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Lafayette in the morning, and, after hours of unnecessary delay, we re-embarked at Fort Columbus, on board the steamer 'State of Maine.' On this boat, which years before was considered unseaworthy and unsafe in a gale, without accommodations for sleeping and no preparations for feeding so many men, were huddled together about one hundred 'state prisoners,' several hundred military prisoners, and United States troops as a guard. Fortunately the weather was propitious, and on the evening of the third day we landed on the wharf at Fort Warren. General Dimick and his command (a Massachusetts regiment) did, apparently, all they could to make us comfortable, although he had been instructed to prepare for only one hundred state prisoners' At Fort Warren more liberty was granted us for exercise, and the fare was vastly better, while General D. was at all times approachable, and anxious to do all he could, consistent with safety, to make us comfortable."

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Captain Shields was discharged from the Fort without trial, and is still ignorant of the charge upon which he was arrested and imprisoned. All the money he had handed over to the commandant at Fort Lafayette was "absorbed in some way," and but for the kindness of General Dimick in furnishing him with funds with which to reach his home, he would have been a sojourner in Boston, among strangers, and without money or friends.

It will be perceived by this unjust imprisonment of Cap tain Shields, that it made no difference with the Adminis tration of Mr. Lincoln in what capacity a man had served his country; if he did not openly support the "Government," he was at the mercy of spies, informers, and United States Marshals, whose actions were always indorsed by the Almin istration, whether right or wrong.

WARREN J. REED.

WARREN J. REED was born near the village of White

lysburg, in Kent County, Delaware, on the 22d day of August, 1836. His father dying when the subject of this sketch was but fourteen years of age, and he being cast upon the world so young and destitute of means, his education was necessarily limited. At his majority he engaged in business on his own account in his native village, which proved unprofitable for the young merchant after a continu ance of three years.

Having diligently applied himself to study during his leisure hours, his mind was much improved, and an opportunity presenting itself, he commenced teaching school, and was thus employed at the time of his arrest. At the breaking out of the late war, he was commissioned, by Governor Burton, Justice of the Peace for Murderkill Hundred, Kent County.

Having from his youth taken an active part in politics, being a firm advocate of the State Rights doctrine as enunciated by Jefferson, his outspoken defence of free speech and his bold denunciation of the tyrannical arrests of the Administration inade him obnoxious to the Radicals of Delaware; and his galling invectives against their little co-workers in that State, furnished a sufficient pretext, if any were needed, for his arrest, which took place in September, 1862. He was at the time teaching school in Murderkill Hundred. During school-hours, two men - a Sergeant Johnson, of New York, and a Mr. Helverson, a private soldier in a Delaware regiInent stepped into the school-room and inquired if Mr. Reed was present. When informed that he was, they proceeded to make known their business, by first displaying their arms the one a sabre and musket, the other a revol ver. Then informing him that he was their prisoner, they

ordered him to immediately dismiss the school. Permission to visit his home that he might obtain some money and necessary articles was refused him, although the distance was only a mile.

He was then quickly placed in a carriage and hurriedly driven to Felton Station, on the Delaware Railroad. Arriving there, they conducted him to a hotel, with the intention of placing him in close confinement; but upon the intercession of some friends, this rigorous treatment was so far mitigated as to permit him to remain in a room below, with a soldier by his side. When the Wilmington train arrived he was placed on it, and one of the soldiers who had made the arrest took a seat beside him, while the other, who had been joined by a companion, took his seat in the rear.

