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 " FORT - LA - FAYETTE 
 LIFE." 
 
 1 8 6 3 -S 4 
 
 IN EXTRACTS FROM 
 
 THE -RIGHT FLANKER," 
 
 ^SCRIPT SHEET CIRCULATING AMONG THE SOUTHERN 
 PRISONERS IN FORT-LA-FAYETTE, IN 1863-64. 
 
 Dedicated to them generally, and especially to the Confederate 
 
 Officers whose autographs are here given, as among 
 
 mem were contributors to the ' 'Right Flanker. " 
 
 SIMPKIN, MARSHALL & CO. 
 
 LIVERPOOL: EDWARD HOWELL. 
 
 1865.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Purpose in Starting the " Right Flanker" The 
 Antecedents of those with whom it originated ... 7 
 
 Arrival of Four Prisoners from New York Their 
 Antecedents What they have really done, and 
 what the Papers say they have done What 
 some of them think of our Cause in New York- 
 Difference between a Confederate and a New 
 York Peace Democrat: the latter believes in 
 Governor Seymour; the former has no confi- 
 dence in either him or Fernando Wood Treat- 
 ment of Prisoners, October 1863 15 
 
 The effect which sending down four at a time had 
 among the Free Whites of New York Danger- 
 ous to have a Life of Stonewall Jackson in the 
 House, or to have a Package directed to Fort- 
 la- Fayette 23 
 
 Close . Confinement, for an Attempt to Escape 
 Additional Restrictions on account of an Old 
 Knife Lady Friend Visitors Recollections of 
 Baltimoreans 27 
 
 550201
 
 ii. Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 Arrival of a distinguished Confederate Officer 
 
 Bouquets to Prisoners Colonel Burke and a 
 Prisoner on the War The strict Lieutenant ... 29 
 
 Paroles withdrawn More Restrictions on Prisoners 
 New York Illustrated Papers Fighting among 
 the Clouds The Herald Reliable Sheet 
 Bennett, Barnum, and Lincoln 33 
 
 Orders for Retaliation Prisoners restricted to Gar- 
 rison Fare Rebels won't complain if it will 
 serve to show the extremes to which a coercive 
 Union Government is reduced An addition to 
 the Prisoners by an Officer in the British Army, 
 for having Letters from Rebel Ladies Visit to a 
 Prisoner by a Union Friend : they had been 
 betting on the Capture of Richmond by M'Clellan, 
 and the Recognition of the Confederacy by Eng- 
 land and France 37 
 
 Winter Weather Gloomy Feelings brightened by 
 the Cheseapeake affair, and News from the Ala- 
 bama A Rebel, an English Officer, and Colonel 
 Burke as to Special Privileges A Chair allowed 
 the English Officer 43 
 
 Quite a Number of Additional Prisoners Rules 
 more Strict A British Shipmaster confined with 
 Negroes 45 
 
 New Year More Prisoners Another British Of- 
 ficer, an Envoy Extraordinary to Washington,
 
 Contents. iii. 
 
 PAGE 
 and Secretary, captured by order of Mr. Seward 
 
 The Wife and Daughter of the Minister in the 
 Station House Several New York Merchants 
 brought down ; they have plenty of money, and 
 expect to be out soon Old Prisoners don't think 
 they will 49 
 
 The Arrival of a former New York Hotel Keeper, 
 lately engaged in raising a Regiment of Soldiers 
 An Admirer of Ladies presenting Flags to 
 Negroes instead of White Men Prevalence of 
 Neuralgia and Toothache : services of a Dentist 
 denied Running the Blockade Butter in Cell 
 No. 3 51 
 
 Interesting Reading Contents of a Rebel Mail, 
 which affords the first idea to some of the 
 Prisoners as to the Cause of their Arrest One 
 of Mr. Seward's Despatches among Rebel Pri- 
 soners in Fort-la- Fay ette and Baltimore Rebel 
 Ladies More Lady Visitors to the Fort " The 
 Bonnie Blue Flag," and " I love Old Dixie, right 
 or wrong," by Prisoners 55 
 
 Excitement in consequence of a Vessel attempting 
 to Pass before being Examined More Loyal 
 Citizens brought down as Prisoners Additional 
 Restrictions as to Visitors The Blockade Run 
 with Greenbacks for Prisoners -Trading them 
 with Yankee Soldiers Successful Strategy in 
 getting New Clothes 59
 
 iv. Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 More Prisoners Financial Operation between a 
 Prisoner and the United States Authorities The 
 (supposed) Head of the Soldier-defrauding Fra- 
 ternity brought down He is thoroughly Union, 
 and Elected a Member of Congress, who is to 
 get him out Invitation to Yankees found in the 
 South when the War is over 65 
 
 Arrival of a Military Commission for Trial of Pri- 
 soners Additional Restrictions - Orders for 
 Visitors to be Searched Officer's Object, Order 
 Withdrawn Excitement in the Fort Anticipa- 
 ted Attempt to Release Prisoners Neither 
 Catholic Newspapers nor Episcopal Prayer Books 
 allowed Proceedings of the Military Commis- 
 sion How a New York Silver-grey Democrat 
 wanted to Bet What a Jersey Democrat would 
 be glad to hear Discharge of British Subjects 
 The Yankee Policy as to British Blockade 
 Runners 69 
 
 Removal of Confederate Officers to another Fort 
 Two escape on the way Anticipated Departure 
 of Two others for their Homes : Entertainment 
 in their Honour Editorial Banquet of the "Right 
 Flanker " The Sensation of the Day : " Braves, 
 who have with Stonewall Bled!" for the First 
 Time 77 
 
 A trifling article denied a Prisoner -News from the 
 Escaped Prisoners One has a pleasant time in
 
 Contents. v. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Western Virginia, Baltimore, New York, and 
 Boston, before leaving for Bermuda Leaving of 
 Two Prisoners for Fortress Monroe, to be Ex- 
 changed The proceedings of the Military Com- 
 mission concluded The only result the Transfer 
 of a rich Union Citizen to a New York Jail 87 
 
 The Military Commissioners and a Confederate 
 Engineer ; the latter contends that there is a 
 Confederate Government, for which he is more 
 closely Locked up A Jar of Oysters denied a 
 Prisoner. 91 
 
 A Union Prisoner's Appeal for Vegetables His 
 Relatives fear that his Mind is Affected His 
 hope on account of Rothschilds' Agent hanging 
 out the Old Flag, and helping to Crush the Re- 
 bellion Controversies between Northern Citi- 
 zens as to the Standard for Society Difference 
 of Treatment to Union and Rebel Prisoners. ... 93 
 
 The Strong Arms and Brave Hearts of their Coun- 
 trymen the only Dependence of Rebel Prisoners 
 Anticipated necessity for Discontinuance of 
 the "Right Flanker" Removal of several Pri- 
 soners from the Fort, and the existing Copies of 
 it entrusted to them Final Discontinuance of 
 it Publication of Fort-la- Fayette Life 97
 
 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 
 
 THE PURPOSE IN STARTING THE " RIGHT FLANKER" 
 THE ANTECEDENTS OF THOSE WITH WHOM 
 IT ORIGINATED. 
 
 IN starting such a sheet as the " Right 
 Flanker," the purpose is to relieve the mono- 
 tony of prison life, by calling into action the 
 taste and faculties of those who are capable of 
 contributing to its columns ; instructing and 
 amusing those who cannot, and to furnish to 
 all who are to share the spice of excitement, 
 which the risk of such a contraband undertak- 
 ing affords, something of which, it is hoped, 
 reference can be pleasantly made by them in 
 after years. 
 
 It being concluded that all interested 
 should be properly introduced to each other, it 
 is mutually understood that the parties having 
 the duties of the editorial staff to assume, have 
 authority to do it as they think proper ; and it 
 occurs to them, that no plan will be more in-
 
 8 FORT-LA-FA YETTE LIFE. 
 
 teresting than that of making each other cor- 
 rectly aware of their respective antecedents. 
 
 The commencement is with the oldest pri- 
 soner in the fort, the party who is to attend 
 to the agricultural department of the "Right 
 Flanker." 
 
 A young Virginia farmervolunteered his ser- 
 vices among the earliest, in the defence of his 
 native soil, served his time out, and returned 
 home, to find the old homestead destroyed by 
 the invaders ; was denounced as a guerilla for 
 endeavouring to save a family relic ; hunted by 
 a detachment of some sixty Yankee soldiers, 
 who surrounded the house in which he took 
 refuge ; with the assistance of the ladies, kept 
 the enemy at bay for some time, but was fi- 
 nally captured, confined in the lower hold of a 
 three-decked iron-clad for two months, in mid- 
 summer, heavily ironed both hand and foot ; 
 his arrival in New York chronicled as that of 
 the most notorious character ; and delivered in 
 Fort-la-Fayette as the most savage rebel as 
 yet inside its walls. 
 
 Next in order is an adventurer from his na-
 
 FORT-LA-FA YETTE LIFE. 9 
 
 tive place, Nova Scotia, to North Carolina ; 
 piloted on that coast as long as there was any- 
 thing to do in that line ; since then he may 
 have tried the sailing qualities of a Baltimore- 
 built pilot boat, in coming up with a Yankee 
 craft, in a way disagreeable to her skipper; still 
 he was quietly located at a New York hotel, 
 when he was ordered to care of Colonel Burke, 
 until efforts could be made to find something 
 against him. As he writes a good letter to 
 Lord Lyons occasionally, in consequence of his 
 not having been naturalized, he is to be known 
 as the diplomatic head of the "Right Flanker." 
 Then follows the party who is to be looked 
 to as the nautical reporter a young Confeder- 
 ate officer. He is, as all agree he should be, 
 estimated as one, if not the most brave in our 
 gallant little navy. Eight months in Fort 
 Warren, for being proof against the temptation 
 of money and place to forswear his allegiance 
 to his native South, did not prevent him from 
 taking, as it were, his life in his hand ; and the 
 indignities and suffering which he has had to 
 bear from his captors since he was found under 
 the bottom of tJic Ironside, would be considered
 
 io FORT-LA-FA YETTE LIFE. 
 
 as nothing, if he could look back to the result, 
 had he got just eighteen inches further down 
 under that celebrated vessel. 
 
 Then we have a true representative of 
 the jolly boatmen of the Alabama ; he does 
 not despair of again giving the familiar 
 notice of his approach (the shrill note of the 
 steam whistle) to the little family on its 
 banks ; he is here the victim of a Pensylvanian, 
 who was navigator of a blockade runner, but 
 who got off by paying the captors of her to 
 substitute for him a person who had never been 
 on the water, except as a pilot on the Alabama 
 river. He is evidently thinking of his man 
 when he comes to that part of his favourite 
 song which says, 
 
 " The Sixteenth Lousiana charged them with a yell," 
 " Bagged the Bucktail Rangers, and sent them all to 
 
 Another case of Yankee victimising is in a 
 Georgian, to whom a New Yorker by adop- 
 tion, bat Yankee by birth, having held the 
 position of a confidential friend in the South, 
 and came from there with him, was intrusted 
 with the care of a considerable amount of
 
 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. u 
 
 money. After reaching New York, the result 
 was, that not only did the Yankee practice the 
 'cute trick (it is not usual to use a harsher term 
 in Yankeedom in respect of operations of the 
 kind) of holding on to all the money, but re- 
 porting that it was intended for purchasing 
 contraband of war, had him, who had often 
 befriended him in Georgia, locked up here. 
 
