The article below was found by John
W. O'Neal, II & Dorothy O'Neal
at the North Carolina State Archives in Raleigh, North Carolina on
October 5th, 2005,and transcribed by Bev Crowe.
The Washington
correspondent of the Philadelphia Press
gives the following
description of the rooms recently occupied by Mrs. Greenhow and her
sister
traitreses, now transferred to a new prison quarters:
“Now that the
prisoners had departed, we were invited up
into the rooms formerly occupied by them.
The room in which Mrs. Greenhow was lately incarcerated is
situated in
the second story back room. The same
apartment was formerly occupied, at intervals, by the Philips
family—Mrs.
Philips, her daughters Lena and Fannie, Miss Levy, Mrs. Baxter, Mrs.
Lowe, Mrs.
Posey and her daughters. Mrs. Baxter
was confined in the third story front room.
Besides this Mrs. Greenhow was allowed the use of the library,
the
property of her husband, who was a lawyer.
The library is chiefly stored with law-books, interspersed with
books in
the French and Spanis languages. Most
of the time of Mrs. Greenhow was spent in this room, which was neatly
furnished, and containing, besides a
sewing machine, upon which the lady named did a great amount of
sewing
during her confinement.
“After night set in
she employed her time in reading as well
as writing, and many of the fugitive verses written by her are still
preserved. She frequently remained in
this room until midnight before retiring to her apartment for the night. On the desk of the sewing machine this
morning, we found standing two bottles of fluid, which were frequently
used by
her in her correspondence to her friends outside of the prison, so as
to
disguise it to the eyes of the guard.
The plan pursued was to interline her letters by one of the
fluids,
which, on the application of a second, only known to those who were in
the
secret, was rendered perfectly intelligible.
Thus it was that contraband information could be conveyed by her
to
those who aided and abetted her in her treason.
“The walls of the
room of Mrs. Baxter, the panels of the
door, and the walls of the entry adjoining her apartment, are covered
with
scribblings in lead pencil, of quite a medley nature, prose as well as
poetry—some of them quoted from other authors and a number of them
original. The most of those writings
are parodies on our national songs, while not a vew of them are flings
against
the officers of the government. On of
them written on the entry wall, to the left of the door-way, reads
thus:--
"I had a vision last
night.
Methought I saw Abe Lincoln, Wm H. Seward, Simon Cameron, Andrew
Porter
and others, praying to Almighty God, as Dives had done, for the mercy
they
denied to harmless women. And the
Almighty God answers: “Have I not said
as ye mete it unto others, so shall it be measured unto you again? Depart from my sight, ye cursed, and take up
your abode in the hell prepared for Abraham Lincoln and his government
and all
who assist him in his abominable persecution.”
“Fronting the doorway
on the right, we read again the
following inscription:--“We must sustain the Constitution of the United
States;
we must down Southern institutions that we may put the proceeds of all
the
negroes in our pockets. We must impress
Southern women and children, and other such like chivalrons and
magnificent
acts.—Vide Seward”
“These are but a
specimen of the inscriptions to be read at
every turn within and outside Mrs. Baxler’s apartment.
Hardly any portion of the room is to be
discovered that does not contain some such memoranda, even to the
window sills.
"On Saturday morning
she sent to Lieutenant Sheldon by one
of the guard, the following rhyme, jotted down upon a small piece of
paper”
To Lieut. Sheldon.
“I pray you, good
Lieutenant Sheldon,
Since I trouble you
so very seldom,
To send me cat, or
trap, or Fice,
To catch these horrid
little mice.
“These troublesome
little government creatures
Have tried to mar my
southern features’
They began the war
against my clothes,
And last night really
bit my nose!”
"We are informed by
Lieut. Sheldon that of all the prisoners
confined here, Mrs. Greenhow was the most lady-like in her manners and
her
conversation. She is possessed of the
finest education of any lady who has ever visited Washington; and
although
rather severe at times in her demanciations of the North, yet she has
shown
herself to be possessed of a woman’s heart in her sad moments, as
witness the
parting from her guard on Saturday. She
had a great horror of being conveyed to Fortress Monroe, as was first
feared by
her, and her change is the most acceptable one that she could have.: