FOOTNOTES:
THE OATH
| District of Columbia, | } |
| County of Washington |
I, .........................., of ................... do solemnly swear on the Holy Evangelist of Almighty God, without any mental reservation, that I will at any and all times hereafter, and under all circumstances, yield a hearty and willing support to the Constitution of the United States and to the Government thereof; that I will not, either directly or indirectly, take up arms against said Government, nor aid those now in arms against it; that I will not pass without the lines now established by the Army of the United States, or hereafter from time to time to be established by said Army, nor hold any correspondence whatever with any person or persons beyond said lines so established by said Army of the United States during the present rebellion, without permission from the Secretary of War; also, that I will do no act hostile or injurious to the Union of the States; that I will give no aid, comfort or assistance to the enemies of the Government, either domestic or foreign; that I will defend the flag of the United States and the armies fighting under it from insult and injury, if in my power so to do; and that I will in all things deport myself as a good and loyal citizen.
Subscribed and sworn to before me, this ........ day of ....................
........................
[B] Colonel William P. Wood was born in Alexandria, Va., on the 11th of March, 1820, and died at the Soldiers’ Home, Washington, D. C., March 20, 1903.
He was a veteran of the Mexican and Civil Wars, and one of the survivors of the Walker filibustering expedition to Nicaragua. When the Mexican War broke out he enlisted in the mounted rifles under Sam. H. Walker, the noted Texan Ranger. After serving out his term, he returned to Washington and married a Maryland lady.
When Stanton became Secretary of War he appointed Wood to be Superintendent of the Military Prisons of the District of Columbia, and concentrated the “State” prisoners and all others in the Old Capitol, to which was afterward added the Carroll Prison (Duff Green’s Row).
Wood was the first Chief of the United States Secret Service when it became part of the Treasury Department.
At the time of his death a bill was before Congress to pay him $15,000 for his services in the famous Brockway case. Wood captured the author and secured the plate of this noted 7.30 Bond counterfeit. The work on this bond was so well executed that it passed as genuine until Jay Cooke & Co. forwarded $84,000 to the United States Treasury for redemption.
[C] When General Pope was placed in command of the Army of Virginia, he issued a General Order to his soldiers which virtually gave them unbridled license to plunder and destroy, by depriving the citizens of the section of country through which they were passing of even the trifling amount of protection afforded by safeguards, as may be seen by the copy of the Order here shown:
| Headquarters, Army of Virginia | } |
| Washington, July 25th. |
General Orders No. 13.—Hereafter no guards will be placed over private houses or private property of any description whatever. Commanding officers are responsible for the conduct of the troops under their command, and the articles of war and the regulations of the army provide ample means for restraining them to the full extent required for discipline and efficiency. Soldiers were called into the field to do battle against the enemy, and it is not expected that their force and energy shall be wasted in protecting private property of those most hostile to the government. No soldier serving in this army shall be hereafter employed on such service.
By Command of Major-Gen. Pope,
(Signed), Geo. D. Ruggles,
Col. A. A. G. and Chief of Staff.
[D] Belle Boyd had a most remarkable career. Her life story, with the account of her daring exploits, is more like romance than reality. She was born in Martinsburg, Va., in May, 1843, and was little more than a school girl when the war broke out. Her father, John Read Boyd, was an officer in the Confederate army. The act which first brought her into notice was the shooting by her of a Federal soldier who assailed her mother—she seized her father’s pistol and shot him dead. She then threw all her energy into the struggle. On information furnished by her, Stonewall Jackson drove Banks out of the Shenandoah Valley, for which service Jackson sent a special dispatch thanking her. Her daring led to her capture and imprisonment in the Old Capitol for three months. She was then exchanged for Colonel Corcoran, of the 69th New York Regiment. She went South, was commissioned as Captain in the Confederate army, and served as courier and in the Secret Service.
