291 Series II Volume II- Serial 115 - Prisoners of War
Page 291 | SUSPECTED AND DISLOYAL PERSONS. |
This man [William Williams] was arrested by the civil authorities at Prince Fredericktown, Md., for gross violation of the criminal law in July, 1861, and committed to jail. The grand jury which had its sitting in the following October having failed to find a bill of indictment against Williams he was released.
This man [Robert D. Chambers] was taken into custody by order of Major Spear, provost-marshal at Martinsburg, about July 6, 1861, and sent to Fort Delaware. He was charged with being a member of a regiment in the rebel service. An order was issued from the Department of State dated October 23, 1861, directing General John A. Dix to release Chambers on his taking the oath of allegiance stipulating neither to enter nor correspond with the States in insurrection without permission from the Secretary of State, and that he will do no act hostile or injurious to the United States during the present insurrecion. He was accordingly released October 26, 1861.
This man [Dr. Edward Johnson] was arrested by order of General Dix and committed to Fort McHenry about July 8, 1861, and from thence transferred to Fort Lafayette by order of the Secretary of State. There are no papers on file in the Department of State showing on what charges he was arrested. An order was issued from the Department of State dated September 13, 1861, directing Lieutenant Colonel Martin Burke to release Johnson on his giving his parole to do no act and to give no information hostile or injurious to the United States. He was released September 17, 1861.
Charles Wilson was confined by order of the military authorities at Baltimore about July 8, 1861, at Fort McHenry. He was one of the crew of the schooner Margaret when taken by Richard Thoma, s alias Colonel Zarvona. Wilson was kept in custody as a witness against said Thomas, being unable to give security for his appearance at the trial of Thomas.
Charles M. Hagelin, of Baltimore, was owner of vessel called the Alverda. In June, 1861, he made a trip in her to the Patuxent River under an agreement to get off a vessel ashore there. He took eight men as passengers without charging them any fare, as it appears. These men he afterward leanred were on the way to Virginia, but he proceeded to land them as he had undertaken. He was afterward transferrred to Fort Lafayette. The date of his capture does not appear in any papers in the Department of State, but Mayor Bs the 19th of July. There is no more particular statement of the cause of his arrest than is given above, but that being substantiated by his own admission seems all sufficient. General Dix, who assumed command at Fort McHenry about the time of Hagelin's confinement on the 21st of October, wrote to the Department describing Hagelin as a person of simple character and without influence and saying: "I think he has been sufficiently punished and recommend his immediate release. " Hagelin was thereupon released on the 24th day of October, 1861, on taking the oath of allegiance.
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*See Brown to the President, p. 115.
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Page 291 | SUSPECTED AND DISLOYAL PERSONS. |