JOHN WOOLLEY
FILE X.
Here begins my service as an assistant provost marshal of the department and chief of the Secret Service—Confederate General Winder's detectives— E. H. Smith, special officer, War Department—Mrs. Mary E. Sawyer, Confederate mail carrier—W. V. Kremer's report on the "Disloyals" north of Baltimore.
The Secret Service, as its name implies, is the most confidential arm of the service. Its information intelligently guides the commanding general. It gives him to know of the conduct of the enemy and discloses weaknesses, if any exist, in his own armour. There is always a "cloud of mystery" thrown around it by outsiders. But its pursuit, on the inside, is not that of romance, but simply of cold facts; it deals with business propositions. In telling my stories, not being a story writer, I shall tell plain facts, leaving the reader to clothe them with the glamour that a fiction writer would usually apply. Were I to attempt to tell something of all my many stories it would weary a reader; so I will try to select some that are really historic, or interesting from their unusual character.
Provost Marshal's Office,
Fort McHenry, Apl. 10, 1864.
Lieut. H. B. Smith,
Asst. Provost Marshal 8th Army Corps.
I have just been informed by Mrs. Myers that a detective of General Winder's staff from Richmond, Virginia, is in the city in disguise.
Respy.,
J. W. Holmes,
Capt. and Provost Marshal.