proxy.
The outer envelope was to contain also the power of attorney for the
proxy to so present the sealed ballot.

And now I will tell you how merely the misplacing of the letter "L"
betrayed one of the greatest crimes of the period, entirely defeated its
perpetration, and helped to save our Union.

On Thursday afternoon, October 20th, 1864, General Wallace came to my
office with Mr. Orville K. Wood, of Clinton county, New York.

Mr. Wood had a blank or partly blank document which he had found in
possession of a soldier from his county. It was a blank power of
attorney, such as were provided for voting under the law of April 21st,
1864. The jurat was signed in blank:

C. G. Arthur
Lieut. 11th U. S. Cavl.

--and their conclusion was that this officer may have signed a number
of such papers in blank, and passed them out, to be used by any soldier,
perhaps to facilitate voting; an illegal act in itself; but upon
examination I pronounced the officer's signature a forgery. My
conclusion was based on the fact of the letter "l" in "Cavl." I assumed
that no officer of cavalry, more especially in the regular service,
would abbreviate in any way other than Cav. or Cavy.

General Wallace saw the force of my reasoning, and a new light was
thrown on the matter.

Had the one letter "l" been absent I should have concluded as General
Wallace and Mr. Wood had, i. e., that the fact of such a document,
entirely blank except the officer's jurat, being in public hands, was a
wrong merely laying the officer liable for having attached his name to a
blank paper.

The point then was to find out where the work was done. Mr. Wood had
visited the New York State agency office in Fayette Street and I
arranged for him to go there again the next morning (Friday), he to tell
the representative, Mr. Ferry, that some friends would call to be
assisted in preparing their votes. We agreed that my name would be
"Phillip Brady," from West Chazy, Clinton County, New York.

Friday morning I equipped myself as became a private soldier, in a
uniform much worn and shabby. One of my men, Mr. Babcock, accompanied
me, he was similarly attired. We provided ourselves with "2 hour"
passes from the Camden Street Hospital, and sicker looking convalescents
never were seen outside of a hospital. When we arrived at Ferry's office
we appeared much exhausted. Mr. Wood introduced me, and then I insisted
on Mr. Ferry's reading my pass so that he would kno