9

He Said He Would Hang Me

On a darkened stage already set for their entrance, Alvin and Annie Taylor Lloyd arrived in Savannah, a place he thought he knew well. But in December 1861 after a mere eight months of hostilities, Savannah was struggling for life, strangled by the “anaconda of war,” General Winfield Scott’s “blockade of the ports of the secession states.” The great snake was already cutting off cotton sales to Europe and ending the sway and profits of both rice and cotton, depriving the southern economy of war funds needed before the real carnage began. 226

Now federal ships prowled the waters around Charleston and Savannah. And groups like the Savannah Vigilance Committee—vowing to root out “spies against and traitors to the South . . . who are residing among us”—prowled the city. “So cunningly and cautiously . . . have they [spies] carried out their plans that detection has been impossible.” Police posses combed Savannah not just on the hunt for spies, but for escaped slaves.227

In the restive city, fearing a northern invasion and slave insurrections, masters blamed “rumors of liberation on house negroes, and the election of Lincoln.” And already-cruel practices to slaves intensified. Even “free people of color” found themselves under threat. But Joe Bryan was still touting his merchandise in Market Square, without much luck: “Prime girl, 12 years old, country raised”; and “Other middle aged and old Negroes”; and “Boy, 10 years old, smart and likely.” Bob Erwin’s cook Susannah had escaped in August, and Bob was now offering one hundred dollars to anyone who would bring her back. If a slave fled through the low country, “Shotgun toting white men ventured into the swamps and quickly retrieved the fugitives.”228

There were fewer establishments where visitors could dine or stay. Mr. Chick’s Pavilion House had opened up as a hostelry a year before. There was the Marshall House, of course, and the recently renovated City Hotel, on Bay Street, at two dollars a day, or ten dollars a week. Mr. McAllister ran the Athens Hotel, at half the price the City charged, and got twice as many customers, of half the caliber. There was the Planter’s, and underneath it was George Gemenden’s Oyster & Refreshment Saloon.

And there was the Gibbons House. Alvin Lloyd chose it for himself and his newest wife. A place “now open to the traveling public. Having completed accommodation for 20 persons more, I will take a few more regular boarders. L.B. Morse, Proprietor.” It was a fateful selection.229

Once settled with Annie in their lodgings, Alvin Lloyd got a free railroad pass from George W. Adams, general superintendent of the Central Georgia Railroad, valid until January 1, 1863. He also received two hundred dollars in gold from the same company for an ad to be placed in the upcoming January 1862 edition of the Southern Steamboat & Railroad Guide. All good news for Alvin, except that a tumble of circumstances, half-truths, and great misunderstandings were descending like thick sea fog all around him. There was little time left for Alvin Lloyd of old, for life as he knew it, the manic days of cheating, dashing, wooing, and conquering, was fast coming to an end.

It began with a seemingly unrelated event that occurred just up the coast, in Charleston, the night of Thursday, December 12. About ten o’clock alarms had sounded calling the citizens to quell a fire at Russell & Co.’s Sash & Blind Factory. An hour later, the flames had taken hold and were spreading throughout the city. In the subsequent extent and rapidity of its ruinous sweep, the great fire would compare with the most terrible conflagrations that ever visited the American continent.230

Fires. Flames in Charleston, and in Savannah, no fires but even more paranoia. The Morning News carried this item, as did many other southern newspapers:

Some weeks since, there was published in the New York Herald a full list of our army, its members, officers, and location, a statement which no man in the Confederacy outside of the Departments at Richmond could have furnished. . . . Now it seems that the same paper has the name and full description of every vessel belonging to the Confederacy, privateers and all, with the commanders and the number of men on each. This list too could be furnished by the Departments at Richmond and nowhere else. Thus it is clear we have in some of the most important and confidential positions of our government, right in the very heart of it, spies in the pay of Lincoln.231

The following day was Friday the thirteenth, a lucky day for Alvin. He received fifty dollars in advertising gold from Messrs. Luffburrow & Timmons, partners in the Forrest City Foundry.232

However, in 1865 he would claim that on the next day, December 14, he was spying for Lincoln, “visiting camps, Fort Pulaski, etc, etc.” Fort Pulaski was at that time defended by the Confederates. It would fall in February to the Union.233

