CHAPTER XXXVII.
JOHNSON'S ISLAND. PREPARATIONS FOR AN ATTACK ON THE FEDERAL REAR.
On the Way to Sandusky. I am introduced to a Federal Lieutenant on the Cars, who is conducting Confederate Prisoners to Johnson's Island. He permits me to converse with the Prisoners, and I distribute some Money among them. Arrival at Sandusky. First View of Johnson's Island. I visit the Island, and on the Strength of Colonel Baker's Letter am permitted to go into the Enclosure and converse with the Prisoners. I have a Talk with a young Confederate Officer, and give him Money and Despatches, and explain what is to be done for the Liberation of himself and his Companions. Returning to Sandusky, I send Telegraphic Despatches to the Agents in Detroit, Buffalo, and Indianapolis. How the grand Raid was to have been made. Its Failure through the Treason or Cowardice of one Man.
,T Parkersburg I met General Kelley again, and had a talk with him, in which he laughingly suggested that I seemed to be in as much of a hurry to go West as I had been
to go East the last time he saw me. I remarked, that in war times the enemy had a way of putting in appearances at various points of the compass, and that we had to go for him wherever he happened to be, if we didn't want him to come to us. I also hinted, with a little maliciousness, that perhaps the reason why the war had lasted so long was because so many of our generals instead of going after the rebels wherever they
were to be found, insisted on waiting for them to come to places where it would be most convenient to fight them. The general said there was some truth in that; and that if all the generals were as smart about doing what they had to do as I seemed to be, the rebels would have been whipped long ago.
It is pleasant to have commendation even from those we are fighting against, and I felt flattered at the general's good opinion of me, although I knew that he was really not aware what good cause he had to commend my smartness. I won-
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