 The appointed local item reporter with a 
 blockade runner, in which he had consider- 
 able property, fell into the clutches of a Fede- 
 ral cruiser when homeward bound to the place 
 which, according to the New York papers, has 
 been, since the war commenced, totally de- 
 stroyed at least three times, but still a pile of 
 bricks reminds the Yankees so much of Sinnter 
 that, as yet, they cannot witness the ruins of 
 the hated city. He hears that the invaders 
 have left him without a home, but he has the 
 satisfaction of remembering that he had his 
 share of the glory of being one of the few who 
 lessened their numbers so rapidly at Secession- 
 ville. 
 
 The Chess reporting is confided to the most
 
 12 FORT-LA-FA YETTE LIFE. 
 
 quiet of the inmates of cell No. 3, who, if 
 he had not conceived the idea of putting the 
 machinery of a lumber-mill (which was of no 
 use in consequence of the blockade) near Mo- 
 bile into a schooner of his, would not be among 
 us. 
 
 The land-o'-cakes is represented amongst 
 us by a person who assumes the place of musi- 
 cal contributor. It is to be hoped that he will 
 do justice to the romance which he attaches to 
 his own case from the numerous escapes he 
 made while fighting among the rebels, to fall 
 into the Yankee trap while in the enjoyment of 
 ladies' society, when on his way home from 
 Dixie. In vain he tells Lord Lyons that he 
 was passing through the Federal territory in 
 no other than the character of an honourably 
 discharged Confederate officer, but to no pur- 
 pose : Mr. Seward has to be believed first, and 
 it suits him to have him held as a spy. 
 
 The idea of a person who, until the break- 
 ing out of hostilities whose whole interest lay 
 in fast boats and large loads of cotton on the 
 Mississippi and the Alabama represents some
 
 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 13 
 
 half-a-dozen among the readers of the " Right 
 Flanker;" the remainder of the number who 
 are present is made up by a person who, on 
 account of his father having fought under the 
 old Napoleon, has faith that, as soon as his 
 case is plainly represented, the younger one 
 will take it up, the result of which will be not 
 only his immediate release, but the winning of 
 a bet from his English-born shipmate, who, 
 at the time of the capture of the blockade 
 runner in which they were together, backed 
 his opinion that the British Lion was no more 
 af-aid than the French Eagle of the Yankee 
 sare-crow. 
 
 A silver-haired person, whose offence was 
 tht feeding of the furnaces of a blockade 
 rumer, but who rejoices in not having been 
 giilty of doing more than declaring his inten- 
 tion to formally renounce his allegiance to the 
 country which gave him birth. A Yankee who 
 had been acting as an officer of a British 
 steamer, seized when on the point of leaving 
 Mew York on suspicion of being intended for 
 :he blockade business, and another under mili- 
 ary arrest, for complicity, as sergeant of a
 
 H FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 
 
 quarter - master, in defrauding the United 
 States, completes the present party in Fort- 
 la-Fayette, with the exception of one who is 
 in close confinement on the charge of having 
 been at the head of the rioters in New York a 
 short time since ; what is to be known of him 
 is, that his case is the result of the taste which 
 has too often induced young men to prefer the 
 imaginary pleasure of life in the commercial 
 metropolis, to the real ones of Southern hos- 
 pitality. He is a Virginian. 
 
 The fine October weather continues ; sti.l, 
 on account of the quarters allotted us haviig 
 become too crowded, the heat at night is vey 
 trying in a close cell. In the eating line we get 
 along pretty well- more than half of us rebels 
 having means enough in the hands of the ad- 
 jutant of the fort to procure something adci- 
 tional to soldiers' fare for ourselves and the 
 others ; and the friends of the loyal citizens 
 which term covers all brought here (no matter 
 for what) who do not strictly come under the 
 head of actual rebels or their sympathisers 
 are at liberty to supply them.
 
 FORT- LA-FA YETTE LIFE. 
 
 ARRIVAL OF FOUR PRISONERS FROM NEW YORK 
 THEIR ANTECEDENTS WHAT THEY HAVE 
 
 REALLY DONE, AND WHAT THE PAPERS SAY 
 THEY HAVE DONE WHAT SOME OF THEM 
 THINK OF OUR CAUSE IN NEW YORK DIF- 
 FERENCE BETWEEN A CONFEDERATE AND A 
 
 NEW YORK PEACE DEMOCRAT: THE LATTER 
 BELIEVES IN GOVERNOR SEYMOUR ; THE FOR- 
 MER HAS NO CONFIDENCE IN EITHER HIM OR 
 FERNANDO WOOD TREATMENT OF PRISONERS, 
 OCTOBER 1863. 
 
 THIS week has brought quite an addition, 
 and, according to appearance, an important 
 one, to our number, as much on account of the 
 evidence afforded of the probable course of 
 things at the North, as on account of one of 
 the parties having had, as a friend of the 
 Southern cause, continual experience in New 
 York since the breaking out of hostilities. He 
 is accompanied by another Marylander, of his 
 own feelings, a New Jersey and a New York 
 citizen, both of whom intimate that they prefer 
 being looked upon as Peace Democrats. They 
 shall be estimated as such ; at the same time,- 
 as the idea current among; us is that all who
 
 1 6 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 
 
 are not for us are against us, they cannot ex- 
 pect to be considered as having taken the 
 higher order. 
 
 The newspapers which we are allowed to 
 purchase (any but those advocating the w r ar or 
 Administration are prohibited) give all kinds 
 of versions to their cases, more particularly as 
 to the principal one of our Maryland friends ; 
 one of them (the papers) having it that he was 
 in the habit of making Republican speeches 
 while acting the part of a rebel emissary ; an- 
 other has him a dealer in torpedoes ; a third a 
 confidential travelling agent for Mr. Vallan- 
 digham while in Dixie ; while a fourth would 
 have him held to a strict account for having 
 had in his office some boxes which, from their 
 weight, must have contained something con- 
 traband. All agree as to the importance of 
 his captured corespondence, and promise their 
 readers rich developments. One editor, no 
 doubt wishing to be ahead of all competitors, 
 tells his patrons that the arrest proved to be 
 "of much greater importance than at first sup- 
 posed, although, after having made enquiries
 
 FORT-LA-FA YE TTE LIFE. 17 
 
 at the Marshal's office, he failed to elicit any- 
 thing new in regard to them. 
 
 The true particulars are noted as follows: 
 A Yankee, who had been in the confidence of 
 parties in Baltimore as a Virginian in the 
 Potomac blockade business, became a Wash- 
 ington War Department Detective Officer, 
 from which department he was supplied with 
 funds for the purpose of making purchases of 
 articles, contraband of war, from his former 
 friends in Baltimore, and then got an intro- 
 duction through them to their New York con- 
 fidants, with the avowed purpose of getting 
 assistance in procuring passage from thence to 
 Richmond with articles much needed by the 
 authorities there. 
 
 The plan, unfortunately for our Maryland 
 friend, worked but too well. As soon as he 
 had sufficiently committed himself, and the 
 contraband articles were in his charge, the 
 United States Secretary of War issued an 
 order for his arrest, and instructed the officer 
 making the arrest to deliberately deceive his
 
 1 8 FORT-LA-FA YETTE LIFE. 
 
 prisoner by an assurance that he was merely 
 required for an hour at a Provost Marshal's 
 office ; and he did not undeceive him until he 
 had got him outside the limits of the City of 
 New York. 
 
 The other Marylander comes compromised 
 as master of the vessel,which it is charged was to 
 have taken the supposed Confederate to Virginia. 
 
 Our greyheaded room-mate was engaged 
 by the detective to negotiate the purchase, 
 from his New Jersey friend, of some patent 
 fuse", also for the use of the Confederate Gov- 
 ernment. As the ideas of these gentlemen 
 are of interest, as evidence of what is going on 
 in this part of the Lincoln dominion, they are 
 noted. The principal of our Maryland friends, 
 from having held the position of a confidential 
 Southern sympathiser from the first, and from 
 the fact that it has been but a few weeks since 
 he was last threatened, has more to complain of, 
 from the means resorted to in making the arrest, 
 than from the arrest itself. He has been, as it 
 might be said, inside the scenes ever since the 
 exposing of a name on the face of a card,
 
 FORT-LA-FA YETTE LIFE. 19 
 
 instead of the one upon its back, in all probabi- 
 lity decided the fate of Fortress Monroe at the 
 commencement of the war. It is his belief 
 that, outside of the few in New York who con- 
 tend that Southern Independence siionld be a 
 right, not a concession, we have not any friends, 
 unless they are to be considered as such, who are 
 in opposition to the present war-making power, 
 merely for the purpose of trying to secure the 
 advantage of place and power to carry it on 
 themselves. The cases of two leading New 
 York lawyers, who but a short time since 
 would let the " wayward sisters" go in peace, 
 is pretty strong pro9f that he is right. Our 
 greyheaded room-mate dissents from that view, 
 and estimates that there are many thousands 
 prepared unhesitatingly to make peace on the 
 basis of Southern Independence ; but he be- 
 lieves in Governor Seymour. Our Maryland 
 friend has no confidence in either Seymour or 
 Fernando Wood. Our New Jersey room-mate 
 is, like most inventors, so completely absorbed 
 in the idea of astonishing the rest of mankind, 
 that with the exception of claiming to be con- 
 sidered as an old time Democrat, he allows
 
 20 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 
 
 little to trouble him, but the possible result of 
 his arrest on the fate of the " endless chain of 
 Fire," as he calls his patent fuse. He was on 
 the point of arranging to let the Government 
 at Washington have its advantages, for the 
 destruction of whole rebel armies at one time ; 
 but as he and the Federal General, who was 
 to have had a share of the profit, disagreed as 
 to the amount he was to have, he became will- 
 ing to dispose of the invention to any other 
 party ; and as it turned up, a War Department 
 Detective came along as another party. The 
 chances are very unfavourable to his realizing 
 anything from the project, which has been his 
 study for several years. The Detective was to 
 have secured him in a quarter of a million 
 dollars, if his (the Detective's) plan for intro- 
 ducing the invention into the Southern Con- 
 federacy had succeeded. Our Jersey acquaint- 
 ance considers that it was not his place to 
 require an explanation from a purchaser of his 
 fuse as to what was to be done with it, which 
 was quite reasonable in our opinion, as we sec 
 that his State is perfectly careless as to the use 
 to which her soldiers are put in the prosecution
 
 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 21 
 
 of the war. They don't object to be ordered 
 to burn a house, or take a piano belonging to 
 their former friends, in the South. 
 
 On account of our Maryland friend having 
 become acquainted with Colonel Burke some 
 time since, while a visitor to a Baltimore 
 friend of his, then in charge of the Colonel for 
 giving currency to the report that General 
 M'Clellan had retreated to Harrison Landing, 
 or from the fact that the daughters of both had 
 been school-mates in Maryland, or perhaps 
 from the Colonel and himself being of the same 
 religious persuasion, the Colonel appears in- 
 clined to prefer that our Maryland friend 
 should be the person to treat with him on the 
 part of the prisoners in general, to which we 
 unanimously agree. Already, from represen- 
 tation by him, the Colonel has been induced 
 to give orders for the fitting up of new quar- 
 ters, to which it is intended to remove some of 
 the prisoners from each cell, thereby adding to 
 the general comfort ; and Southern friends of 
 his in New York have been written to by him 
 in respect to the wants of several in the way of 
 clothing.
 
 FORT-LA-FA YETTE LIFE. 
 
 THE EFFECT WHICH SENDING DOWN FOUR AT A 
 TIME HAD AMONG THE FREE WHITES OF NEW 
 YORK DANGEROUS TO HAVE A LIFE OF STONE- 
 WALL JACKSON IN THE HOUSE, OR TO HAVE A 
 
 PACKAGE DIRECTED TO FORT-LA-FAYETTE. 
 