And in the same testimony came another item. And this was the truth: “I was arrested upon an affidavit of a Mrs. Elizabeth Morse, whose husband kept the hotel (Gibbons House), as a Yankee spy, and sent with a guard of 4 men and a lieutenant to Oglethorpe Barracks, Lt. Col. Rockwell commanding.”234

Witness the circumstances of Alvin’s arrest:

At this time, the Gibbons House owners, the Morses, were the next-door neighbors of Lieutenant Colonel William Spencer Rockwell, the commander of Oglethorpe Barracks. Rockwell was born in 1809 in Albany, New York. When he was a child his parents moved to Milledgeville, Georgia, where the father became a lawyer. When young W. S. Rockwell finished school, he joined them there in Dixie, marrying in 1837. He followed in his father’s professional footsteps, but that wasn’t enough of a challenge in this Georgia town. So in addition to his legal work, he became an Egyptologist. What’s more, he rose rapidly through the Freemason ranks, becoming Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Georgia, and, perhaps partly because of this inside track, in 1857 Rockwell was elected secretary of the Milledgeville Railroad Company. Coexisting with Rockwell in Milledgeville for years and years was the Morse family. In the late 1850s, they all moved to Savannah, and Rockwell joined the Confederate Army.235

It was just as Alvin and his wives—for it seems that Virginia and Clarence joined him there—had arrived in Savannah that Rockwell’s entrance on the same stage spelled doom. Alvin and his new bride Annie were staying in an upstairs room at the Gibbons House. After breakfast, Alvin claimed he made his way up to his room and found Mrs. Morse there; perhaps she was cleaning the room, perhaps there was more to it, but it seems she mentioned the terrible fire in Charleston. Lloyd provides the particulars of the event: “Arrested on Dec. 14, Saturday, 12.30 p.m., as a Yankee SPY [that last written in large letters, in dark ink, so you can’t miss it], and for saying that I did not care if all Charleston burnt up. If I had my way, all could burn. Sent to jail, where I remained 12 months.” Twelve months is an exaggeration. In what purports to be Alvin’s original diary entry, the figure “12” has been added over another figure, which he had obliterated at the behest of his lawyer.236

What appears to have happened on that day was that Mrs. Morse, and very likely Mrs. Annie L. Taylor Lloyd, went to a justice of the peace and signed affidavits accusing Alvin of being a Yankee spy. Mrs. Morse claimed the fire story, and Annie, who’d abandoned her promising stage career to follow him—shamed at finding out that her new husband was a bigamist, and seeing or hearing about his wife Virginia and their small son—turned on Alvin.

The charges were deadly serious, and branded Lloyd as a traitor to the Confederacy: a hanging offense, if proven.

This was real now. Not a play, not anything Alvin could manipulate. He was trapped. In Enclosure 13, we read:

He [Rockwell] kept me in the hot sun under guard for six hours. When I asked to see him, he examined my papers and ordered me to jail, where, by his order, I was kept six months—a greater portion of the time in a dark cell, locked up day and night. He said he would hang me. I was treated worse than a felon by this Rockwell, who now enjoys every privilege of an American citizen. He was one of the 13 who called a meeting in Savannah after Genl Sherman entered the city, and agreed to remain a good loyal Union man. See his [Rockwell’s] charge against me to Sec of War at Richmond.237

Alvin was imprisoned at Oglethorpe Barracks, in Rockwell’s keep. Oglethorpe was a military complex that had been purchased by the United States Government from the City of Savannah in 1833.238 In downtown Savannah, occupying about three-fourths of an acre, the whole complex was enclosed by a brick wall ten feet high.239

Lloyd would not remain at the barracks for long. There were no suitable accommodations there, Rockwell claimed, and no opportunity for him to issue rations to prisoners. But intent on keeping Alvin incarcerated, Rockwell transferred him to the Chatham County jail, in the keep of jailer Waring Russell.240

And of the jail, at first glance it was hard to imagine the horrors within: The exterior, which took up a whole city block near the corner of Hall and Whitaker Streets, close to Oglethorpe Barracks, was in the castellated style of Gothic architecture. Its yellow brick walls, with octagonal turrets, gave off an Old World European air, something remarked upon by many foreign visitors who at first thought it was a castle.

