"That's all right; you just do that, and let's see what you can do, and I'll fix your matter up with Covode." Then turning to his desk he wrote something on the back of one of my papers in a handwriting which, to say the least, was mighty peculiar; something which I have never been able to decipher; it was, however, an endorsement from the Secretary of War.
When I showed the Secretary's penmanship to Mr. Scott, suggesting to him that I thought it was a request for him to furnish me with passes to Montgomery, Alabama, and return, Scott appreciated the joke, and promptly furnished me the necessary documents, saying, laughingly: "You needn't be afraid to carry that paper along with you anywhere; there isn't anybody that will be able to call it an incendiary document."
I transferred myself at once to the field of my observations from the United States Capital at Washington to that of the Confederate States of America, then forming at Montgomery, Alabama, traveling via Louisville, stopping a day to see the wonders of the Mammoth Cave; thence, via Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Augusta, Georgia, arriving late one night in Montgomery.
CHAPTER II.
ON DUTY AS A SPY AT THE REBEL CAPITAL, MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA—LIVING IN SAME HOTEL WITH JEFF DAVIS AND HIS CABINET—CONSPIRATORS FROM WASHINGTON INTERVIEWED—BOUNTY OFFERED BY CONFEDERATES BEFORE A GUN WAS FIRED—FORT SUMTER AND FORT PICKENS.
I was quartered at the Exchange Hotel, which was the headquarters and home of the leading men of the new government then gathering from all parts of the South. Here I spent some days in pretty close companionship with these gentlemen, taking notes in a general way, and endeavoring to learn all I could in regard to their plans.
I had learned, while skirmishing about Washington, to know at sight nearly all of the prominent people who were active in this movement, and perhaps the fact that I had been somewhat accustomed to being in their society, and being quite youthful gave me an assurance that enabled me to go about among them in a free and open way, without exciting any suspicion.
There were among the guests, a recent arrival from Washington City, a gentleman of some apparent prominence, as I judged from the amount of attention he was receiving.
I made it a point to look closely after him, and soon gathered the information that he had been a trusted employé of the Government, and at the same time had been secretly furnishing the rebel leaders, for some months, with information of the government's plans. He was at this time the bearer of important papers to the rebel government. This gentleman's name, which has escaped my memory in these twenty-five years, was placed upon record in the War Department at the time.