 NOTHING of special interest to us occurred 
 this week, except as regards the case of our 
 Maryland friend. His friends in New York 
 have given proof that they not only desire that 
 he should want for nothing in their power to 
 afford, under existing circumstances, but also 
 of their readiness to meet the suggestions made 
 by him as to the necessities of some of his fel- 
 low prisoners. His daughter was permitted by 
 Col. Day, in command of Fort Hamilton, to 
 come over to this Fort ; but Col. Burke would 
 not allow her an interview with him, in the 
 absence of a permit from higher authority. 
 He, however, has learned something of the 
 effect caused by his arrest. It appears to have 
 extended from the case of those who have 
 been in the habit of visiting his office, to the
 
 24 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 
 
 domestics in the family with whom he resided 
 the former having become afraid to enter 
 the office ; and the latter, in the absence of the 
 family, would not rest easy whilst the least 
 evidence of his sympathies remained in the 
 house. A life of Stonewall Jackson was car- 
 ried to the hayloft; all the letters and papers 
 found in his office have been sent to the War 
 Department. There is an extensive field for 
 speculation as to the effect of examination 
 of the contents of the former, as they include 
 correspondence from a variety of persons, ex- 
 tending to even letters from schoolgirls ; but 
 fortunately, nothing has been found as proof of 
 his connection with any one in the Rebel 
 States, or of his having sent goods there. He 
 has surprised the adjutant by taking advan- 
 tage of the privilege to order such of the admi- 
 nistration papers as he prefers, in selecting 
 an extreme abolition Sheet, the Tribune, for 
 the reason as he gives, that the Editor is 
 an open and consistent enemy, as such, and 
 as a fanatic, an advocate of the war; while 
 his War Democratic contemporaries are quite 
 as much for Southern subjugation, but, from
 
 FORT-LA-FA YETTE LIFE. 25 
 
 being less independent and consistent, are less 
 honourable. 
 
 While on the subject of independence in 
 New York, it is to be noted that the proprietor 
 of three of the principal restaurants there, ob- 
 jected to a package containing some game, 
 being directed in his premises to a prisoner 
 here.
 
 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 
 
 CLOSE CONFINEMENT, FOR AN ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE- 
 ADDITIONAL RESTRICTIONS ON ACCOUNT OF AN 
 OLD KNIFE LADY FRIEND VISITORS RECOL- 
 LECTIONS OF BALTIMOREANS. 
 
 THE most interesting events of the week have 
 been the removal from Cell No. 3 to close 
 confinement, of our friend from Georgia, and 
 the withdrawal from the prisoners who have 
 been removed to new quarters, of the privilege 
 of eating their rations in their cells. The first in 
 consequence of a charge that he had attempted 
 to procure a life-preserving suit in order to es- 
 cape, and the latter in consequence of the Col- 
 onel, while excited about this finding a knife 
 which he suspected had been purposely gap- 
 ped to be used as a saw, to cut the bars of one 
 of the cell windows. They now have to eat 
 where, when and as fast as the soldiers do, or 
 get no garrison fare. 
 
 As any of us who are fortunate enough to 
 hear at all from our home ties, only get what 
 can be communicated by the half-letter sheet,
 
 2 8 FOR T-LA -FA YE TTE LIFE. 
 
 per flag of truce, we congratulate our Mary- 
 land friend on the success of his daughter in 
 procuring a pass to visit him twice a-week. Her 
 appearance is appreciated not only on account 
 of its serving to freshen the recollection of 
 many of us of the time we were made to feel 
 so much at home in the Monumental city, but 
 also on account of her frequent visits to the 
 Fort, pleasantly reminding us, that we are not 
 forgotten by the fair sex. While upon the 
 subject of Baltimore and its ladies, it is to be 
 noted that a friend there has contributed to 
 our comfort already, and our young lady 
 friend ancl her companion invariably think of 
 us all, when bringing delicacies with them. 
 " God bless old Maryland."
 
 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 29 
 
 ARRIVAL OF A DISTINGUISHED CONFEDERATE OFFI- 
 CER BOUQUETS TO PRISONERS COLONEL 
 BURKE AND A PRISONER ON THE WAR THE 
 STRICT LIEUTENANT. 
 
 THE events which come under our heading 
 of historic for this week are the addition to the 
 inmates of Cell No. 3, of a gentleman, in re- 
 gard to whom we all most feelingly adopt the 
 expression (of no doubt an honest Hibernian, 
 and who may have been a rebel) that we are 
 " most sorry and glad" to meet, a worthy repre- 
 sentative of him whose name alone attracts the 
 attention of those who can appreciate true pa- 
 triotism and chivalry, wherever the cause of the 
 South is known. Our Baltimore lady friends 
 made their appearance as usual, and we are 
 glad to find them report favourably as to the 
 care of them by the boatmen, and the consi- 
 derate attention on the part of the officers, 
 whose place it has been to be present at their 
 interviews with the object of their visits. We 
 are not indebted to them only this week, as in 
 the windows of both Cells 2 and 3, are dis-
 
 30 FORI-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 
 
 played bouquets, marks of appreciation on the 
 part of a lady residing in sight of the Fort, of 
 the newly-arrived rebel general and the rebel 
 naval officer within its walls. Since our Geor- 
 gian friend's removal to close confinement, our 
 Maryland friend has been in his place as ca- 
 terer for No. 3 Mess, the consequence is, that 
 between the occasions, he has to make on that 
 account, to meet the officers at their quarters, 
 and those he makes on account of his lady visi- 
 tors, he has frequent opportunities of a friendly 
 exchange of opinion with them (the officers). In 
 the last, the Colonel thought Mr. Davis a very 
 able and ambitious man, but he had now at- 
 tempted to do too much. Our Maryland friend 
 remarking that, as yet, there were no signs of the 
 rebellion being cmsJied. As a matter of course, 
 they (the officers) are of but one opinion as to 
 the result of the struggle, doubtless if that was 
 other than that numbers and money are bound 
 to succeed, some of them would not have 
 concluded to risk their lives in soldiering. 
 So far, with the exception of one, the junior 
 officers appear to correctly appreciate their 
 duty in regard to prisoners. The Colonel, on
 
 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 31 
 
 account of age, is entitled to some allowance ; 
 bat we have none for the young man, who 
 takes pleasure in making it evident that he is 
 expert in the duties of a jailer, more especially, 
 as we have reason to believe, that he cannot 
 have been long away from his native country, 
 where jails and jailers are so dreaded. The 
 idea of bouquets to rebels is mortifying to his 
 feelings, and already he complains of the extra 
 trouble from an examination of the contents of 
 an increased number of packages for the pri- 
 soners, even though it is caused by the ap- 
 proach of the general feasting time Thanks- 
 giving.
 
 FORT-LA-FA YETTE LIFE. 33 
 
 PAROLES WITHDRAWN MORE RESTRICTIONS ox 
 PRISONERS NEW YORK ILLUSTRATED PAPERS 
 FIGHTING AMONG THE CLOUDS THE HERALD 
 RELIABLE SHEET BENNETT, BARNUM, AND 
 LINCOLN. 
 
 THE fine weather, and the extra enjoyment of 
 the good things of life, which thanksgiving 
 day brought, made the week pass compara- 
 tively more pleasant. We have had an addi- 
 tion to the inmates of No. 3, in the person 
 of a Confederate officer, captured in hospital 
 at the surrender of Vicksburg, paroled there, 
 and brought to New York. The newspapers 
 clamouring for retaliation on rebel prisoners 
 in the North, for the supposed bad treatment 
 of Union captives in the South, the command- 
 ing General ignored his parole, and sent him 
 down here. In more than this it is evident 
 that there is going to be a tightening of the 
 screws, as a sentinel has been posted between 
 us and the former inmates of No. 2 and 3, who 
 have been removed to the other side of the 
 Fort, having come under the ban of the Col- 
 onel on account of the old knife with the
 
 34 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 
 
 gapped edge. Our Maryland friend can't 
 persuade the Colonel that the position in which 
 his (the Colonel's) cook found it, was not the 
 consequence of an effort on the part of the 
 prisoners to make it answer the purpose of a 
 refined steel saw, although it would not require 
 the judgment of a person more experienced in 
 the use of steel than from all accounts he (the 
 Colonel) is, to ascertain that the article which 
 has so troubled him could not be successfully 
 used in cutting a harder substance than the 
 beef in Fort-la-Fayette. 
 
 Our Maryland lady friends made their 
 accustomed visits. In addition to how much 
 we read in the newspapers about Grant in the 
 neighbourhood of Lookout Mountain, we are 
 allowed to see efforts in illustrated prints to 
 impress us with the idea of how General 
 Hooker had been fighting among the clouds. 
 Of course the rebels are represented as in the 
 dissolving views, and as a coincidence, we pre- 
 sume, Bennett of the Herald feels warranted in 
 departing from his policy of not attempting to 
 prematurely offer an opinion as to events in 
 the future, by coming squarely out in assuring
 
 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 35 
 
 his readers that the crushing of the rebellion 
 by New Year is a settled thing. The readers 
 no doubt imagine that it is the next New 
 Year that he means. Nothing of the kind, 
 for, should it be ten years until the war 
 ceases, and Bennett lives so long, we are 
 willing to wager that following that event, 
 an article will be noticed in the New York 
 Herald taking credit for its foresight in predict- 
 ing the close of hostilities at just that time. If 
 we were New Yorkers we would of course say, 
 " Give us Humbug," and of course that could 
 not be done without Bennett and Barnum were 
 included. As rebels, w r e prefer Bennett and 
 Lincoln being together.
 
 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 37 
 
 ORDERS FOR RETALIATION PRISONERS RESTRICTED 
 TO GARRISON FARE REBELS WON'T COMPLAIN 
 IF IT WILL SERVE TO SHOW THE EXTREMES TO 
 
 WHICH A COERCIVE UNION GOVERNMENT IS RE- 
 DUCEDAN ADDITION TO THE PRISONERS BY 
 
 AN OFFICER IN THE BRITISH ARMY, FOR HAV- 
 ING LETTERS FROM REBEL LADIES VISIT TO 
 A PRISONER BY A UNION FRIEND : THEY HAD 
 BEEN BETTING ON THE CAPTURE OF RICHMOND 
 BY M'CLELLAN, AND THE RECOGNITION OF THE 
 CONFEDERACY BY ENGLAND AND FRANCE. 
 
 THE gloomy weather of the week has accorded 
 with our feelings, in consequence of (we pre- 
 sume) the clamouring by the New York editors 
 for retaliation on rebel prisoners having had 
 the effect of inducing the Washington authori- 
 ties to order that we be deprived of the privi- 
 lege to either purchase or receive any articles 
 whatever from outside the Fort, with the excep- 
 tion of writing materials, pipes, tobacco, and 
 cigars, which are allowed to be purchased on 
 our account. Our Maryland friend, and caterer 
 for Mess No. 3, has had several interviews 
 with the officers in regard to so unexpected a
 
 38 FORT-LA-FA YE TTE LIFE. 
 
 restriction, without being enabled to come to a 
 conclusion other than that the influence of his 
 Irish lieutenant, who has been so pointedly 
 unfavourable .to the prisoners in general, has 
 induced Colonel Burke to make suggestions to 
 the War Department, which on account of the 
 existing state of public feeling the Secretary of 
 War was prompt to avail of. 
 
