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I Branded E W Andrews Adjutant General To General Morris A Traitor To The Colors


In our prison were confined prisoners of all classes, Confederate

officers, spies, blockade-runners, pirates, civil and political

prisoners. Our office was the reception room where these persons

interviewed their "sympathizers," much of such interviewing taking place

in my presence. Their mail passed through our hands, what better place

could there have been to develop an "investigator?"





War Department,

Washington, Feb. 27, 1864.



General Morris, commanding at Fort McHenry, will allow Mr. W.

G. Woodside to see Thomas I. Hall and ---- Baylor, Rebel

prisoners confined there. General Morris will be present at

the interview.



By order of the Secretary of War.



(Signed) C. A. DANA,

Asst. Secy. of War.





This was endorsed:



To the Provost Marshal:



You will allow Mr. W. G. Woodside, the bearer of this, to see

the prisoners mentioned within, Hall and Baylor. Lieut. Smith

will be present at the interview.



(Signed) P. A. PORTER,

Col. 8th N. Y. V. Arty.,

Commanding-Brigade.



Fort McHenry,

Feb'y 28, 1864.









Baltimore, Feb'y 15, 1864.



Sir.--Will you be kind enough to deliver the joined letter to

Jules Klotz, a French subject, detained at Fort McHenry. He

wrote to me to direct my letters to yourself.



I should be very obliged to you to let me know the reasons why

he has been arrested and his true situation towards the

American government.



Very respectfully yours,

(Signed) A. SAUVAN,

French Vice Consul.



To Mr. SMITH,

Lieutenant, Fort McHenry.





You will see by these documents that my survey of prisoners and their

letters was always by authority and not merely to gratify my own

curiosity.



The Adjutant General is the confidential reliance of a commanding

officer. General Morris was advanced in years and depended implicitly on

his Adjutant General, Captain E. W. Andrews. I branded Andrews _a

traitor to the colors_. It was a serious position for a subaltern to

assume, but I had the evidence to substantiate the charge. In searching

the house of one Terrence R. Quinn, a noted blockade-runner, then a

prisoner in Fort McHenry, I found evidence that Andrews was a partner in

his crimes. And I found that my predecessor, the former Assistant

Provost Marshal, was also incriminated; then it became easier for me to

understand how so many prisoners had been allowed to escape (as many as

sixty-five in one night). Later on I will have two more references to

Andrews, which will explain what became of him.



Andrews was a man of brains. He started in life, I believe, as a

minister of the gospel, then turned to law. By his suavity and

impudence, he gained control of General Morris. The post was important

because it carried so great a number of prisoners. Andrews had his son

made Provost Marshal, and the escapes of prisoners by one means or

another, were made so easily that the scandal of it had appeared in many

Southern newspapers. When I finally imprisoned Andrews on General

Sheridan's order, in his half intoxicated condition he admitted his

Confederate sympathies.



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