Surratt Courier

[L Verge]

Personally, I think there were always two plans for crossing into Virginia, one via the Wicomico out of St. Mary's County as well as the route taken finally. Those of you who have read Tidwell's work will remember that there was an incident near Mechanicsville (St. Mary's County) involving a small unit of federal cavalry at the time - likely because the Union was aware of the various points of crossing the Potomac. Harbin and Baden finally crossed as decoys from that area, and that gave Jones the opportunity to take the fugitives across upriver.

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(06-11-2019 06:57 AM)Gene C Wrote:  I am a bit surprised that in 1865 a negro, who was held and died in the Old Capitol Prison, would be buried in Arlington Cemetery.

Arlington did not start out as an honored national cemetery. Because it was the confiscated home of one of the most hated men in the Union ranks, Robert E. Lee, it first became a dumping ground. The area around it was known as Arlington Heights and became one of the largest contraband (refugee) camps in D.C. It would be interesting to know who some of the other persons were who are buried in that particular section. Maybe it was a prisoners and paupers section?

Also, prisoners at the Old Capitol were dying and had to be disposed of. If there was no family to claim a body (or if a family were even notified), the deceased had to go somewhere, and Arlington was right across the river. Surely, the Adams family of Newport was not going to make the trek into the city to claim a hired hand - if they even knew that he had died.

For those of you who know the background to this story, I have to congratulate Rick Smith and Wild Bill on their educated guess as to Owens's cause of death. The records list "inflammation of the brain," and it is pretty logical to think that it was caused by severe beatings.