 The officers directly in charge of us have 
 been good enough to induce their Colonel to 
 ask additional instructions with regard to his 
 orders, the only favourable result of which is, 
 that prisoners who have relatives (friends won't 
 do) in New York, are at liberty to have them, 
 furnish them with one change of under and 
 over-clothes, and a pair of laced (not long-legs) 
 boots. All other prisoners, whether with or 
 without means to purchase, are obliged to 
 accept the gratuity of the United States Gov- 
 ernment in furnishing them, the same as its own 
 common soldiers. As soon as what remains of 
 the abundance in the eating line from pur- 
 chases on our own account at the village of 
 Fort Hamilton, and donations by New York 
 sympathisers^ is consumed, -our recourse will
 
 FORT-LA-FA YETTE LIFE. 39 
 
 have to be solely to tough beef, dry bread, 
 beans, and bad coffee. But let it come, many 
 of us have done marching, and successful fight- 
 ing, on still shorter rations ; and if the 50,000 
 friends, which our greyheaded room-mate says 
 are in New York ready to avenge any special 
 indignity towards him, are merely gently ad- 
 monished of the excesses to which their most 
 benign Government is compelled to have re- 
 course we rebels shall be particular not to 
 complain, although we know that Federal 
 prisoners \vere never denied the use of their 
 own funds in the South, or to receive whatever 
 was sent them by friends. 
 
 Our Maryland lady friends have been down 
 as usual, and were much disgusted to find us 
 under the new restriction, but from having, 
 found an old United States Officer to receive 
 them, and explain matters, they went home in 
 hopes of its being soon removed. We are of 
 the opinion, that except the Colonel and his 
 Irish Lieutenant, the officers on duty would 
 prefer that matters should go on as heretofore. 
 
 The week has brought no change in favour 
 of our comfort ; the old campaigners among
 
 40 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 
 
 us have been exercising their ingenuity in 
 making garrison fare more palatable to those 
 unaccustomed to roughing it Result favour- 
 able to the Rebel cause, as there is more em- 
 phatic language to be heard against their Gov- 
 ernment by those who heretofore would occa- 
 sionally suggest the possibility of a restoration 
 of the Union. 
 
 Cell No. 2 has had an addition to the num- 
 ber of its inmates in the person of a Lieutenant 
 in H.M. service, and a Confederate Captain ; 
 the former captured under orders from Secre- 
 tary Seward, on board of a British vessel when 
 on the point of leaving New York for Bermuda. 
 Charge : associating with disloyal ladies in Bal- 
 timore, and having on his person letters from 
 them to parties in Bermuda, to be forwarded to 
 Richmond. The latter, one of a number of the 
 citizens of the Confederacy who were on board 
 of a lately captured Blockade Runner. Some 
 half-a-dozen others taken in company with him 
 have arrived in the portion of the Fort to which 
 we are now denied access, consequently we 
 can merely ascertain that the most of them are 
 gentlemen from South Carolina and Virginia.
 
 FORT-LA-FA YETTE LIFE. 41 
 
 Our Maryland friend has had a Union 
 friend, with whom he has been domiciled ever 
 since the War commenced, to visit him. It is 
 presumed that the fact of this gentleman being 
 a member of one of the New York Militia regi- 
 ments accounts for the protracted interview he 
 was allowed to have with a prisoner here. Our 
 room-mate came back to his cell quite pleased, 
 as the reference was principally to amusing 
 occurrences, such as the betting between him 
 and his Union friend on the capture of Rich- 
 mond by McClellan, the recognition of the 
 Confederacy by England and France, and the 
 time when he was threatened with Fort-la- 
 Fayette for expressing the opinion that Mason 
 and Slidell should not have been arrested, by 
 a person who afterwards made a similar threat 
 when he expressed the opinion that they should 
 not have been given up without a fight. His 
 Union friend brings him also an idea as to the 
 reason for the absence of such replies as he had 
 been expecting to the communications sent to 
 his friends in New York in regard to his case. 
 It appears that they are alarmed at receiving 
 so explanatory letters from a Fort-la-Fayette
 
 42 FORT-LA-FA YETTE LIFE. 
 
 prisoner, fearing that the officer of the post, 
 whose place it is to read them, is interested in 
 getting as many persons as possible implicated. 
 It is not so. The officers here would prefer 
 that they should not be required to have charge 
 of any prisoners. 
 
 Our Maryland lady friends have been down 
 as usual, and from finding that there was no 
 relaxation in the rules as to our treatment, 
 have changed their views, so as to relieve the 
 conscience of one of them (the younger) in re- 
 gard to being the means of putting a letter from 
 a husband in the Fort into the hands of a 
 Southern wife without the examination of a. 
 Federal officer.
 
 FOR7-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. . 43 
 
 WINTER WEATHER GLOOMY FEELINGS BRIGHTENED 
 BY THE CHESEAFEAKE AFFAIR, AND NEWS FROM 
 THE ALABAMA A REBEL, AN ENGLISH OFFI- 
 CER, AND COLONEL BURKE AS TO SPECIAL 
 PRIVILEGES A CHAIR ALLOWED THE ENGLISH 
 OFFICER. 
 
 WINTER weather has been fairly initiated this 
 week ; the night to us now is nearly fifteen 
 hours, counting from lock-up time to the open- 
 ing of the cell in the morning. During it we 
 lose patience with every kind of games which it 
 is in our power to engage in, and we cannot 
 raise a laugh at even the expatiation of the 
 New York papers on the subject of whole 
 brigades of rebels asking to be received within 
 the Union lines on the Rapidan. 
 
 The capture of the Cheseapeake, and the 
 late news of the doings of the Alabama, inter- 
 est us ; so does the speech of Fernando Wood 
 in New Jersey. We wonder what his meaning 
 was when he said : " Not another man or dollar 
 for the prosecution of the war." Ben Wood of 
 New York, Bayard of Delaware, and Harris of 
 Maryland, are those ivhom we estimate as point- 
 ing to the Star of Peace.
 
 44 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 
 
 The Confederate Captain brought here last 
 week, having been reported by the New York 
 papers as deserving of consideration on account 
 of special kindness to Federal prisoners in 
 Richmond, thought that he had better ascer- 
 tain what effect such a character would have 
 with Colonel Burke, by soliciting the privilege 
 of procuring something in addition to the gar- 
 rison fare. He failed in his purpose, as did the 
 British officer in an effort on his part to im- 
 press the Colonel with an idea that he should 
 not be treated as a common rebel. He has had 
 H.M. Vice-Consul down from New York to 
 intercede in his behalf, but without success, 
 except as to allowing him a camp chair in his 
 cell. 
 
 Our Maryland lady friends have not been 
 deterred from their accustomed visits by the 
 cold and stormy weather, and have succeeded 
 in getting the privilege from some of the 
 officers who are in the habit of being present 
 at their interviews with our room-mate, to 
 bring him sufficient to constitute an ordinary 
 lunch, to be taken during the interview.
 
 FORT-LA-FA YETTE LIFE. 45 
 
 QUITE A NUMBER OF ADDITIONAL PRISONERS RULES 
 MORE STRICT A BRITISH SHIPMASTER CON- 
 FINED WITH NEGROES. 
 
 THIS week has brought quite an addition to 
 the prisoners of the Fort. On our side we 
 have a Virginia Confederate Captain from the 
 old Capitol, where he has been in solitary con- 
 finement for several months as a hostage for a 
 Federal soldier reported to have been held as 
 a hostage in Richmond. It now appears that 
 it was all a mistake as to any Union soldier 
 being ordered to be hung. (Had it been so 
 ordered, it would have been done with despatch 
 by the Confederate Government.) The addi- 
 tion to our neighbours in No. 2 is a young 
 Georgia gentleman, who was paroled from here 
 some months since, and brought back under 
 the late retaliatory orders from Washington. 
 To the numbers in the other part of the Fort 
 have been added a General and Staff of the 
 Confederate Army just from New Orleans. 
 The Commander and Officers of a Confederate 
 Blockade Runner. The Commander and 
 Officers of a British Blockade Runner, and an
 
 46 FORT-LA-FAYETJE LIFE. 
 
 Irish merchant captured while passing through 
 New York from Canada. 
 
 The rules are so strictly enforced as to 
 keeping us in No. 2 and 3 separate from those 
 in other quarters of the Fort, that we can only 
 ascertain who they are by the knowledge our 
 room-mates have of some of them personally, 
 and the public reputation of those belonging to 
 the Confederate Service. The latter, from 
 having been some time under Federal control 
 in New Orleans, make less complaint of unex- 
 pected restrictions to which they have become 
 subject, but the Englishmen take it quite hard, 
 especially the Captain, on account of being 
 denied the consideration due his station, to 
 assign him quarters separate from a crew made 
 up of (not the most select) different nations, 
 among whom are negroes. 
 
 Our lady friends down as usual, and suc- 
 ceeded, by permission of the officer of the day, 
 in supplying the inmates of No. 3 with suffi- 
 cient fresh meat to enable them to say that 
 Christmas brought them a variety in the eat- 
 ing line. The mutton chops were much appre- 
 ciated on account alone of the labour and ex-
 
 FORT-LA-FA YETTE LIFE. 47 
 
 posure occasioned the ladies in getting over the 
 ice to the boat. We hope that Lieutenant 
 S n may never be so situated as to enjoy, as 
 some of us did, a small share of the contents of 
 that little basket. The appearance of several 
 one-limbed Confederate officers, endeavouring 
 to get about over the ice covered space allotted 
 them for exercise, makes our feelings at the 
 setting in of cold weather additionally dis- 
 agreeable.
 
 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 49 
 
 NEW YEAR MORE PRISONERS ANOTHER BRITISH 
 OFFICER, AN ENVOY EXTRAORDINARY TO 
 WASHINGTON, AND SECRETARY, CAPTURED BY 
 ORDER OF MR. SEWARD THE WIFE AND 
 DAUGHTER OF THE MINISTER IN THE STATION 
 HOUSE SEVERAL NEW YORK MERCHANTS 
 BROUGHT DOWN ; 'THEY HAVE PLENTY OF 
 MONEY AND EXPECT TO BE OUT SOON OLD 
 PRISONERS DON'T THINK THEY WILL. 
 
 THE commencement of 1364 has so added to 
 the number of prisoners, that instead of about 
 20 two months ago, there must now be 100 
 more. The latest editions have been another 
 British officer, An envoy extraordinary from 
 a Central American Republic to Washington, 
 and his secretary, a Spanish gentleman. They 
 are not on our side of the Fort, but we are au- 
 thorised to note their cases as follows: The 
 Envoy came to New York to purchase arms for 
 the use of his Government, contracted with a 
 manufacturer, who was to ship them in pack- 
 ages of lard to Cuba, (the exportation of them 
 being prohibited.) As soon as on board ship, 
 the detective comes along, seizes the property,
 
 50 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 
 
 sends the owner, secretary, and friend (the 
 British officer) to care of Colonel Burke, and 
 the wife and daughter of the Foreign Minister 
 to a police station-house, where they were kept 
 some time. 
 
 In addition to the foregoing, we have the 
 cases of two British subjects and one English 
 naturalized New York merchant : charges 
 shipping goods toa British port under fraudulent 
 bonds, that they should not be sent to the Con- 
 federacy; collusion with an officer of the Custom 
 House in passing the bonds; clearance of coal 
 for Sicily, and having it landed at Nassau ; and 
 other contraband operations. They have means, 
 and expect to get out at once. Old prisoners 
 don't believe they can do it so easily. One 
 of them (the old prisoners) wagers with a new 
 comer that he won't be out in a week even if 
 he has a couple of hundred thousand dollars 
 at his back; it will take longer than that to 
 ascertain how to work the wires.
 
 FOR T-LA-FA YE TTE LIFE. 
 
 THE ARRIVAL OF A FORMER NEW YORK HOTEL 
 KEEPER, LATELY ENGAGED IN RAISING A REGI- 
 MENT OF SOLDIERS AN ADMIRER OF LADIES 
 PRESENTING FLAGS TO NEGROES INSTEAD OF 
 WHITE MEN PREVALENCE OF NEURALGIA 
 AND TOOTHACHE: SERVICES OF A DENTIST 
 DENIED RUNNING THE BLOCKADE BUTTER 
 IN CELL No. 3. 
 
