Reevaluation of the St. Albams Raiders

[L Verge]

(06-03-2017 03:06 PM)SSlater Wrote:  

(06-03-2017 01:57 PM)L Verge Wrote:  "Sarah was the "Newbie" in the Secret Service office and had very little to do while she learned. So, one day the Boss stuck his head out of his Office and said "Who would like to go to Richmond?" Sarah, trying to fit in said "I"ll go!"."

Those two sentences are the only things I want to comment on at the moment, John. I still do not believe that Sarah was in Canada first and sent to Richmond for the commission papers. I think she went from South to North.

Right now, I am re-reading Rev. Cameron's statement of his role. Maybe more later...

Laurie. Re read the Paragraph -lines 4 & 5. Sarah signed the SLH Register in December when she arrived in Canada with Josephine Brown and Stephen Cameron - Early Dec. '64. Her assignment was in Jan '65.
(You are tuff to convince. Do you believe me????) She did not return to Richmond and return to Canada and then leave again. I think that the "Passport fiasco" is the Problem. On her first trip north, Cameron took care of the Passport. When she left Canada all by herself, she didn't have a passport. I am guessing that she was already at the Potomac and couldn't get across and she used the "Story" about seeing MaMa as a cover, to justify the need. (I'll bet she just left her Mother's house in NY)
(PS Cameron was in Canada too, when he decided to make the run.)

I understand your point, John, but I am also stuck on the version that I learned from Hall and Tidwell that is pretty well repeated in Winkler's book Stealing Secrets. The bool is online, but it won't let me copy the passage. Go to page 32 at https://books.google.com/books?id=cYlcod...ar&f=false

That discusses two NC congressmen giving her letters to see Benjamin for entry across the lines to live with Mom in NYC. Benjamin also sent her to Seddon, Sec of War for CSA. He made the offer of secret service, and the bored young lady took him up on it and was immediately assigned the job of getting those commission papers to the Canadian court. She left Richmond on January 31 and signed in at St. Lawrence Hall on Feb. 15 at 3 am.

If she was previously doing service for the Confederacy, would she have needed recommendations from two congressmen, Benjamin, and Seddon? Or, was she someone new who had a better chance of eluding detection on this important mission? Cameron, however, came down from Canada to Richmond because the operatives in Canada did not know that the newbie was en route to them with the papers.

Somewhere, I have seen a timeline of Sarah's life and service to the CSA. For some reason I keep thinking that there was something on that that convinced me that the St Albans Raid trip was her first outside of the U.S. Someone help!?