Adventures of a Rebel Heroine.
Norfolk, Va.,
Jan. 22.--
Miss Poole arrived here last evening in the flag of truce steamer, and we had the pleasure of an interview with her. She is an intelligent and pleasing lady, and withal possesses a fervor of patriotism which no tortures of the enemy could dampen.
Our conversation with her convinces us that she is a true
Virginia lady, and we congratulate her upon her escape from the thraldom of Lincolndom and her restoration to Southern soil and society.
Miss Poole was arrested in
Wheeling on the twenty-eighth of September last, by order of the
Secretary of State, charged with conducting a correspondence with the
Southern “rebels.”
On account of indisposition she was not removed from her home, but was allowed to remain in her room — a guard being placed at the door of the same, and also a guard on the outside of the building.
The door of her chamber was securely locked, and the key taken by the officer of the guard.
Previously, however, to the lock being turned, a thorough examination of the furniture, etc., in her room was made.
While this search was going on, she succeeded, by a ruse, in so far diverting the attention of the officer conducting the examination as to give her an opportunity of removing certain manuscripts which she had placed in her guitar-case.
These she concealed about her person, without the movement being observed.
During the night she secured a key, or rather found one which had been mislaid, which, on trying, she found to fit the lock of her room.
With this she unlocked the door and made her exit through the basement.
She then made her way to a house near at hand, but she had not been long there before information was conveyed to her that the guard was on her track.
She made her escape through the back entrance just as the guard appeared in front of the house, and proceeded to another place of refuge, from which she was again hunted.
This was repeated four times, but at length she eluded them and went forty miles in a skiff, down the
Ohio River, to
Martinsville.
Here she took passage in a packet to
Parkersburg, and again from
Parkersburg to
Cincinnati.
From
Cincinnati she proceeded to
Louisville, during which journey she had the escort of a Federal officer, who, not being aware of the position she occupied, talked rather freely to her about the affairs of the
Government.
While at
Louisville Miss Poole visited several who sympathized with her in her political views, and when, upon terminating a visit of this kind at the
Galt House, she took her departure, she discovered that she was followed by Detective Blygh, the best detective in
Louisville, and who, she afterward learned, had been delegated by
Gen. Sherman expressly for the purpose of effecting her arrest.
She escaped his vigilance as she thought on this occasion, left
Louisville and proceeded to
Mitchell, in Indiana.
To her surprise she found him in the same train with herself — apparently unconcerned, yet closely watching her movements, in order to obtain some clue which would justify her arrest.
He was not aware that she knew him, but he was mistaken, as she had accidentally learned who he was, and was watching him as closely as he was her. From
Mitchell she went to
Vincennes, where she was finally arrested by this hound Blygh.
His behavior toward her after her arrest was coarse and rude — just such as might be expected of a Lincoln detective.
He took great delight in alluding to her as she passed a crowd on the street as a “secesh” prisoner, and in various ways endeavored to offend the refined and
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delicate creature, whom the authority of a base miscreant had made his captive.
Her baggage was all searched by this fellow, with the hope that he would find something in the shape of manuscript which would convict
Miss Poole of the charge against her. Nothing was found, however.
She was then, in charge of this Blygh, returned to
Louisville and presented to
Gen. Sherman at his Headquarters.
Gen. Sherman confessed that he did not know what disposition to make of her case, but concluded to send her to
Washington and have the matter disposed of there.
On the way she was again subjected to the insolence of this fellow Blygh, who, at every station, took occasion to make some reference to her in terms calculated to give pain.
On her arrival in
Washington she was imprisoned in the house of
Mrs. Greenhow, and in a room adjoining that occupied by this lady, where she remained up to the time of her release.
While a prisoner,
Miss Poole underwent very many privations — being under the strict and constant surveillance of a guard, and was subjected to many inconveniences and annoyances of an unpleasant and distasteful character.
She was not, however, altogether without friends, and she refers with lively gratitude to the very many acts of kindness performed for her by
Col. E. R. Keys, and
Lieut. N. E. Sheldon, of the
Federal army.
These officers, to their credit be it spoken, did all in their power to render her comfortable, and by their tender solicitude and sympathy shed a gleam of sunshine through the gloom which surrounded her. To them she expresses herself as being very greatly indebted, and at her request this public acknowledgment is made.
In the letter to the Philadelphia
Press, alluded to in the outset of this article,
Miss Poole is said to have escaped from the prison at
Wheeling by means of tying her sheets together and letting herself down from the window.
The only prison in which she was confined at
Wheeling was her own home, and the manner in which she escaped therefrom was not by lowering herself from the window, but in the manner related by us above.
It is also said in this letter that
Miss Poole, when arrested the second time, had on her person seven thousand five hundred dollars of unexpended money furnished her by the “rebels.”
This is also false, as is likewise the statement that on her arrival in
Washington she was placed in jail.