 WE have a former New York hotel keeper, 
 lately connected with a Federal Colonel in 
 raising a regiment : charge defrauding re- 
 cruits of their bounty. None of the last three 
 Englishmen come under the head of rebel 
 sympathisers : they are favourable to the re- 
 bellion merely on account of the money they 
 make out of it 
 
 The late hotel keeper acknowledges to be 
 an admirer of the taste displayed within a few 
 days by the leading wives and daughters of 
 New York, in presenting a Negro Regiment 
 with colours, and otherwise paying them more
 
 52 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 
 
 marked attention than any white Regiment 
 that has gone to the war ; and one of the Bri- 
 tish subjects does not hesitate to say that he 
 is an Abolitionist. 
 
 Weather very cold. Toothaches and neu- 
 ralgia prevalent in Cell No. 3. Our Maryland 
 friend and the ladies have done all in their 
 power towards getting permission for them to 
 send down a dentist to operate in the presence 
 of an officer : which privilege was denied. 
 
 Since restriction as to food, our young lady 
 friend evinces a taste for the contraband by 
 having butter in small pieces for placing in her 
 father's pockets, whenever the officer of the 
 day is not watching, and her father is eating 
 his share of the contents of her little basket. 
 Occasionally we get other palatable morsels in 
 the same way. Lady friends of some of the 
 prisoners, not knowing that doing so was for- 
 bidden, sent fowls and other eatables down for 
 the New Year dinner. It was ordered that they 
 be added to what was specially furnished on 
 account of the Yankee Anniversary for that 
 meal, which was required to be partaken of at 
 a general table with the soldiers. Most of us in
 
 FORT-LA-FA YETTE LIFE. 53 
 
 Cells 2 and 3, as well as others, preferred to 
 let our appetites sharpen, in accordance with 
 the feeling in consequence of such an expe- 
 dient to mortify us.
 
 FORT-LA-FA YETTE LIFE. 55 
 
 INTERESTING READING CONTENTS OF A REBEL MAIL, 
 WHICH AFFORDS THE FIRST IDEA TO SOME OF 
 THE PRISONERS AS TO THE CAUSE OF THEIR 
 ARREST ONE OF MR. SEWARD'S DESPATCHES 
 AMONG REBEL PRISONERS IN FORT-LA-FAYETTE 
 AND BALTIMORE REBEL LADIES MORE LADY 
 VISITORS TO THE FORT "THE BONNIE BLUE 
 FLAG,*' AND " I LOVE OLD DIXIE, RIGHT OR 
 WRONG," BY PRISONERS. 
 
 WE have quite interesting reading matter just 
 now in the contents of a Rebel Mail, as pub- 
 lished in the newspapers, a portion of which 
 explains the cause of the Irish merchant being 
 sent down. There is no doubt of his being a 
 sympathizer, and it looks very much like, that 
 he has a taste for the adventures of the Block- 
 ade business. 
 
 We have been most absorbed in the con- 
 tents of a copy of a despatch of Mr. Seward to 
 Lord Lyons, received by our friend the British 
 Officer here, for associating with disloyal Bal- 
 timore ladies. It is quite a lengthy document, 
 covering four pages of what it is to be pre- 
 sumed is his diplomatic post paper, as it is 
 larger than any we have seen for a long time,
 
 56 FORT-LA-FA YETTE LIFE. 
 
 According to the amount of writing it is a most 
 formidable document, but all that appears 
 as substance, is an evidence of the Secre- 
 tary's desire to frighten our young friend, 
 and for ever deter him from becoming a victim 
 to the influence of the bewitching Rebel ladies 
 of Baltimore. He is informed that before there 
 is time for carrying into effect suitable mea- 
 sures for bringing to justice his Baltimore asso- 
 ciates, his case cannot be further entertained ; 
 and that he (Mr. Seward) will have pleasure in 
 finding that in the meantime Her Britannic 
 Majesty has deemed an officer so guilty as un- 
 worthy to carry her commission. 
 
 We are not so much surprised at learning 
 his views as to punishment for associating with 
 Baltimore Rebel ladies, as Mr. Seward would 
 doubtless be if he was aware that a complete 
 copy of his despatch was subject to their criti- 
 cism in a very few days after it was written. 
 We trust that it reached them in time to serve 
 a good purpose. 
 
 The holiday season appears to have brought 
 an increase of Lady Visitors to the Officers of 
 the garrison, and occasionally some are in-
 
 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 57 
 
 eluded whose object evidently is to have it to 
 say that they had ocular demonstration of the 
 appearance Rebels in prison make, especially, 
 we presume, young good-looking Generals. 
 
 Without denying the right of some of us to 
 special admiration, the aggregate of gallantry 
 is such, that whenever either of the Generals 
 are called for by the Officer of the day, 
 while there are ladies in the Fort, especi- 
 ally when the Band is on the parapet, we all 
 make ourselves visible. We cannot, however, 
 appreciate the taste of having us brought out 
 from our comfortable fire, by " Dixie" from the 
 Band, to be immediately followed by " Yankee 
 Doodle," and shall therefore continue to culti- 
 vate our voices by rendering " The Bonnie Blue 
 Flag," and " I love Old Dixie, right or wrong," 
 for the benefit of our Yankee Lady Visitors.
 
 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 59 
 
 EXCITEMENT IN CONSEQUENCE OF A VESSEL AT- 
 TEMPTING TO PASS BEFORE BEING EXAMINED 
 
 MORE LOYAL CITIZENS BROUGHT DOWN AS 
 PRISONERS ADDITIONAL RESTRICTIONS AS TO 
 VISITORS THE BLOCKADE RUN WITH GREEN- 
 BACKS FOR PRISONERS TRADING THEM WITH 
 YANKEE SOLDIERS SUCCESSFUL STRATEGY IN 
 GETTING NEW CLOTHES. 
 
 FOR the first time since the excitement about 
 the supposed attempt to escape by our Georgia 
 friend (who is still in close confinement), and 
 the shock to the nerves to Colonel Burke, from 
 finding the old knife with the gapped edge, we 
 have had, what we have all been wishing for, 
 another excitement in the Fort. It has arisen 
 from a report having reached the Commander 
 of the large number of United States armed 
 vessels, which have been engaged in blockading 
 the harbour since the case of the Cheseapeake, 
 against vessels leaving, as she did, with rebels 
 on board, that a steamer was attempting to 
 get by the Fleet and Forts without submitting 
 to search. The Revenue Cutter at Staten Is- 
 land signalised in answer, all the Forts beat
 
 60 FORT-LA-FA YETTE LIFE. 
 
 to quarters immediately. The guns of the 
 vessels were run out double shotted. Around 
 us the excitement was intense, prisoners being 
 driven in and locked up hours earlier than 
 usual. We thought of Rebel Rams, and all 
 that kind of thing, but it was only a vessel, the 
 captain of which was not aware of the new 
 regulations of the port. 
 
 The second week of the new year has 
 brought us hardly anything new. The weather 
 continues extremely cold, which we regret 
 more on account of our lady visitors than our- 
 selves, as we have free access to a pile of good 
 coal, and the cells are so crowded that the 
 want of fresh air at night is most felt The 
 additional responsibilities to Colonel Burke, 
 since our last, have been a custom-house officer 
 and three other defrauders of the United States 
 Government. The four worthy Unionists have 
 been given select accommodation, in close con- 
 finement. The Visiting Officer reports that 
 they were captured when on the point of leaving 
 the country. Charge altering receipts, by 
 substituting by figures greater for a less num- 
 ber of packages furnished by them as Naval
 
 FORT-LA-FA YETTE LIFE. 61 
 
 Contractors. In addition to them, the number 
 in other parts of the Fort have been increased 
 by parties who, under late laws as to defrauders 
 of recruits, are termed "bounty jumpers," 
 which, as understood here, means those who 
 procure substitutes and recruits, have them 
 mustered into service, and retain their money. 
 The reports which reach us across the sentinel 
 lines are, that one of the two who are here al- 
 ready had taken advantage of a sister-in-law, 
 the other of a mother-in-law ; and that there is 
 one to come down, who, by holding on to a 
 bounty, was cheating his grandmother. 
 
 The addition to the number of loyal 
 citizen prisoners having increased the appli- 
 cations for ladies to visit their relatives in 
 the Fort and as there are (as it appears) 
 more than the Officers on duty can attend 
 to, and strictly carry out the rules in 
 regard to them the General in Chief Com- 
 mand has given orders to have withdrawn the 
 privilege to our young Maryland friend to visit 
 her father twice a week, so as to place her on 
 a footing with the Yankee ladies who have 
 husbands in confinement ; the consequence
 
 62 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 
 
 being that, under the new rules, our lady 
 friends have to make applications anew each 
 time they require permission to enter the Fort. 
 
 Rebellious as our lady friends had a good 
 right to be heretofore, the new restrictions have 
 left no grounds whatever for scruples ; the con- 
 sequence has been that, through our young 
 Maryland Confederate, the inmates of Nos. 2 
 and 3 have become possessed of means so that 
 under an arrangement to give a Yankee soldier 
 a dollar greenback in exchange for a pound of 
 butter or sugar, and in proportion for other 
 articles equally appreciated under existing cir- 
 cumstances, they are once more within reach 
 of something better than what the most benign 
 government on earth considers good enough 
 for rebels. 
 
 Our pickets and scouts are out the moment 
 the doors of our cells are open in the morning, 
 to pick up whatever our Yankee guardians 
 have thought proper to leave at appointed 
 places during the night, as value for greenback 
 money passed to them, while on duty in front 
 of the cells, the previous evening. We cannot 
 complain if it occurs that the result of our
 
 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 63 
 
 outlay is to be seen in a staggering soldier we 
 do not complain whenever it has the additional 
 effect of getting them in the guardhouse, but 
 would, of course, prefer that it should be the 
 Libbey prison instead. 
 
 Yankee garments are to be seen in wear, 
 by those with the most limited wardrobes, 
 when the orders came from Washington not 
 to permit prisoners who had no relatives in 
 New York to get anything outside what the 
 garrison furnished. The greater number of 
 Southerners have felt little inconvenience in 
 that respect. Our Maryland friends put in 
 practice stratagy which even in the course 
 of the present war cannot have been thought of 
 by any one else, by which some gentlemen 
 were saved the mortification of valuing on the 
 gratuity of enemies. It was strictly according 
 to rule for a prisoner having relatives in New 
 York to order for his use a change of under and 
 over-clothes, stockings, and shoes, but the rule 
 did not guard against the contingency of the 
 articles being for the use of others, or of ex- 
 changes on account of misfits, in doing which 
 an old wornout garment might be sent to make
 
 64 FORT- LA-FA YETTE LIFE. 
 
 a package supposed to contain new articles 
 returned to get fitting ones in their stead, and 
 as it has turned out, our Maryland friend could 
 not be fitted until after several trials.
 
 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 65 
 
 MORE PRISONERS FINANCIAL OPERATION BETWEEN 
 A PRISONER AND THE UNITED STATES AUTHO- 
 RITIES THE (SUPPOSED) HEAD OF THE SOLDIER- 
 DEFRAUDING FRATERNITY BROUGHT DOWN HE 
 IS THOROUGHLY UNION, AND ELECTED A MEM- 
 BER OF CONGRESS, WHO is TO GET HIM OUT 
 INVITATION TO YANKEES FOUND IN THE SOUTH 
 WHEN THE WAR IS OVER. 
 
 THERE is not much to give under the historic 
 head this week. A couple of supposed rebel 
 soldiers and two more bounty-jumpers have 
 been added to the number in the other part of 
 the Fort. 
 
