Secrets of the Late Rebellion, Now Revealed for the First TimeFreese, Jacob R.
History
Secrets of the Late Rebellion, Now Revealed for the First Time
Freese, Jacob R.
United States -- Politics and government -- 1861-1865
On one of the trips, Colonel Abercrombie conducted Mr. Charles R.
Dangerfield from Washington to Richmond, and return. Mr. Dangerfield was
a large manufacturer, or the agent of manufacturers, of English arms,
accoutrements, etc., and his object in visiting Richmond was to make
contracts with the Confederacy in exchange for cotton. Nothing of
special note occurred on the way to Richmond, except that, while lying
at the negro hut all day, two men came to the door, and asked "Aunt
Jemima" if Colonel Abercrombie was not there? This Mr. Dangerfield
heard, and it frightened him almost out of his wits. "Now Grant's men
have us!" said he, and, springing up from where he lay, he was ready to
surrender at once; but the military experience of the Colonel made
him cooler and more courageous than the Englishman, and he, instead of
surrendering, was getting ready to sell his life as dearly as possible,
when "Aunt Jemima" called out, "All's right, honey, all's right! dese be
your guides, Mas'er Colonel; all's right!" Had a ten-thousand ton weight
been lifted from Mr. Dangerfield's breast, he could not have felt more
relieved. He was ready to dance a hornpipe then and there, and would
have done it, had he not been too old, fat, and clumsy for such a
youthful sport. From Richmond, Mr. Dangerfield visited all the larger
cities, and all the cotton-storing places of the Confederacy. On his
return to Richmond he made contracts with the government to his entire
satisfaction, and in due time returned to Washington, New York, and
thence to London.
At another time the Colonel conducted another English manufacturer, Mr.
Francis Willis, across the lines and back. He, like Mr. Dangerfield,
visited the principal points in the Confederacy, and, on his return
to Richmond, made contracts to furnish arms, accoutrements, saddles,
clothing, etc., in exchange for cotton.
There were others who were passengers on this line, at various times;
but as their object was to see friends or attend to domestic affairs,
and had no direct connection with the war, we think it unnecessary to
particularize them.
On one of the trips Colonel Abercrombie was arrested as a spy--though
his duties, and those of Colonel Killgore's, were as foreign to those
of a spy as one thing can be foreign to another--and as there were
incidents connected with the arrest and escape never heretofore known,
we will now relate them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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