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.