The lieutenant in charge of the mounted detail ordered his troopers to surround the Rosemont Mansion and disarm the men posted outside the building. Donellan and Philips with Johnny in tow pounded on the sturdy oak front doors but received no response. They displayed their warrant to the cavalry lieutenant with a request that the soldiers batter the doors open. Once inside the lobby of the plantation house, a man balding and stooped with age, his scarred face further marred by a bulbous nose, appeared descending the ornate stairway.
He demanded: “How dare you break into this house. Who are you?”
Detective Philips, warrant in hand, showed his identification. “Federal officers, what’s your name?”
“You have no authority to burst in here. I insist you leave at once,” the elderly man shouted.
“We asked you to identify yourself, sir. We’re here to arrest Simeon Barr. We have authority to search the premises until we find him.”
“My name is Kensington Overstreet. I am the owner here. I have no knowledge of the person you say you are here to arrest. You have done damage to an expensive oak door. Who’s going to reimburse me for that?”
A squad of soldiers came through the entrance where the door had once stood, dragging with them several unkempt men dressed in ragged clothing, their hands bound. Until disarmed and taken into custody, they had formed the protective cordon for the occupants of the mansion. The troopers crowded them into a corner of the large foyer and kept them under guard.
The detectives directed Overstreet to join the group of his erstwhile bodyguards now secured by the troops. Donellan began to organize the search for Simeon Barr. He asked the lieutenant to accompany him while he investigated every corner of the lower floor. Philips told Johnny to come with him to scour the upper level. During the preliminary search a sudden commotion outside on the grounds drew their attention. Roger Osborne, in full military uniform, pushed through the sentries. Breathless with anxiety he called to the men he recognized as the investigators from the warehouse incident in New York.
“Have you seen Letitia?”
Johnny turned quickly, “Captain Osborne, do you think Letitia’s here? We just arrived. We haven’t seen her or her grandfather.”
“I received the news from my Colonel that she’s been taken from my mother’s house under the guise of arrest on Federal charges. I’m sure she’s been kidnapped. I’m hoping she might be in this house. I rode all night with three changes of horses to get here to Baltimore, guessing her disappearance might be the work of the Society. The garrison commander who sent the soldiers with you told me you were heading to this mansion.”
“We were about to continue our search of the building looking for the grandfather. Please come with us,” Donellan said.
A voice from the landing at the top of the curved staircase caused everyone to look up.
“I believe it’s me you are seeking. Please don’t do any more damage to this house.”
“And who might you be?” Detective Donellan asked.
The elderly man started down the stairs, grasping the mahogany banister as he descended. “My name is Simeon Barr. I bear full responsibility for any conduct which brings you to this place. No one else here has any complicity in any of my activities.”
Philips looked at Johnny for confirmation. Johnny stared at the man slowly making his way down the steps.
He nodded and said: “Yes, that’s him.”
When Simeon reached the bottom of the stairwell Captain Osborne rushed forward. He seized the old man roughly by the collar. “Where’s Letitia, you old scoundrel?”
“Sir, please take your hands off me …”
Donellan stepped forward, and grasped Osborne’s arm.
“Let him go, Roger. That won’t solve anything.”
“This old thief knows where his granddaughter is,” the Captain shouted. Now in a blind rage he snarled: “If any harm has come to her …”
“I assure you, Captain, no harm has come to my granddaughter. She is safe now and beyond your reach.”
Once again Donellan intervened. “Let us handle this, Captain. We’ll find her.” Turning to Simeon he said: “Do we have to search this house from top to bottom …?”
“That won’t be necessary. She isn’t here. I’ve had her transported to Richmond for her own safety; to keep her from the clutches of Yankee mongrels.”
Philips spoke to Donellan: “Reg, you stay here with Barr. Johnny, Lieutenant, Captain Osborne, come with me, we’ll go through every corner of this house to see if he’s telling the truth.”