 A bounty-jumper was taken to New York 
 under an arrangement that his father was to 
 endorse his note in favour of the United States 
 for the sum of which he had defrauded the 
 widow of his brother by not giving but a share 
 of the money he had received as bounty for 
 her son ; but it appears that the old man 
 thought better of it, and let his son be re- 
 manded to board at the expense of his Govern- 
 ment for a while longer. One of the jumpers 
 brought down is really a character in himself,
 
 66 FORT- LA- FA YE TTE LIFE. 
 
 a Simon Pure Yankee, with the New York 
 polish, which we presume he must have got in 
 the second-hand furniture line, as he reports 
 such as his legitimate business. He is one of 
 those always-smiling fellows, can't be made to 
 notice the many attempts at amusement at his 
 expense by his rebel room-mates, who appear 
 to have no hesitation in showing that they ap- 
 preciate him even less than the others of his 
 tribe, which is on account of his evident desire 
 to assume among them the character of a 
 Union Lecturer. He is confident of not only 
 getting a release, but also a clearing-up of his 
 character as soon as a certain Member of Con- 
 gress who, he says, is indebted to his influence 
 for his election is properly made aware of the 
 particulars of his case. He is particularly in- 
 terested in endeavouring to prove that the time 
 must come, when the war is over, in which he 
 can meet acquaintances in the South same as 
 he did heretofore; and in moralising with our 
 Virginian rebel-captain, presumed without fear 
 of dissent on his part, that as he, as a Yankee, 
 would not hesitate to invite the now rebel- 
 captain to the hospitalities of his house when
 
 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 67 
 
 peace comes, neither would the captain think 
 of the present time when once more in the en- 
 joyment of peace, his smile was not in the least 
 changed when he heard that, as his country- 
 men had left his rebel-captain acquaintance 
 without a home, he could not possibly be in- 
 vited to it when the war was over, but that it 
 was certain that if ever he was known to be in 
 his neighbourhood he would invite him to the 
 limb of the first tree to which he could be hung. 
 Still, at the close of the controversy, the Union 
 saver would not allow himself to believe that 
 such feelings attached to more than isolated 
 cases of those who are sacrificing life and pro- 
 perty so lavishly for the avowed purpose of 
 getting rid of the Yankee character for ever.
 
 ".'"* * 
 
 :
 
 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 69 
 
 ARRIVAL OF A MILITARY COMMISSION FOR TRIAL 
 OF PRISONERS ADDITIONAL RESTRICTIONS- 
 ORDER'S FOR VISITORS TO BE SEARCHED OF- 
 FICER'S OBJECT, ORDER WITHDRAWN EXCITE- 
 MENT IN THE FORT ANTICIPATED ATTEMPT 
 
 TO RELEASE PRISONERS NEITHER CATHOLIC 
 
 NEWSPAPERS NOR EPISCOPAL PRAYER BOOKS 
 ALLOWED PROCEEDINGS OF THE MILITARY 
 COMMISSION How A NEW YORK SILVER-GREY 
 DEMOCRAT WANTED TO BET WHAT A JERSEY 
 DEMOCRAT WOULD BE GLAD TO HEAR Dis 
 CHARGE OF BRITISH SUBJECTS THE YANKEE 
 POLICY AS TO BRITISH BLOCKADE RUNNERS. ' 
 
 OUR lady friends succeeded in getting a special 
 permit, under which they made one visit this 
 week, instead of two as under the pass with- 
 drawn. As the weather is now, we are uneasy 
 for their safety, as sometimes it is dangerous 
 to attempt crossing from Fort Hamilton, on 
 account of the drifting ice. 
 
 The last has been an unusually interesting 
 week. The long looked for Military Com- 
 mission arrived made arrangements for an 
 examination into the cases of all the prisoners, 
 with the exception of those known to be in the
 
 70 FORT-LA-FA YETTE LIFE. 
 
 public service of the Confederate Government, 
 and are expected down on Monday to enter 
 upon their duty. 
 
 The last time our lady friends came they 
 were allowed to send, for the use of the prison- 
 ers in Cells No. 2 and 3, grace-hoops, hand- 
 balls, and some ballad music. On the day fol- 
 lowing their visit, an order was issued to search 
 all visitors to the Fort, and a report got cur- 
 rency that a general search of the prisoners' 
 quarters was about to be started. The green- 
 backs in No. 2 were hid for a while in a rat 
 hole, and those belonging to No. 3 were for a 
 time in a coal bucket. The " Right Flanker " 
 was suitably looked after, and for two days we 
 would trust none but our most experienced 
 and reliable scouts, to report as to what was 
 transpiring. It is a great relief to find that the 
 danger has not only passed, but that our Mary- 
 land lady friends were not the cause of raising 
 the suspicion that something contraband had 
 been going on. It was nevertheless feared at 
 one time that we would have to dispense with 
 their visits, as our Maryland friend properly 
 objected to their being subjected to the in-
 
 FORT-LA-FA YETTE LIFE. 71 
 
 dignity of being searched. It may have been 
 on this account, or the fact that the junior offi- 
 cers declined to assist in carrying out such an 
 order, that it was revoked, and a restriction 
 adopted in its stead of limiting interviews be- 
 tween prisoners and those visiting them to 
 strictly half an hour. 
 
 As prisoners will do, we have often specu- 
 lated as to what unexpected occurrence we 
 might possibly owe our delivery from Fort-la- 
 Fayette. Confederate iron-clads, or rams from 
 Europe, or an English or French blockading 
 fleet were thought of, but the idea of such a 
 thing as a premeditated attack on the Forts in 
 the harbour by a force from New York never 
 occurred to us. But it appears it must have to 
 the authorities in New York and the officers 
 here, as about nine o'clock last night we were 
 delighted with the idea that something in the 
 way of a real excitement had occurred. The 
 whole garrison was beat to quarters, guns 
 double-shotted, and pointed so as to cover every 
 possible approach from the city or the Long 
 Island shore. Howitzers covering the doors 
 of the place where there were prisoners, &c,
 
 72 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 
 
 &c. Some had it that the appearance of the 
 much-dreaded rams had caused the excite- 
 ment ; others, that the long-talked of time, 
 when the Seymour men of New York would 
 require him to make good his promise to pro- 
 tect them against the Lincoln despotism had 
 arrived. But morning came for us to find that 
 it was even a greater scare than the previous 
 one, as at this time it all arose from the wav- 
 ing of handkerchiefs to some of the prisoners 
 who happened to be in sight when a steamer 
 passed that evening, having on board some 
 lately released British sailors. The movement 
 having been observed from some of the Forts, 
 telegraphic notice went to head-quarters in 
 New York, and from there Colonel Burke was 
 ordered to prepare to repel an attack for the 
 purpose of liberating his prisoners. 
 
 This week our Maryland friend was allowed 
 but one interview, and that for only half an 
 hour, with his daughter and her friend, and, hav- 
 ing found the strict lieutenant, before alluded 
 to, as officer of the day, They were compelled 
 to take back a copy of a Democratic Catholic 
 paper ( The Metropolitan Record), to which our
 
 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 73 
 
 Maryland friend had been a subscriber for 
 several years ; and also an Episcopal Prayer 
 Book, which they brought for a room-mate of 
 his. 
 
 The Commissioners have entered upon 
 tneir duties, but, judging from their examina- 
 tions so far, it appears that it is to be nothing 
 more nor less than a humbug got up for the 
 purpose of closing the mouths of those in the 
 United States who occasionally find fault with 
 the locking up of people without an examina- 
 tion into the charges against them. The com- 
 mencement has been with those captured as 
 blockade-runners, the Commissioners knowing 
 so little about their cases that they had to ask 
 information from the prisoners themselves as 
 to the name of the vessel they were on board 
 of, and that of the one they were captured by. 
 After being informed of which, the parties, if 
 holding no position of importance, the question 
 was, " Are you willing to take an oath of allegi- 
 ance to the United States ?" And in the cases 
 of persons of position in the South, " Would 
 you, in the event of the Federal army occupy- 
 ing the place where your family is, still adheie
 
 74 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 
 
 to the Confederate Government?" In respect 
 to the Union citizens, some of the questions 
 have been, to our old grey-headed room-mate, 
 " Have you ever wagered that General Lee 
 would be in Washington by a certain time ?" 
 and to our Jersey room-mate, " Have you not 
 been heard to say, on a railroad train, that 
 you would be glad if the rebels would drive 
 the whole abolition crew out of Washington ?" 
 
 Our Maryland friend has had but to ac- 
 knowledge the genuineness of a communication 
 in his name, made shortly after his arrest, to 
 the Secretary of War, in which the ground was 
 taken that as no charge against him more than 
 sympathy with the cause of the South could 
 be proven, the Government ought at least to 
 allow him to leave the country. 
 
 The only one who has had thus far any 
 reason to hope for result from his examination 
 is the New York merchant who made the bet that 
 he would not be detained here more than aweek. 
 It is nearly a month since the inmates of No. 3 
 had the benefit of fifty dollars in cigars from his 
 loss of that bet, but we are duly glad that he 
 has now a prospect He has but a cough to
 
 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 75 
 
 complain of ; and although rebel-citizens were 
 denied the services of a dentist a short time 
 since, there is no reason why the Judge-Advo- 
 cate of the Commission should not allow a 
 Union-citizen to get within reach of medical 
 attendance by a removal to the city. 
 
 Two of the inmates of No. 3, finding in the 
 course of their examination that the Commis- 
 sioners had some knowledge of an attempted 
 arrangement on their part by which they could 
 have got away from the Deputy United States 
 Marshal when being conveyed through New 
 York previous to their being brought down here, 
 felt justified in acknowledging that they would 
 have been allowed to escape had they been will- 
 ing to increase their offer of money. At first they 
 thought that it was benefiting their cases to 
 make the exposure, but after being called 
 several times before the Judge- Advocate, they 
 have concluded that our room-mate, with the 
 cough and a couple of hundred thousand dol- 
 lars, is the only one who has the least chance 
 of getting out just now. 
 
 The week has given us considerable that is 
 new to talk over. Several British subjects have
 
 76 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 
 
 been released ; but they were those alone who, 
 in justice, should have been discharged before 
 they were brought here, as the same evidence 
 to their being neutrals was as well known when 
 they were in Ludlow Street Jail as it was when 
 they were let go. However, it is entirely the 
 business of their Government, if it allows the 
 Yankee authorities to take their own time in 
 deciding who "'they are justified in holding. 
 And it appears not to have come to the know- 
 ledge of the British Consul that the captains of 
 Yankee blockaders do not hesitate to say that 
 the purpose is to make all the Englishmen they 
 capture serve at least a couple of months in 
 prison in order to deter them from engaging 
 anew in the blockade trade.
 
 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 77 
 
 REMOVAL OF CONFEDERATE OFFICERS TO ANOTHER 
 FORT Two ESCAPE ON THE WAY ANTICIPATED 
 DEPARTURE OF Two OTHERS FOR THEIR HOMES : 
 ENTERTAINMENT IN THEIR HONOUR EDI- 
 TORIAL BANQUET OF THE " RIGHT FLANKER" 
 THE SENSATION OF THE DAY : " BRAVES, WHO 
 HAVE WITH STONEWALL BLED !" FOR THE FIRST 
 TIME. 
 
 THE Officers comprising the staff of the Gen- 
 eral brought here some time since from New 
 Orleans, and two other Confederate Officers, 
 were started under guard for Fort McHenry. 
 The mail which brought information of the 
 arrival of the Staff Officers at their place of 
 destination, brought to us the welcome news 
 that the plans of the other two to escape on the 
 way had been entirely successful. One having 
 relieved the guard of the care of him near the 
 railway depot in Jersey City, and the other near 
 the depot in Baltimore. Before starting, there 
 was something mentioned in respect to their giv- 
 ing parole of honour while on the train, but as it 
 was decided by them not to come under an 
 obligation of the kind, our friends are all right,
 
 78 FORI-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 
 
 if they can only properly disguise themselves, 
 and keep out of the way of detective officers. 
 
