I These prisoners with Belle Boyd I made a very interesting set at the Old Capitol and amused themselves by singing Maryland My Maryland i They sang it at all hours night or day i in defiance of the guard who would often order them t be silent to which Belle Boyds reply was I shant do it And then she would repeat the line I Huzza she spurns the northern scum and suiting the action to the wor she would seize a broom and apply ap-ply it to the part of the floor trodden by the guard I J THOMAS SCHARF A LL D I |