Thomas Conrad

[JMadonna]

(08-26-2012 12:37 AM)John Stanton Wrote:  Because you flatter me, I give you a tidbit on Sarah, that was not in my"'Courier" write up. Sarah sent a telegram to Richmond asking for a Passport to go to New York to stay with her Mother. That wire was a pure and simple a Cover. She was already North of the Potomac, she didn't need a Passport to go to her Mothers. She had been in Canada for a month or better - tending to the the St. Albans Raiders. She knew the Confederate Rules to cross the Lines. She needed two letters - one fron the Sec. of War and one from the Head of the Secret Service. She had neither. The Rev. Stephen Cameron had taken her North, so he had the papers. She was asking the South to tell the Camps on the Potomac to provide all the aid she needed to cross. Obviously, the Camps got the word and she was in Richmond by Jan. 30, 1865. She went back the same way - to Sgt. Brogden's Camp in Westmoreland Co. and Gus Howell picked her up there and took her to New York. PS I got more.

Love to hear more.
I read this piece in Headley's Operations in Canada. Is he describing Sarah Slater?

Mrs. ,* a widow only 24 years old, employed by the Confederate Government for secret service in the Northern States, had come to Montreal and called on the prisoners at the jail. She volunteered for the journey to Richmond. After leaving the railroad in Maryland she walked much of the way through the country occupied by the enemy in Virginia. She departed from Richmond with the necessary certified papers, well concealed, one day before Rev. Mr. Cameron arrived there. These two messengers, traveling by different routes, reached Montreal on the same day. She declined to accept from Col. Jacob Thompson any compensation whatever for her services or expenses. This devotee of the South was a Kentucky lady. About 1867 she visited Frankfort when the legislature was in session. During a recess of fifteen minutes taken in her honor she was the recipient of an ovation, being presented by Hon. Thomas T. Coger, of Jessamine County, the home of Lieut. Bennett H. Young. *The prisoners never met this lady before or after her visits to the jail at Montreal. One of the survivors secured her photograph at the jail, but after forty years her name is forgotten