An intensive search of Rosemont Mansion failed to disclose any information concerning the whereabouts of Letitia Barr.
A distraught Captain Osborne again threatened Overstreet and Barr: “I promise you both, if she is in any danger or has been injured, I will find you, wherever you may be …”
Johnny’s own anxiety for the safety of the woman began to form a knot in his gut. He could empathize with the Captain having recently gone through a similar harrowing experience when Deirdre went missing.
Detective Donellan interposed a calming word: “Roger, if she is in Richmond your organization would be in a better position to locate her. Since she is a witness in a Federal prosecution you may be able to persuade your commanding officer to provide some resources to help you find her.”
Roger had difficulty taking control of his emotions. “Barr had already made plans once to have her killed, she was taken …”
“Believe me, Roger,” Donellan said, “if any harm has befallen Letitia, we will see to it personally that he hangs for it.”
“Gentlemen,” Simeon interjected, “no harm has come to my granddaughter. I told you, I sent her to Richmond for her own protection.”
“One more thing before we leave,” Donellan said. “Mr Barr, we will insist you surrender the engraving plates you used to print the counterfeit money.”
“They’re upstairs in my dresser,” Simeon answered.
Johnny offered. “I’ll go upstairs and find them.”
When he returned with the contraband engraving plates Johnny displayed them to the detectives.
Captain Osborne, his anger now under control, said: “I’ll take Corporal Madigan back to our unit. We’ll requisition a horse from the stable outside.”
Kensington Overstreet protested: “That animal is private property, Captain. You have no right …”
“It is now the property of the United States Army. You wish to oppose lawful authority, you bear the consequences. I am seizing it as spoils of war. We have no time to waste. The corporal and I must attend to military business. Where you’re going you won’t have need for a horse.” He turned to Johnny who had located the plates and turned them over to the detectives. “Can you ride?” he asked.
“I think I can manage, sir. I do have a limited time within which to report back.”
“Come, let’s get this horse saddled for you. We’ll start for camp immediately. I can get you back there with one stop to rest, in time to satisfy the General’s deadline for your return.”
The cavalry detail that accompanied the detectives found a wagon and a team of horses in the rear of the mansion and crammed their prisoners aboard. Osborne astride his own mount and Johnny seated uneasily on a docile mare set out for Fairfax Courthouse and the encampment of the Military Information Command.
The mounted troopers took the entire contingent found at the Rosemont Mansion into custody and incarcerated them in a prisoner of war facility outside of Baltimore. The detectives brought Simeon Barr to Washington for interrogation and arraignment before a Federal magistrate. One of the important questions they required him to answer concerned the exact location of his granddaughter, if in fact he had sent her to Richmond.
“She’s safe in the capital of the Confederacy, that’s all I will say.” Simeon insisted.
The interrogators lost patience with him, “We intend to add a kidnapping charge to the list of offenses with which you will stand accused. If that woman is not located and found unharmed, this is what will happen to you. Under the present state of the law, kidnapping a federal witness is a capital offense. You may keep up the façade, but we will see to it that you hang for it.”
“You can’t possibly …” Simeon blustered.
“Try us and see, Mr Barr. You don’t have much time to decide. As it stands, your crimes are enough to merit a lengthy sentence or you can add death by hanging. Your choice is to seek some mitigation by telling us where your granddaughter is or suffer the maximum consequences.”
The detectives’ bluff and the pressure of prolonged questioning caused Simeon’s false bravado to collapse. He gave them an address in Richmond where he believed Letitia stayed, together with the name of the woman who owned the house. The investigators assumed from what Simeon told them that Letitia had little chance to escape. Her total unfamiliarity with her surroundings in Richmond, in addition to having no resources at her disposal, required her to remain in the house to which her captors had brought her. The Confederate espionage service used the owner, Anna Gables, as a part-time courier. She met with rebel agents dressed in Union uniforms who passed messages to her at secret locations outside the city and which she delivered to headquarters.