 The No. 3 party, who have got along so 
 pleasantly together, is to be further reduced 
 shortly by the removal of two, the return of 
 whom to their country and families will be 
 hailed with the greatest pleasure, at the same 
 time that the loss of their companionship will 
 be regretted by all. We trust that their cases, 
 and those of the two held so long as hostages 
 for them, may be the last expedient of the kind 
 during the war. 
 
 In view of their leaving, and the fact of our 
 having been in possession of funds enough to 
 give an entertainment, in conformity with the 
 estimate in which they have been held by all as 
 friends of the " Right Flanker " enterprise, and 
 some old rye being at disposal, yesterday 
 was availed of as an occasion suitable for our 
 local item reporter getting up an account of 
 what had been in contemplation some time, but 
 which has been delayed in hopes of our having 
 it in our power to be better prepared for such 
 an affair ; a sensational account (a la Herald) 
 of an Editorial Banquet in honour of the "Right
 
 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 79 
 
 Flanker." The report of such a banquet 
 appears in our local item column as follows : 
 
 " The Sensation of the Day." 
 " The great Editorial Banquet of the ' Right 
 
 Flanker.' " 
 " The La-Fayette Bastile in a Blaze of Glory." 
 
 " Great Concentration of Patriotism." 
 " The Programme of the Only Way to End 
 
 the War." 
 
 " The Emperor of China (the owner of the An- 
 glo-Rebel Rams) to arbitrate." 
 " The Knights of the Golden Circle." 
 " Pass-word ' Cousin Sally Ann,' " &c., &c. 
 
 Extract : The Great Editorial Banquet of 
 the " Right Flanker" at the La-Fayette Bas- 
 tile. This much-talked-of and long-expected 
 entertainment came off yesterday with great 
 eclat. The company present on the occasion 
 included the most notable and fashionable of 
 the sojourners at that celebrated establishment. 
 The sentimental, and other tastes, evidenced, 
 were such, that we can say, after an experience 
 derived from an attendance at all the reunions
 
 8o FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 
 
 of a similar nature which havetaken place in that 
 abode of fashion, such a treat for the admirers of 
 patriotism has never been equalled, and, as 
 might have been anticipated, ideas were called 
 forth which could only be looked for in an 
 assembly of the kind. The preparations for the 
 gratification of epicurean taste was the result of 
 the most careful attention on the part of the 
 caterer, whose ability in that respect had been 
 frequently tested by similar occasions. It was 
 generally conceded that it was out of his 
 power to have succeeded more admirably. As 
 usual of late the tables were furnished exclu- 
 sively from the productions for which the Bas- 
 tile estate has so long been famous. In fact, 
 it might be said that every want was supplied 
 from the establishment itself, as it became 
 necessary to procure elsewhere but one article 
 in the liquor line. 
 
 The chair was most appropriately filled, 
 and at about four o'clock the festivities com- 
 menced by a suggestion from the Chairman 
 that it would be in good taste and appropriate 
 to the occasion to preface the regular toasts 
 with a suitable recognition of the esteem in
 
 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. Si 
 
 which those present held such an illustrious 
 personage, and he therefore proposed the 
 health of Kis Majesty the Emperor of China. 
 As might be anticipated, the mere mention 
 of the name had the effect looked for, as 
 such a means of awakening pleasant remini- 
 scences of home, and the cheering only sub- 
 sided to give way to the band which struck up 
 " Carry me back to old Virginia." 
 
 The senior Editor furnished the first regu>- 
 lar toast " The ' Right Flanker ;' may its po- 
 sition be ever impregnable in connection with 
 a centre, having a Lee in front and the memory 
 of a Jackson in the rear, and may the left rest 
 on Southern Independence" which brought 
 out the most successful effort of the Musical 
 Club in attendance in singing 
 
 Braves who have with Stonewall bled 
 Braves whom Lee hath ofttimes led, 
 Welcome to your gory bed, 
 Or to victory. 
 
 Now's the day and now's the hour, 
 See the front of battle lower, 
 See approach Lincoln's power, 
 Chains and slavery.
 
 82 FORT-LA-FA YE TTE LIFE. 
 
 Who would be a traitor knave ? 
 Who could fill a coward's grave ? 
 Who so base as be a slave ? 
 
 Let him turn and flee. 
 
 Who for Southern rights and laws 
 Freedom's sword will bravely draw, 
 Freeman stand or Freeman fall, 
 Let him on with Lee. 
 
 By oppressions, woes, and pains, 
 By our sires in dungeons chained, 
 We will drain our dearest veins, 
 But they shall be free. 
 
 Lay the base usurpers low, 
 Tyrants fall in every foe, 
 Liberty's in every blow, 
 
 Let us do or die. 
 
 Then followed "The Right Flanker;" its 
 principles and its policy : undying faith in 
 our glorious cause, and the advocation of 
 every effort for our liberty." Music "The 
 Bonnie Blue Flag." 
 
 " May peace be the source of as much 
 glory as the war has been, and our poets rival 
 our warriors." Music " Juanita." 
 
 " The life-drama we are now enacting : 
 may the curtain fall and rise no more on the 
 same performance." Music " Annie Laurie."
 
 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 83 
 
 " The Southern Army, a band of patriots 
 struggling for liberty ; they will never succumb 
 to Northern tyranny." Music " Stonewall 
 Jackson's March." 
 
 " Raphael Semmes, the pioneer cruiser of 
 the Confederate Navy : may he live to triumph 
 on the ocean while the war lasts, and to enjoy 
 the fruits of his labour when peace is estab- 
 lished." Music "A Life on the Ocean 
 Wave." 
 
 " The day we celebrate, as distance in the 
 landscape lends enchantment to the view ; so, 
 in other days and other climes, we'll gladly 
 think of you." Music " Home, Sweet Home." 
 
 After the announcement of the regular 
 toasts, and the discussion of the merits of what 
 was intended to promote a flow of soul, the 
 next in order were volunteer toasts, which were 
 as follows : 
 
 " Our Chairman, the worthy son of one of 
 the most famous in upholding the honour of 
 the Old Dominion in the greatest rebellion of 
 ancient or modern times," Music " Hail to 
 the Chief." 
 
 " The Hero in the nautical exploit which,
 
 84 FORT-LA-FAYETJE LIFE. 
 
 more than any other, has proved what can be 
 expected from a navy which, in infancy, has 
 the last chance for life volunteered in its ser- 
 vice." Music " The Confederate March." 
 
 " The Representatives of the Heroes to 
 whom is entrusted the defence of our soil, the 
 confidence of such men as have been tested at 
 Vicksburg and Port Hudson, is not to be 
 shaken by the trials of Fort-la-Fayette." Mu- 
 sic " Beauregard's March." 
 
 " The Pioneers in the Foreign Trade of the 
 Confederate States." Music" Up with the 
 Stars and the Bars." 
 
 " The right kind of Allies for the Confede- 
 racy, such as are present from the lands of the 
 Shamrock and Thistle. To fight its cause with 
 pen and sword is all the privilege they want." 
 Music " St. Patrick's Day," and " The Camp- 
 bells are Coming." 
 
 " The Maryland Blue Eyes, which so fre- 
 quently look down upon the evidence of the 
 struggle in which her native State has so much 
 interest the present Captives in Fort-la-Fa- 
 yette." Music " Maryland, my Maryland." 
 
 " Sweethearts and Wives," and " Cousin
 
 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 85 
 
 Sally-Ann," were given at the conclusion ; and 
 at about five o'clock the company was broken 
 up the members (including the writer) return- 
 ing to their respective homes to enjoy the plea- 
 sure of reflecting that had they not been in 
 attendance they would have lost such an op- 
 portunity as cannot be expected to occur 
 again.
 
 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 
 
 A TRIFLING ARTICLE DENIED A PRISONER NEWS 
 FROM THE ESCAPED PRISONERS ONE HAS 
 A PLEASANT TIME IN WESTERN VIRGINIA, 
 BALTIMORE, NEW YORK, AND BOSTON, BEFORE 
 LEAVING FOR BERMUDA LEAVING OF TWO 
 PRISONERS FOR FORTRESS MONROE, TO BE 
 EXCHANGED THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE MILI- 
 TARY COMMISSION CONCLUDED THE ONLY 
 RESULT THE TRANSFER OF A RICH UNION 
 CITIZEN TO A NEW YORK JAIL, 
 
 No one has been discharged yet in consequence 
 of examination by the Military Commissioners. 
 Our Maryland friend had an interview this week 
 of just the half-hour with his daughter, and in 
 consequence of the late strictness in other re- 
 spects, he was not allowed to receive a trifling 
 article brought him as a birth-day gift. 
 
 The principal subject of interest during the 
 week has been the report from our friend the 
 Officer who escaped at the depot at Baltimore. 
 When jokingly talking over the chances of 
 escape, his room-mates suggested as a pro- 
 gramme, to be followed in case of success in 
 getting away from the guard, first to assume
 
 88 FORT-LA-FA YETTE LIFE. 
 
 the character of a preacher, on account of deli- 
 cate appearance. Secondly, if some tracts 
 should be within reach, to be sure and have a 
 good supply to hand round among railway or 
 steamer passengers. Not to omit having at all 
 times in hand a good Abolition Newspaper (the 
 New York Tribune, if possible,) and campaign 
 it so with passengers adjoining that the re- 
 bellion be crushed in not over 30 days, and 
 that Jefferson Davis and all his followers come 
 to the gallows as soon as possible afterwards. 
 Then, so soon as out of danger, to insert a per- 
 sonal in the Herald, using certain cabalistic 
 words, which were on the walls of the cell, as 
 we would be on the look out. We are not 
 aware of his having had recourse to the tracts, 
 Tribune, speedy crushing of the rebellion, and 
 hanging all the Rebels ; but we have the per- 
 sonal in the Herald, from which it appears he 
 went out from the Capes of Virginia in a 
 British vessel. 
 
 The other lucky fellow, who escaped at the 
 Jersey City Depot, not having been a room- 
 mate of the editorial staff of the " Right 
 Flanker," failed to inform us exactly of the
 
 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 89 
 
 programme of his case, still we know that after 
 relieving his keepers of all responsibility on his 
 account, he passed quite a pleasant time in 
 Western Virginia, Maryland, New York, and 
 Boston, before leaving for Halifax and Ber- 
 muda. 
 
 Next to the cases of our escaped friends, 
 the two hostages have left for Fortress Mon- 
 roe to be exchanged. We missed them from 
 the spots occupied by them in our small quar- 
 ters for several months of the (to us) long 
 winter season. May all the happiness they 
 wished for attend their arrival home. 
 
 The Military Commissioners appeared to 
 have concluded their labours, and as we learn 
 started for Fort Warren ; the only result being 
 the removal of our fellow-prisoner with the 
 bad cough, and the two hundred thousand dol- 
 lars, to a jail in New York, from which we 
 hear that he is allowed to be absent nightly, 
 by paying an officer to accompany him. We 
 sincerely congratulate him. Prisoners may not 
 feel for every one who is brought down here, 
 at the same time it is invariably the case that 
 all are glad to see any one regain liberty.
 
 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 91 
 
 THE MILITARY COMMISSIONERS AND A CONFEDERATE 
 ENGINEER ; THE LATTER CONTENDS THAT THERE 
 is A CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENT, FOR WHICH 
 
 HE IS MORE CLOSELY LOCKED UP A JAR OF 
 
 OYSTERS DENIED A PRISONER. 
 
