to do what I did, or to associate with the men I did. There is nothing, however, in this portion of my career that I am ashamed of; and I have no hesitation whatever in giving to the world a plain, unadorned statement of the enterprises in which I was engaged during the last eighteen months of the war. So far as my own performances are concerned, this narrative shall be as full and as complete as I can make it; and if I fail to go into exact and minute details about certain important transactions, it will be simply because I feel that I am under obligations not to betray my confederates, no matter how unworthy they may have been. To some of these people I am under no obligations whatever, and shall consequently not hesitate to speak plainly concerning them; but with regard to others, I prefer to err on the honorable side by saying too little, rather than to rest under the imputation of betraying confidences.
Arranging a Plan of Operations.
It took me some little time, of course, to master the entire situation; but a very brief residence at the North enabled me to see that there was a vast amount of most important and valuable work to be done within the Federal lines, and that it was exactly the kind of work that I could do with the very best effect. I arranged my plans, therefore, for a series of operations in behalf of the Confederate cause, and, at the earliest practicable moment, placed myself in communication with the Richmond authorities, and with the various secret service agents in the Northern States and in Canada, and also with Federal officials of various kinds, with whom I desired to establish confidential relations, not only for the purpose of preventing their suspecting me, but to gain through them information otherwise unobtainable.
Having once established myself on a satisfactory footing with those who were managing matters at the rival capitals, it became a comparatively easy matter to go ahead with some degree of boldness, and to follow up a systematic scheme of action; and I flatter myself that, having once gotten fairly started, I performed the tasks I undertook with a praise worthy degree of thoroughness, and with not altogether unimportant results.
The story of this portion of my career will differ materially from that which has preceded it. I have now to tell, not of
