ontributed one hundred thousand men to the
Federal army. It is scarcely an exaggeration to add, that the population
of the civilized world was subsidized.

We were seven days in making the journey to Montreal, where my faithful
agent met me by appointment, and carried me to the residence of Captain
M., a zealous and self-sacrificing friend to the cause, and to whom I
had been accredited. He looked steadily at me for a moment after our
introduction, and then said "I have met you once before." He recalled
to my memory the fact, that while I commanded the battery at Acquia
Creek in the early part of the war, he had brought a schooner loaded
with arms, etc., up the Potomac, and succeeded in placing her under the
protection of our batteries; having profited by a cold, dark, and
inclement night, to evade the vigilance of the gunboats. Subsequently he
and his family were compelled to leave Baltimore, and were now refugees
in Canada. Colonel K., also a refugee and an inmate of Captain M.'s
house, and to whom, likewise, I carried letters, enlisted
enthusiastically in the expedition, and devoted his whole time and
energies to its success. We might, indeed, have obtained a large number
of recruits from among refugees and escaped prisoners in Canada, but it
was not considered prudent to increase the size of the party to any
extent, our number being quite sufficient, under the plan as devised.
But we picked up two or three escaped prisoners from Johnson's Island;
among them an individual who was well known to Colonel Finney (a member
of the expedition); having been in the Colonel's employment on the
plains previous to the war. The Colonel was the right hand of Major
Ficklin in organizing and putting into operation the "pony express,"
which used to traverse the continent from St. Louis to San Francisco,
and our recruit, Thompson, was one of his trusted subordinates. This man
had led a very adventurous life. He informed us that after making his
escape from Johnson's Island on the ice one dark winter night, he walked
into Sandusky, and there laid in wait at the entrance of a dark alley
for a victim with whom to exchange clothing. His patience being rewarded
after a while, he laid violent hands upon his prize, and directed him to
divest himself of his suit. The stranger replied, that he would not only
supply him with clothing, but with money to make his way into Canada;
adding that he had a son in the Confederate army. He gave Thompson t