Arriving at Wilmington at 9 o'clock P.M., he was taken from the train by a squad of soldiers and marched through several streets to a hotel, where he was placed in a small, filthy room in the fourth story, the door carefully locked, and a squad of soldiers placed in the passage-way. After these precautions, the prisoner was deemed safe for the night. Safe he might be, but as for sleep, he could obtain none, the bedbugs and fleas having taken undisputed possession of the room. They considered their right prior to his, and looking upon him as an intruder, prepared to welcome him in any other than a complaisant manner. They immediately commenced an attack upon him, in which they battled earnestly for their rights, stoutly contending for every inch of territory until daylight, when they retired in good order, expecting to renew the attack the next night. The soldiers, too, were in the passage, engaged in frequent broils, mingled with oaths, which sounded hideously during the long hours of the night Morning came at last, and with it some relief. Breakfast was furnished the prisoner about 7 o'clock A.M., of which he was much in need.

Soon after, he was taken into the presence of Colone! A. II. Grimshaw, commanding a Delaware regiment, a man of low and sordid nature, who, feeling that he was "dressed in a

little brief authority," determined to display it. The prisoner, supposing that he was to have a trial, demanded the charges against him, and was informed by the petit Colonel, în a voice scarcely audible, that it was all right, or something like that. Mr. Reed wondered if he were still in the Diamond State of Delaware, or had been transported to Turkey, and whether he was in the presence of an United States officer, or a Cadi of Constantinople. The proceedings seemed to favor the latter, as the laws of Delaware accord to every accused person an examination, face to face with his accusers, the privilege of counsel for his defence, compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and a speedy and impartial trial by a jury of his peers; all of which were violated in his person. Instead of a trial, he was commanded to stand against the wall, and there underwent the formula similar to that practised on all condemned culprits, namely, the registering of his height, color of eyes, hair, complexion, occupation, age, residence, etc., which was done with the greatest precision. While anxiously waiting to see what the next thing would be, his ears were greeted with the cry from the outside of the building, "All ready!" which being responded to in the affirmative, he, with two others of the prisoners, was placed in a carriage and started for where they knew not, until their arrival at Delaware City, at about 2 o'clock P.M., when all doubt as to their destination was removed. As a special act of kindness, they were permitted to obtain some food at the hotel, after which a small boat was obtained, and the order given to take them across the channel to the Fort.

The wind was blowing hard at the time, and the water was so rough that the boatmen deemed the passage too dangerous to attempt, and did not wish to go.

But the officer in command ruled otherwise, and Mr. Reed and three or four others were placed in the boat and passed safely over to the Fort, where they arrived about dark, and were immediately ushered into the headquarters of the commandant, Major H. S. Burton, a gentlemanly officer, who in

a few weeks after was relieved of his command for strictly obeying orders from Washington, as will be seen in the sequel. The Major not being in the Fort at the time, the command devolved upon a subordinate officer, who placed them in a room about forty feet in length, by twenty feet in breadth, in the second story of the barrack, with a guard at the door.

It being bedtime, they lay down on the floor. Mr. Reed was fortunate enough to find a small piece of broken box, which answered for a pillow, and, with no covering save the clothing he wore, fell asleep from sheer exhaustion. Awaking at daybreak, before the rest of the prisoners were astir, he arose and took a survey of the room. Here burst upon his view a sight never, it is to be hoped, again to meet the eyes of an American citizen. Stretched lengthwise upon the loor lay three rows of prisoners, each covered with his blanket. That made his bed. In all there were about twentyfive or thirty men-American freemen. They were all political prisoners. Not one of them had had a trial or was even charged with a crime. All were the victims of despotic power. He stood for some time contemplating the scene before him, and finally sat down, and, like Ludlow and Sydney, mourned the lost liberties of his country.

The walls of the room had been plastered but a short time previously, which, considering the chill air of September and October without fire, made the situation of the prisoners, not only uncomfortable, but unhealthy.

At meal-times they were marched about two hundred yards to an old tent, where the Confederate prisoners were fed, and sometimes the march was scarcely necessary, as upon several occasions they were handed only a slice of bread in the morning, with neither meat nor coffee, and compelled to subsist upon that the whole day.

At other times they received in addition, for dinner, a tincup of bean-water, in many instances not having a single bean or any other vegetable in it. This food, to men accustomed to

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