Anna provided lodging and meals for Letitia, and polite conversation. Apart from those bare necessities Letitia could only avail herself of Miss Gables’ sparse library for diversion. Letitia busied herself by helping with household chores and enjoyed Anna’s genteel companionship when Anna had no messages to deliver for the rebel spy service. While occupied with her clandestine errands Gables asked her sister, married to a soldier serving with the Army of Northern Virginia and living nearby, to stay with Letitia to prevent her from wandering too far away.
The investigators relayed what they had learned from Simeon to General Sharpe’s Military Information Command. When he heard of Letitia’s probable whereabouts, Roger began to formulate a plan to engage in a search for her while conducting one of his clandestine missions in enemy territory. Roger’s passion for Letitia began to overcome his innate good sense. With some rudimentary knowledge of the city of Richmond he hoped to locate her, free her and bring her north. He made himself believe in his own altruistic motives: that she could assist in the prosecution of the counterfeiting ring and provide any other information she had gleaned about Confederate espionage while working for her grandfather.
Roger knew that any attempt to rescue Letitia from her exile in Richmond could easily jeopardize not only his own life but the security of any genuine mission on which his unit would send him. A plan began to formulate in his mind that would combine an attempt to rescue Letitia with a genuine covert operation aimed at sowing confusion within the ranks of the Confederate spy service. His targets would include not only General Winder’s counter-espionage unit but the information-gathering functions the rebels had employed within Union lines with some success.
At a planning session held by Colonel Rathburn with several staff officers, Roger put forward his proposal. The plan involved intercepting the courier who acted as Letitia’s warder. While clad in rebel uniform and posing as an officer on the staff of the Confederate Secret Service, Roger would plant a bogus document on her. When taken in custody to the Chief Provost General Winder’s office, accused as a double-agent, the papers would cast doubt on her loyalty and buy enough time to take Letitia and smuggle her out of Richmond.
At first, several officers expressed doubts about the wisdom of such a mission and whether it would produce results worth the risk. Using all his powers of persuasion, Captain Osborne convinced the Colonel that an effort to sow disruption within Winder’s network would bear fruit in easing pressure on Union agents already at work in the Southern capital. The colonel ordered the captain to draw up a detailed staff memo outlining his ideas which the Colonel would submit to the General. After some debate, the assembled officers agreed to let memo go forward for the General’s consideration. Opposition to the plan arose from an understanding of the significance of the target of the ruse, Anna Gables. Her secondary role as temporary keeper of Letitia Barr and the personal relationship Letitia had with Osborne cast some doubt on Osborne’s genuine motivation.
Colonel Rathburn asked: “Do you propose to undertake this mission alone?”
“My idea is to bring a soldier with some experience in undercover work to act as my aide. I believe it would be prudent to have a backup with me. Posing as an officer in a rebel uniform it would not seem unusual to have a soldier to act as an assistant.”
“Do you have anyone in particular in mind?” Rathburn inquired. “All our best operatives are currently engaged in missions of their own.”
“There’s a Corporal Madigan, sir. We just got him from the National Detective Service. I met him in New York when we recovered the stolen rifles. He did perform some outstanding work there.”
“Yes, I remember, we just sent him with those detectives to find that old counterfeiter.”
“He’s pretty sharp sir, for someone his age. He would be an asset on any covert mission,” Osborne said.
The majority of the staff opposed the plan at first until presented to General Sharpe in an aide-memoir. The General then endorsed it with certain strict guidelines. In a hand-written addendum to the memo the General set forth the following restrictions: (1) the mission is to have limited duration. (2) Armed confrontation with the enemy is to be avoided except to prevent immediate loss of human life. (3) Upon retrieval of the female witness the mission is to be terminated and the operatives report back to headquarters forthwith. (4) The mission will abort immediately with any suspicion that the operatives are compromised.