that had been practised on him, and urging the immediate return of them. Mr. Winder again addressed the Secretary on the 27th instant:

"WASHINGTON, 27th December, 1862.

"SIR: I beg leave to recall your attention to my note to you of 23d instant. While I fully appreciate the engrossing nature of your official duties, in excluding other matters from your attention, I am sure you will make equal allowance to my urgency to be freed from a very inconvenient expenditure of time in seeking to obtain my property, which I had a right to expect to receive immediately on demand.

"I am, sir, your obedient servant, (Signed)

W. H. WINDER."

On receiving the evasive reply to Mr. Biddle, Mr. W. wrote to the Mayor of Philadelphia, for a copy of the receipt which Detective Franklin stated, he had received on the surrender to the State Department of the papers. He replied: "I directed Chief Franklin to furnish a copy of the receipt given to him for the papers delivered to the Government, and this morning, after search among the documents in his office, he reports to me that he is unable to find it, but as soon as discovered you shall be informed of its purport."

On the 3d of January, the Mayor, in reply to Mr. Winder's letter, asking the name of the party signing the receipt and its tenor, enclosed Mr. Franklin's report. The report says:

"Some weeks since, I was requested by your Honor to furnish the receipt given me for certain papers belonging to Mr. Winder, of this city, seized at the time of his arrest by order of the Government. I have carefully examined my papers, but have been unable to find it, and have no doubt it has been destroyed with other surplus matter. I think, however, there can be no difficulty in finding all the documents referred to, as I understood from Mr. Geo. Coffey, United States District Attorney, yesterday, that he was in possession of all of them; and I have no doubt, Mr. Winder may get all the information desired by communi. cating with him

(Signed)

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Chief Detective, Department Police "

It occurred to Mr. Winder, when reading this, that nis correspondence with Secretary Seward had induced him to send on the papers to Philadelphia, to keep up the idea, that he had not possession of them. Upon his return to Philadelphia, he called on Mr. Coffey, and showed him the report of Franklin. He said he was in correspondence with the State Department, and the disposition of them would depend upon the result of it. Winder understood him to say, that under direction of the Department, he was examining to see if a prosecution could not be made, and that any further communication on the subject must be made through counsel. After some time, his counsel, Mr. Biddle, wrote to Mr. Coffey, requesting the return of Mr. W.'s effects, to which Mr. Coffey verbally replied, by stating, that he would write to the State Department, and if no order to the contrary should be received, he would return them. Accordingly, after a week's delay, he surrendered a box, on the top of which was

"From the Department of State, U. S. A.

Geo. A. Coffey, Esq., U. S. District Attorney,
Philadelphia, Penna."

— showing it came from the State Department—was in possession of Secretary Seward, while he was referring Mr. Biddle and Mr. Winder to the War Department.. This box contained all of the effects which have as yet been returned.

19

C. F. RUST.

case presents an instance in which the malice and vindictiveness of the "one-man power" banished an unoffending citizen from his home, and drove him into the Confederacy, there to remain during the war, under penalty of death should he return.

About four o'clock, on the morning of Friday, the 8th of May, 1863, an individual named Isaac II. D. Knowles, an United States Detective, called at the house of Mr. C. F. Rust, near Seaford, Sussex County, Delaware, and arrested him. When asked for his authority, he replied, "By order of General Schenck," and when requested to produce it, presented a general order for the arrest of deserters, blockaderunners, and dangerous persons, which was signed by that officer. Mr. Rust replied, that he did not belong to either of the classes of persons named; but this explanation had no effect in his case, as his arrest had been predetermined.

Knowles made no specific charges, nor did he inform the prisoner why he had been arrested.

He was conveyed to Wilmington, and thence to Baltimore, where he was confined in a cell at the Central Police Station, and detained there until sunrise, with the drunkards, thieves, and prostitutes that find their way thither during the night.

He was removed from there to the Gilmore House, and placed in a front basement, formerly used as a billiard saloon, without either chair or bed. While confined there, he addressed a note to Thomas F. Bayard, Esq., an attorney at aw, of Wilmington, (son of the Hon. James A. Bayard,) who was then sojourning in Baltimore, requesting him to call upon him at the Gilmore House, as he wished to obtain his advice. Mr. Bayard called, but was refused an audience with the prisoner.

Removed from his confinement at the Gilmore House, he was placed on the cars and carried to Harper's Ferry, leaving Baltimore at half-past eight o'clock on Saturday night, and arriving at the Ferry before daybreak on Sunday morning. He was then placed in a church, under guard, until Monday, when he was taken to Martinsburg, West Virginia, and incarcerated in the county jail at that place, with several other prisoners. The nights being chilly, and having an insufficiency of clothing, he suffered much from cold, until kindly furnished with a blanket by a deserter from an Ohio. regiment.

While confined in the jail, Mrs. Young, the wife of the postmaster at that place, requested permission to furnish him with some food, which was denied.

On Monday morning, he was placed in a Government wagon, without seats, sent over a rough pike to Winchester, and there taken before a Provost Marshal, named Alexander, of whom he inquired the cause of his arrest, and was informed that it was" disloyalty to the flag." Rust asked how he knew that he was disloyal, when he had received no trial, and no proof had been adduced to substantiate the charge. Alexander replied, that the fact of his being arrested and exiled from his home, was proof conclusive. He then asked the Marshal if he thought the arresting of a man without a warrant, exiling him from his home, and forbidding him to return, during the continuance of the war, on pain of being treated as a spy, would make him love and respect a flag under which such flagitious outrages were committed.

The Marshal made no reply to Mr. Rust, but handed an order to a sergeant, directing him "to conduct him (Rust) to Dixie, never to return."

The sergeant conducted him to the turnpike gate, about one and a quarter miles from Winchester, on the road leading to Strasburg, the intervening space being considered neutral ground, as Winchester was then occupied by the Federal forces, and Fisher's Hill by the Confederates. At the gate, he was directed by the sergeant to make his way to

Richmond, or any other place in the Confederacy that might suit him, at the same time reiterating the Marshal's order. The order was promptly obeyed, Rust being glad to escape confinement even upon such terms. He was thus separated from his family for two years and four months, without any sufficient reason ever being assigned for it.

During his exile, his son, William C. Rust, a boy of sixteen, was confined in Fort Delaware for one hundred days, on suspicion of having assisted his uncle, William T. Cooper, (a son of Ex-Governor William B. Cooper,) to escape from prison, the said Cooper having been a Rebel soldier, captured at Romney, Virginia. Mrs. Rust was several times before mil itary commissions, and annoyed in other ways during her husband's absence.

At the time of his arrest, Mr. Rust was forty-four years of age. By occupation he is a farmer. He has never held an office, although in the politics of his county he has alwayɛ active.y participated.