Secrets of the Late Rebellion, Now Revealed for the First Time

by Jacob R. Freese

"Then, sir, you shall read no others while the war continues, and I now arrest you on the charge of treason," said the Lieutenant-Colonel.

This, of course, still further increased the astonishment and confusion of the congregation. For a few moments every one seemed utterly dumbfounded. Meanwhile the Lieutenant-Colonel and his party left their seats, advanced near the altar, and told the minister he must accompany them to the general headquarters. The minister asked whether he might not first go to the vestry-room to lay aside his surplice and gown. The Lieutenant-Colonel answered, "No; come as you are." He then came out from the chancel, joined his arresters, and, in full canonicals, without hat or cap, marched with them through the streets, several squares, to the general headquarters.

All this had been done without any knowledge whatever on the part of General Montgomery or Judge Freese, nor could any two have been more astonished than they were on seeing the minister and hearing the story of his arrest. The General was annoyed beyond measure, and, for a time, hardly knew what to say or to do. The Judge was decidedly more self-possessed, but, of course, said nothing. The General, turning to the Judge, asked him if he had heard anything of the case before. The Judge then told the General all that he had known, and all that he had said about it, as has been heretofore detailed. As he, the Judge, had done nothing, and had refused to do anything, concerning it, of course he had made no report of it to the General, since there was nothing to report. The General, turning to the Lieutenant-Colonel and his party, said that he entirely agreed in sentiment with his Assistant Adjutant-General; that there was no reason, not the slightest, for the arrest of this minister; that every officer engaged in the arrest had made himself liable to be put in arrest, and tried by court-martial, for doing that which he had no right to do as a military man; and that the minister, upon complaint to the Provost-Judge, might have every one of them arrested and tried by the Provost-Court for assault and for a disturbance of public services. In conclusion, the General discharged the minister from arrest and told him that he might go to his own home, when, turning to the cavalry officers, he said, "The sooner you can get back to your own quarters, and the closer you remain there hereafter, the better will it be for you."

As might have been expected, all this created a great amount of excitement on the streets and about the headquarters. The minister in his white robes, in charge of several officers in full uniform, and with the entire congregation following after, was such a sight as had never been seen in Alexandria before. Everybody—men, women, and children—who saw it, followed after, until, when the headquarters were reached, there were several hundred persons present. When the General's decision in the case became known to the crowd, there was a general approval, as much among Unionists as among secessionists; but to this there were some exceptions. The officers and their informers, who had been balked in their mad purposes, felt chagrined and angry, and left the headquarters with scowling faces, as though still bent on mischief. The General and the Judge went to their private quarters, in a building across the street, nearly opposite to the general headquarters. They supposed the trouble ended, and that they should hear nothing more of it.

In about an hour thereafter, when the General and the Judge had just risen from their mess-table, an orderly came rushing into their quarters, to say that a large crowd of cavalry officers, soldiers, and citizens were gathered about the Episcopal church, on E Street (the one in which the minister had been arrested), and that they were threatening to burn it. The General at once buckled on his sword, and told his Adjutant to do the same. Both put their revolvers in their belts. The Judge then told the orderly to hasten to the Provost-Marshal's office, and tell him to come himself, and bring as many officers and men with him as possible to the Episcopal church on E Street,'and there await further orders from the General or himself. The General and the Judge then went to the church in all possible haste, and found, as had been told them, several hundred soldiers and citizens gathered about it. In a little while after, the Provost-Marshal, with a considerable number of his guard, appeared on the ground. "Burn it! burn it! burn it!" with intermingling oaths, could be heard every now and then from the mouths of half-crazed cavalry soldiers. The General and the Judge worked their way through the crowd, and took their stations directly in front of the church. The Provost-Marshal and his guard also worked their way through the crowd to the same place. The General then told the Judge to command the peace, in as loud a voice as he could. The Judge did so, and then added, "If any one attempts to set fire to this church, he will be shot down at once—and all persons, whether soldiers or citizens, who are found within five hundred yards of this church building after thirty minutes shall have expired, will be arrested by the provost-guard, put in jail until to-morrow, and then brought before the Provost-Court for disturbing the peace and violating the sanctity of the Sabbath." Scarcely had the Judge finished his proclamation, before the crowd commenced to move off, and before the thirty minutes had expired not a soldier or citizen could be seen on the street, save the General and his party. Guards were then stationed at every approach to the church, with orders that they should be regularly relieved and the stations maintained until otherwise ordered.

There was no other attempt to set fire to that church, nor to any other in Alexandria, after that, so long as "Judge Freese's bayonet court" continued to have an existence—nor could there have been a more signal instance to exemplify the acknowledged power of the court than the one just related. The cavalry regiment spoken of numbered over one thousand officers and men, nearly every one of whom held sentiments much the same, if not precisely the same, as the Lieutenant-Colonel. Within a circle of a few miles were dozens of other regiments, nearly all of whom held similar sentiments. Had that one church been burned on that day, probably every other church and two-thirds of all the buildings in the city would have been burned during the following thirty days. To prevent that church from being burned, there were present not more than fifty officers and men, as against at least one thousand of an opposite sentiment. In physical power the one was as nothing to the other; but, after the Judge had finished his announcement, there was not one of the thousand who stopped for a moment to question the power of which the Judge was the representative. Had a like power existed, and had a like power been exercised in other cities of the South occupied by Union troops, how many millions upon millions of dollars' worth of property might have been saved from the flames!

We will give only one other instance under this head, though, if time and space permitted, it would be easy to give scores.

Mr. D. lived upon one of the most fashionable streets of Alexandria, and his family had long been regarded as among the F. F. V.'s of the State. He owned lands in other parts of Virginia on which he had a large number of slaves, and always kept a few at his Alexandria residence to wait upon his family. For some cause Mr. D. did not leave Alexandria when other secessionists left, though he took the precaution to send all his slaves away except two, both females—mother and daughter—the one about forty, the other about twenty years of age.

Mr. H. lived next door to Mr. D., and though a Northern man by birth, had long been a resident and merchant of Alexandria. He had always been conscientiously opposed to owning slaves, though he had hired them of others as family servants ever since his residence in the city. The families of Messrs. D. and H. had long been on the most friendly terms, and continued so, notwithstanding the war, up to the very day on which the incident occurred which we are now about to relate.

For some weeks previous to this day, Mrs. H. had occasionally heard terrible, unearthly screams next door, and had wondered again and again what on earth it could mean. She had mentioned the fact to her husband, and he had suggested that it was probably the cry of servants being punished; but being upon the most friendly terms, as before stated, with their neighbors, they could not, and did not, say a word about it to others. Thus matters went on until the day in question. Again Mrs. H. heard the same fearful, heart-rending cries, and they continued on and on until her very heart grew sick and faint. Just then she heard some one calling her name loudly from the back yard of the next building, and, stepping to the window, saw the elder of Mrs. D.'s two servants wringing her hands and crying out: