sal.

You will please see that Smith goes in Command with sufficient
guard and ammunition. If you want a Howitzer, send to C. O.
Fort McHenry, or let the steamer stop there and get it.

Very respy. your obdt. servt.,
SAMUEL B. LAWRENCE,
A. Adjutant General.

To
Major Wiegel.

Commandant's Office.
Naval Station,
Baltimore, Apl. 5, 1865.

Colonel:

I regret that I have no steamer in the proper condition to
start off; if we had it would be furnished promptly.

Very respy. your obdt. servt,
THOS A. DORNIN,
Commodore.

To
Col. Sam'l B. Lawrence,
A. Adjutant General,
Middle Department.

A report had reached us that the steamer "Harriet Deford," plying
between the Patuxent river and Baltimore, had been captured by a gang of
pirates, in Fair Haven bay, which is midway between the Patuxent river
and the Severn river; the passengers were robbed and put ashore.

Richmond had fallen; Jefferson Davis was seeking to escape, and the
theory, quickly arrived at, was that this steamer had been seized to
furnish the means, perhaps, to run him to the Bahamas, or Bermuda.

The bay and its tributaries were alive with anxiety. In a very short
time I was away in a tug. I put the guards below decks, in the
coal-hole, where they were nearly smothered, until night came on.

Early in the evening we arrived at the mouth of Fair Haven bay. Our
pilot did not know the harbor, but soon discovered he could not run his
boat on the mere appearance of water. He ran us onto a bar, where we
thumped and thumped, backed and poled off, and then ran onto another. We
finally concluded to back off, go back to the Severn river and
Annapolis, and wait for daylight.

When we arrived in the Severn, we found the shore and water full of
alertness. We were hailed and threatened until our character was
understood. To my delight I found there a large steamer, with two
hundred men on, that Colonel Lawrence had sent down to support me. A
landlubber feels better on a larger vessel, so I took my men on the
steamer, and we started again for Fair Haven. We arrived there early in
the morning.

My theory was that I could pick up some clue there to follow up, and
events sustained me. I sauntered up from the dock towards a store. I met
two men, and to my question, one of the men admitted he was pressed into
service by the gang in the mouth of the