 THE last act performed by the Commissioners 
 proved to be in accordance with our ideas, as 
 to the whole operation, on their part, being a 
 farce. Among the number examined by them, 
 some of whom were before them more than 
 once, were several attached to the engine 
 department of a captured blockade-runner. 
 These were called up, and offered their liberty 
 provided they were willing to exercise their 
 capacities in the service of the Government. 
 On a proposition of the kind being made to 
 the chief-engineer (a Baltimorean), the remark 
 was made by him that he was already in Go- 
 vernment employ, whereupon the officers con- 
 cluded that they must have been trying a loyal 
 citizen, and were about to order a discharge of 
 the supposed injured party, until he informed 
 them that it was the Confederate Government
 
 92 FORT-LA-FA YETTE LIFE. 
 
 he alluded to, when he received an extra repri- 
 mand for the expression of the word Govern- 
 ment, as applied by him, and was quickly 
 remanded to his cell. 
 
 Our Maryland friend had a visit from his 
 ladies (for the half hour) this week, also from a 
 Holland friend of his, who, not knowing the rules 
 of the Fort, brought for him a jar of pickled 
 oysters. But, strange as it to us appears, on 
 account of our knowledge of the apparent pre- 
 ference which the Colonel has for him (our 
 Maryland room-mate), he would not allow him 
 to receive the jar of oysters. Perhaps it is 
 owing to the proprietor of the restaurant where 
 the oysters were purchased, the same who some 
 time since objected to a package of game for 
 a prisoner here being directed to him in the 
 place where he did not hesitate to receive the 
 money for them.
 
 FORT-LA-FA YETTE LIFE. 93 
 
 A UNION PRISONER'S APPEAL FOR VEGETABLES His 
 RELATIVES FEAR THAT HIS MIND is AFFECTED 
 HIS HOPE ON ACCOUNT OF ROTHSCHILDS' 
 AGENT HANGING OUT THE OLD FLAG, AND 
 HELPING TO CRUSH THE REBELLION CONTRO- 
 VERSIES BETWEEN NORTHERN CITIZENS AS TO 
 THE STANDARD FOR SOCIETY DIFFERENCE OF 
 TREATMENT TO UNION AND REBEL PRISONERS. 
 
 THE interest which the past week has afforded 
 outside, of local items and the ordinary contri- 
 butions to our columns, has been in the case 
 of our room-mate from New Jersey. For some 
 time he, like many of us, has been suffering 
 in health from the want of vegetable matter, 
 and has frequently endeavoured to sufficiently 
 impress the friends to whom he wrote, with the 
 idea that he could not possibly survive much 
 longer under the present restrictions as to food. 
 An unfavourable turn of feelings in mind, as 
 well as body, induced him a few nights since 
 to be influenced by a room-mate having a 
 waggish taste, who suggested that an applica- 
 tion to head-quarters for enough of vegetable
 
 94 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 
 
 matter to smell, instead of to eat, would be at- 
 tended with success, and he therefore directed 
 his lady-friends to make such an application. 
 As soon as they received a request from him for 
 a " few small potatoes and an onion," they con- 
 cluded that his mind had become affected, and, 
 while under the excitement such an idea occa- 
 sioned, procured a permit, not for one alone as 
 heretofore, but for three of them to visit him. 
 The result of such a visit, under such circum- 
 stances, can be more easily imagined than de- 
 scribed. We are happy to say, however, that 
 their alarm was uncalled for, as the only time 
 our room-mate appeared at all unreasonable 
 has been when in the expectation that, in conse- 
 quence of his brother-in-faith, the agent of the 
 Rothschilds, having always a large silk star- 
 spangled banner displayed from a Fifth Avenue 
 residence, and the fact of his having done so 
 much in means towards crushing the rebellion, 
 he (our Jersey room-mate) ought to receive 
 favourable attention at the hands of the Go- 
 vernment Occasionally he and our New York 
 Democratic room-mate would become excited 
 in controversy in enlightening us rebels as to the
 
 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 95 
 
 standard of society in the Empire City : one 
 contending that a great bridge-builder was at 
 the head, as he had the most money ; while 
 the other granted that privilege to the man 
 who could afford to present to the Government 
 a steamer to catch the Alabama. With these 
 exceptions, we have found our Jersey room- 
 mate always inclined to keep within discre- 
 tionary limits, after making proper allowance 
 for the latitude as the inventor of the " endless 
 chains of fire," all must agree he is entitled to. 
 The late New York hotel-keeper, lastly (as 
 we are given to understand) occupying a high 
 position among the bounty-jumpers, having 
 adopted the sick-stratagy as did our No. 3 
 rich Union room-mate, who is now under medi- 
 cal care in New York has been allowed to 
 order in delicacies from his lady-relatives ; while 
 so strict are the rules in respect to us rebels 
 and rebel-sympathisers, that of late our mus- 
 ket-carrying guardians can't operate at the 
 rate of a pound of butter or a pound of sugar 
 for a dollar of the green-backs which our 
 young lady friend took so much risk in bring- 
 ing us. She and her companion have been
 
 96 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 
 
 down as usual this week, and we are most 
 happy to find that they give encouraging ac- 
 counts as to efforts which are being made by 
 the friends of the special object of their visits 
 towards having him turned over to the juris- 
 diction of a Civil Court in New York, it having 
 been decided that he is not guilty of a military 
 offence.
 
 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 97 
 
 THE STRONG ARMS AND BRAVE HEARTS OF THEIR 
 COUNTRYMEN THE ONLY DEPENDENCE OF REBEL 
 PRISONERS ANTICIPATED NECESSITY FOR DIS- 
 CONTINUANCE OF THE " RIGHT FLANKER" RE- 
 MOVAL OF SEVERAL PRISONERS FROM THE FORT, 
 
 AND THE EXISTING COPIES OF IT ENTRUSTED 
 TO THEM FINAL DISCONTINUANCE OF IT 
 PUBLICATION OF FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 
 
 FINE March weather keeps us out of doors 
 more than usual, and though allowed an in- 
 crease of room to exercise in, we feel the con- 
 finement more unbearable than when the wea- 
 ther obliged us to stay more indoors. And as 
 it is now settled that nothing favourable is to 
 result from the examination by the Military 
 Commission, we have nothing to look to but 
 the holding out of our health, and patience, 
 and the strong arms and brave hearts of our 
 fellow-countrymen. 
 
 Since four of the original inmates of No. 
 3, and three from No. 2, have been removed, 
 the number of reliable Right Flankers have 
 not only become considerably less, but in some 
 instances the places of the friends of the enter- 
 prise are occupied by doubtful parties. It 
 therefore becomes necessary to exercise un-
 
 98 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE, 
 
 usual caution, in doing which the result of our 
 efforts must naturally be lessened. This ex- 
 planation is made for the information of the 
 readers at the other side, who notice that their 
 communications do not appear this week. 
 
 The only change among the prisoners has 
 been in the removal of the Captain and Offi- 
 cers of a captured steamer to a jail in New 
 York, to serve as witnesses in deciding whether a 
 Government transport which made the capture, 
 or the regular cruiser which came up shortly 
 afterwards, is entitled to the prize money. 
 
 Our lady friends down as usual, bringing 
 the gratifying news that a friend from Wash- 
 ington reports that an order is out to remove 
 our Maryland room-mate to the jurisdiction of 
 a Court in New York. 
 
 As the remaining Right Flankers are about 
 to retire for the night, the officer of the day is 
 in Cell No. 3, to report that early in the morn- 
 ing our Maryland room-mate, the three others 
 arrested at the time he was, and our young 
 friend who was brought here from the Capitol 
 Prison, are to be removed to head quarters. 
 As their baggage includes some trunks well
 
 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 99 
 
 adapted for the purpose of secreting consider- 
 able bulk, and as there does not remain an 
 effective force to get up another issue of the 
 " Right Flanker," it is determined that the 
 occasion be availed of to remove the existing 
 copies of it from Fort-la-Fayette. The idea, 
 in part, in getting up such a sheet as the " Right 
 Flanker," having been for the purpose of in- 
 terest to, and reference by, those who have 
 been or may be inmates of Fort-la-Fayette, as 
 well as to afford those who have not had an 
 opportunity to judge correctly as to Life in it. 
 It is presumed not improbable that the interest 
 of readers in the present Extracts will be in- 
 creased by an addition to explain the course in 
 regard to persons liberated from there who have 
 not a status under the cartel for exchange of 
 prisoners between the United and Confederate 
 States authorities. 
 
 It is therefore thought proper first to refer 
 to the cases of the five who, left in charge of 
 the last issues of the " Right Flanker," which is 
 done as briefly as possible to be correct and 
 just. After removal from the charge of the 
 officers in command of the Fort, the five pri-
 
 ioo FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 
 
 soners alluded to were taken to the Major- 
 General commanding the department. The 
 one whose parole had been ignored when he 
 was sent down was allowed the privilege of it 
 again ; the other four were sent to a jail, sub- 
 ject to the United States Civil Authorities, 
 from which, after some detention, they were 
 released by entering into bonds for appearance 
 before an United States Commissioner, who, 
 after hearing all the evidence in possession of 
 the Washington Authorities, ordered a final 
 release on the grounds (as near as understood) 
 that, according to law, parties merely agreeing to 
 aid another, who did not actually intend to com- 
 mit an offence (and the Detective swore that he 
 did not), were not amenable under any known 
 statute. The result, of course, was taken ad- 
 vantage of as soon as possible by the released 
 parties the captain returning to the command 
 of his vessel ; the patent fuse" manufacturer to 
 look up the best customer for his invention, he 
 being again at liberty (he had always been 
 willing) to let the highest bidder have it 
 
 The chief of the Silver-Grey Democrats (as 
 he, in the Fort, termed the party of which he
 
 FORT-LA-FA YETTE LIFE. 101 
 
 claimed to be the .head), from appearances, as- 
 sumed the place of a martyr, although he had 
 not a single friend or relative to make him a 
 visit during an incarceration of five months ; 
 and the Marylander became free to renew his 
 business as a merchant. 
 
 It is not known how the movements of three 
 of the four finally resulted, but a special interest 
 in the Marylander, on account of the peculiar 
 result in his case, causes it to be noticed in 
 " Fort-la-Fayette Life." Soon after getting 
 his liberty, without coming under obligations 
 to the United States Government, he was 
 so unlucky as to become compromised again 
 in efforts to save a friend from conscription 
 into the Yankee service, making an immediate 
 departure for neutral territory necessary. 
 
 Only those who have endured the trials and 
 hardships of a prison life, can best appreciate 
 the blessings of personal liberty. And, there- 
 fore, the meeting of exiles in a friendly country 
 was the occasion of congratulation and the 
 source of much interest. Especially when, as 
 in the present instance, several were of the 
 editorial staff of the " Right Flanker." Many
 
 102 FORT-LA-FAYETTE LIFE. 
 
 of the exiles had been confined in various 
 Federal prisons ; some had just arrived from 
 Fort-la-Fayette, and brought tidings of the 
 remaining editorial corps yet within its gloomy 
 cells. 
 
 One of them, a captain, had plunged boldly 
 into the sea from its walls, upon a dark and 
 stormy night, with a life-preserver around him, 
 which his friends had procured in a contraband 
 manner, and having floated with the tide, 
 landed on the beach some three miles distant 
 from the Fort. Another, a contributor to the 
 " Flanker," had been released, after his long 
 incarceration, as the Secretary of State and Her 
 Majesty's representative had at length arrived 
 at the conclusion that he was innocent of the 
 charges made against him. 
 
 It was then determined to publish extracts 
 from the " Right Flanker," as affording a cor- 
 rect knowledge of prison life in the United 
 States during the present war, and properly 
 enlightening the public at large in regard to 
 subjects of special interest to them. 
 
 EDWARD HOWELL, PRINTER, LIVERPOOL. 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 LOS ANGSLES

 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
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