ara Falls and Canada. He made some general report upon the condition of the rebel army at Gordonsville, but it was of no particular value, except that, in its more interesting features, it agreed with our information from other sources.
He was not long in returning from St. Catherine's with a despatch which was also allowed to pass unopened, upon his assurance that it contained nothing of importance. In this way he went back and forward from Richmond to St. Catherine's once or twice. We supplied him with money to a limited extent, and also with one or two more horses. He said that he got some money from the Confederates, but had not thought it prudent to accept from them anything more than very small sums, since his professed zeal for the Confederate cause forbade his receiving anything for his traveling expenses beyond what was absolutely necessary.
During the summer of 1864, the activity of Grant's campaign and the fighting which prevailed all along the line somewhat impeded our young man's expeditions, but did not stop them. All his subsequent despatches, however, whether coming from Richmond or from Canada, were regularly brought to the War Department, and were opened, and, in every case, a copy of them was kept. As it was necessary to break the seals and destroy the envelopes in opening them, there was some difficulty in sending them forward in what should appear to be the original wrappers. Coming from Canada, the paper employed was English, and there was a good deal of trouble in procuring paper of the same appearance. I remember also that one important despatch, which was sealed with Mr. Clay's seal, had to be delayed somewhat while we had an imitation seal engraved. But these delays were easily accounted for at Richmond by the pretense that they had been caused by accidents upon the road and by the necessity of avoiding the Federal pickets. At any rate, the confidence of the Confederates in our agent (and theirs) never seemed to be shaken by any of these occurrences.
Finally, our despatch-bearer reported one day at the War Department with a document which, he said, was of extraordinary consequence. It was found to contain an account of a scheme for setting fire to New York and Chicago by means of clock-work machines that were to be placed in several of the large hotels and places of amusement, particularly in Barnum's Museum in New York, and to be set off simultaneously; so that the fire department in each place would be unable to attend to the great number of calls that would be made upon it, on account of these Confederate conflagrations in so many different quarters, and thus these cities might be greatly damaged, or even destroyed.
This despatch was duly sealed up again, and was taken to Richmond, and a confidential officer was at once sent to New York to warn General Dix, who was in command there, of the Confederate project. The general was very unwilling to believe that any such design could be seriously entertained, and Mr. John A. Kennedy, then superintendent of police, was equally incredulous. But the Secretary of War was peremptory in his orders, and when the day of the incendiary attempt arrived, both the military and the police made every preparation to prevent the threatened catastrophe. The officer who went from Washington was lodged in the St. Nicholas Hotel, one of the large establishments that were to be set on fire, and while he was washing his hands in the evening, preparatory to going to dinner, a fire began burning in the room next to his. It was promptly put out, and was found to be caused by a clock-work apparatus which had been left in that room by a lodger who had departed some hours before. Other fires likewise occurred. In every instance these fires were extinguished without much damage and without exciting any considerable public attention, thanks to the precautions that had been taken in consequence of the warning derived from Mr. Clay's despatch to Mr. Benjamin in Richmond. The plan of setting fire to Chicago proved even more abortive; I do not remember that any report of actual burning was received from there.
Later in the fall, after the military operations had substantially terminated for the season, a despatch was brought from Canada, signed by Mr. Clay, and addressed to Mr. Benjamin, as Secretary of State in the Confederate government, conveying the information that a new and really formidable military expedition against northern Vermont, particularly against Burlington, if I am not mistaken, had been organized and fitted out in Canada, and would make its at- tack as soon as practicable. This was after the well-known attempt upon St. Albans and Lake Champlain, October 19, 1864, and promised to be much more injurious. The despatch reached Washington one Sunday morning, and was brought to the War De-
