A World on Fire_ Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War - Amanda Foreman [219]
Abraham Lincoln apparently laughed when he heard about Stoughton’s capture, joking, “I can make a better general in five minutes, but the horses cost one hundred and twenty-five dollars apiece.”20 Yet behind the ludicrous picture of a general being taken from his own bed was the worrying possibility that anyone could be Mosby’s next victim. The military authorities ordered a thorough review of Washington’s defenses. New men were put in command; the outposts were strengthened and pulled closer together; a new system of passwords was introduced. Just in case Mosby had designs on the capital, troops guarding the Chain Bridge, the chief bridge linking Washington with Virginia, were ordered to remove the planks every night.
The authorities suspected that Mosby was receiving local assistance. Fearing that it could be anyone and everyone in Virginia, they issued a blanket warning to commanders to have their men on high alert at all times. Sentries had strict injunctions to reject “It’s me” or “We’re with the Fourth” and other such casual identifications. Any information that might be helpful to the enemy, such as duration of stays and destinations, was deliberately withheld from the troops. The tightening net closed on the two British captains Lewis Phillips and Edward Wynne during their return journey to the North. Phillips’s luck had always been better than his companion’s, and he made it through to Maryland; Wynne was caught while crossing the Potomac River. The legation learned of his arrest a few days later. “He seems to have behaved very foolishly,” wrote the new attaché, Edward Malet. “He gave himself up to the federal pickets … being brought before the commanding officer seems to have chaffed him and [he] tried to carry matters with a high hand.”21 Wynne maintained that he had said nothing objectionable beyond admitting he had been “very well treated whilst in the South” and was therefore grateful to its people. It is unlikely he stopped there, however, since he was soon brought under guard to the Old Capitol prison in Washington.
Ill.32 The Chain Bridge across the Potomac above Georgetown, looking toward Virginia, by Frank Vizetelly.
Lord Lyons forbade the attachés to write to Wynne or make it seem as though the legation had any interest in his release. He had “had some trouble,” explained Malet to his family, “as the government are very much put out at our soldiers going South and then returning rampant secessionists and now that they have caught one they wish to make an example of him.” The Old Capitol prison was a decaying, makeshift jail in the middle of Washington. Once the temporary meeting place of the U.S. Congress, then a school, and later a boardinghouse, it had become an unsavory haven for snakes and vermin when the authorities began using it to house political prisoners. Nothing was done to delouse or repair the inside; the windows were simply boarded up and a fence erected at the back. Smugglers, blockade runners, suspected rebel sympathizers, spies, and the odd Federal military offender soon joined the political prisoners. They smoked and played cards all day long, waiting to be charged, or released, or sometimes executed. Captain Wynne was “prisoner no. 6.” Malet visited him several times, bringing him cigars and newspapers. He tried to cheer him up, pointing out that the officials had allocated Wynne a private room. His efforts had little effect; Wynne shunned the other prisoners, preferring to sit in his cell plotting his escape.
The Marquis of Hartington and his friend Colonel Leslie were exploring Charleston when they learned of Wynne’s imprisonment.