After the battle of Gettysburg she went home, was arrested and sent to Carroll Prison, Washington, D. C., where she was confined for seven months, and sentenced to be shot, but through the efforts of influential parties she was exchanged for General Nathan Goff, of West Virginia. She afterward sailed from Wilmington, N. C., in the steamer Greyhound, with important dispatches for England, but after a chase the steamer was captured by the Federal cruiser Connecticut, and Belle was brought back, court-martialed in Boston, and again sentenced to be shot. Her sentence was afterward commuted, and she was escorted to the Canadian border by a deputy marshal, with the understanding that if she ever returned to the United States she would be put to death.
She died in Kilbourn, Wis., in June, 1890.
Superintendent Wood, of the Old Capitol Prison, is reported as saying of her: “Her face was not what would be called pretty—her features indicated firmness and daring, but her figure was perfect, and a splendid specimen of feminine health and vigor. She was a good talker, very persuasive, and the most persistent and enthusiastic Rebel who ever came under my charge. Her father sent her, from time to time, large sums of money, most of which was expended for the comfort of the Confederate prisoners in the Old Capitol.”
[E] It was in a corner of this yard, a few years later, after the close of the war, that poor Wirz, condemned and tried by a Military Court-Martial, was judicially murdered.
[F] Regarding the Oath, a writer in the New York Freeman’s Journal vented his feelings thus:
THE OATH OF ALLEGIANCE
Parody on the Soliloquy of Hamlet.
To swear or not to swear, that is the question.
Whether ’tis nobler in a man to suffer
Imprisonment, exile and poverty,
Or take the oath amidst a sea of troubles,
And by submission, end them? To swear, to lie,
Once more; and, by a lie, to say we end
Starvation, nakedness and all the ails
That Rebs are heir to—’tis a perjury
Devoutly to be wished. To swear—to lie;
To lie!—perchance a change; aye, there’s the rub,
For in that change the angry Rebs may come,
When from these lands the Feds are driven out,
Must give us pause; there’s the respect
That makes a man of honor hesitate.
But who would bear at the dead hour of night
To be ’roused from his sleep—dragged out of bed—
To be locked up in jail—to hold his tongue—
Before a mock tribunal to be tried,
And then condemned for deeds he knew not of,
When he himself these evils might avoid
By perjury? Who would detectives bear—
To look about before he opes his mouth,
But that the dread of bayonets and chains—
The provost-marshal, from whose iron grip
No victim e’er escapes, puzzles the will,
And makes us swallow every oath that comes,
Than fly to evils that we dread still more?
Thus, love of ease makes patriots of us all!
And thus our sympathies are sicklied o’er
With confiscation, banishment and death!
With this regard, we doff our principles,
And swallow Abe, the Nigger and the Oath!
Ned Cracker.
[H] The Confederate iron-clad Virginia (Merrimac) was abandoned and blown up off Craney Island, Virginia, on the 11th of May, 1862, after the evacuation of Norfolk by the Confederate forces.
[I] In the official records, War of the Rebellion, reports of surgeons and medical directors to the Commissary-General of Prisoners verifies the statements made by the Confederate prisoners as to the wanton shooting of prisoners, the prevalence of scurvy and great number of deaths from same, and to the unnecessary sufferings of prisoners from causes which could be remedied.
[J] John H. Barnes joined Mosby, and while scouting with Lieutenant Williams and a few men was captured, taken to Washington and put in the Old Capitol Prison; was tried by court-martial and sentenced to be shot. This sentence was commuted to imprisonment in penitentiary for twenty years. He was afterward released, but was so broken down that he died soon after his release.
Frank Fox joined Mosby; was elected second lieutenant of Company C; was especially mentioned for conspicuous gallantry in Colonel Mosby’s report of fight with Cole’s Battalion, February 21, 1864; was mortally wounded September 3, 1864, in fight with Sixth New York Cavalry, taken prisoner, and died some days after at Sandy Hook, Md.
Albert Wrenn joined Mosby; was elected second lieutenant of Company B, October 1, 1863; wounded and horse killed at Berryville, August 13, 1864; died Washington, D. C., November 6, 1910, and buried at Chantilly, November 8, 1910.
Philip Lee also joined Mosby.
[L] The “Mosby Man” here mentioned, was Joseph Nelson, afterward Lieutenant of Company A, 43d Battalion Virginia Cavalry, Mosby’s Rangers.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.