Today in History:

777 Series II Volume II- Serial 115 - Prisoners of War

Page 777 SUSPECTED AND DISLOYAL PERSONS.

STATE OF NEW YORK, County of Kings, ss:

I, James W. Wall do solemnly swear that I will support, protect and defend the Constitution and Government of the United States against all enemies whether domestic or foreign, and that I will bear true faith, allegiance and loyalty to the same any ordinance, resolution or law of any State convention or legislature to the contrary notwithstanding; and further that I do this with a full determination, pledge and purpose without any mental reservation or evasion whatsoever. So help me God.

JAMES W. WALL.

Sworn to and subscribed before me this 24th day of September, 1861.

CHARLES W. CHURCH,

Justice of the Peace.

BURLINGTON, October 5, 1861.

Hon. SECRETARY OF WAR.

SIR: I was arrested by virtue of a warrant or rather an order issued from your Department and signed by yourself. I have not yet been able to learn the cause of my arrest. Will you be kind enough to state what the charges were if any and by whom preferred?

Yours, respectfully,

JAMES W. WALL.

BURLINGTON, October 21, 1861.

Hon. SIMON CAMERON.

SIR: How long will be required to demand of your Department the charges preferred against me and by reason of which I was seized and taken to Fort Lafayette? I have a reputation as dear to me as your own and I can never rest under the imputation of being a disloyal citizen. The record if there be any in your Department has got to be wiped out or it shall be in the blood of those who maliciously placed it there. I will follow those scoundrels to the death when I have got upon their tracks. I take it the Government must have been satisfied of the emptiness of the charges or else I should not have been released. Why therefore hesitate to give them to me and the names of the authors?

Yours, respectfully,

JAMES W. WALL.

BURLINGTON, October 30, 1861.

Hon. SECRETARY OF STATE.

MY DEAR SIR: I have been informed that the charges by reason of which the Government conceived they owed it to the country to lock me up for two weeks in a Government fortress are on file in your office. If so will your please inform me of their nature and character? I have reason to believe that they originated with two or three unprincipled perjured villains in this vicinity who had no other object to gratify than their own devilish malice.

Yours, &c.,

JAMES W. WALL.


Page 777 SUSPECTED AND DISLOYAL PERSONS.