As for the prison wing of the building, the cells were surrounded by a narrow hall and had a ventilated passage between them only two feet wide. At the south end of the cells were four wing rooms, twelve by twenty-four feet. Three of these were intended for the detention of United States prisoners, suspected spies, free persons of color taken from vessels, and witnesses. The other wing room had two large bathing places sunk in the floor and plastered with cement. These bathing pits were commonly and often used as torture chambers and were filled with quicklime or salt.241

Prisoners at the jail were part of a lend-lease situation between Oglethorpe and the jail. The overnight stay of each of Rockwell’s prisoners would be billed by Russell to the Confederate States Government, and duly paid.242

Prominent present-day Savannah historian Hugh Golson described the jail in 1861 as a “horror house.”243

The inmates were prostitutes, drunks, and suspicious persons like Alvin Lloyd, many of whom were arrested by the night patrols, vicious thugs employed by the city. Many of these suspects would arrive in a hopelessly battered condition. Some survived the night in their new quarters. Others did not. The balance of the prisoners was formed by slaves from the outlying rice plantations who had defied their overseers in the fields. Their owners, at the cost of five dollars a head, had sent them to the jail for remedial attention, which involved the whipping room followed by a dunking in the brine pit, which loomed ever present in the middle of the prison. Apparently all inmates throughout the night could hear their screams. If true repentance followed such torture, a slave might—just might—be allowed to go back to the plantation. But it would have to be determined by the jailers and masters that the slaves were fit to return to their field labors. Otherwise they rotted and often died in the jail.244

By 1861 there were few prisoners who had the luxury of an individual cell. If a man was considered very dangerous, then he would be confined solitarily. As for food, the war, even at this early stage, had really taken its toll, so it comes as no surprise that, unless visitors brought in fresh fruits or otherwise unattainable foodstuffs, a prisoner was fated to insect-infested bread and watery gruel, if that. Alvin may well have been one of those prisoners.245

On Thursday, December 19, 1861, Colonel Rockwell notified Confederate Secretary of War Judah P. Benjamin of Alvin’s arrest as a spy. “Sir. A man calling himself Mr. Alvin Lloyd was arrested and brought to this post some days since as a spy. There is evidence here to show that he has told several contradictory stories about his antecedents.” A curious mention to be sure. But there is no record or further explanation of these alleged stories. “I am satisfied that he is an imposter,” Rockwell wrote. “Imposter”? That is, someone posing as the famous William Alvin Lloyd. “He had in his possession two passes from the War Department [the Confederate War Department], one, I think to visit Norfolk, and he acknowledged to me that he had been to Craney Island.” It was true—Lloyd had been in Craney Island, but not to spy for the Union. Rockwell suspected Lloyd was feeding enemy intelligence to northern newspapers. Rockwell continues,

From his conversation, I incline to the opinion that he may be connected in some way with the information said to be published in the New York papers in relation to the strength and stations of the Confederate troops. I am unwilling to trust this matter to the telegraph, and General Lawton [Alexander Robert Lawton, commanding the Department of Georgia], as well as his assistant adjutant being temporarily absent, I venture to ask unofficially if anything is known of this man Lloyd in the Department. Should you desire it, I will forward such of his statements here to me and others which subject him to grave suspicion.

Rockwell’s carefully chosen words do not bode well for Lloyd. Rockwell’s letter goes on, asking for secrecy in the Lloyd matter—a delaying tactic, as will be seen.

If he be a spy and in communication with the enemy, it is obvious that the less publicity given to measures to insure his detection, the more certain will be the result. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, etc, Wm. S. Rockwell, Lieutenant Colonel, First Georgia Volunteer Regiment, C.S. Army, Commanding Post.246

Secretary Judah Benjamin endorsed the letter with, “Do you know anything of this man?” and sent it on to General John H. Winder, in Richmond. Winder returned it with, “Mr. Alvin Lloyd is on record in the police book as a suspicious person and was under observation while here at the Exchange Hotel. He left here for New Orleans. I am satisfied he ought to be viewed with great suspicion. He is supposed to be a reporter for newspapers. Jno. H. Winder.”247

There had been no edition of W. Alvin Lloyd’s Southern Steamboat and Railroad Guide since February 1861. As soon as he came south, that July, he was trying to get the finances together to start up again in Dixie, but had not succeeded. Toward the end of the year he was well on the way to getting a new edition out in January 1862, but was imprisoned. Somehow, by being allowed to send a letter out of the prison, Alvin managed to get word to the Savannah Daily Morning News. On Christmas Eve the paper ran an ad, addressed to railroad superintendents and others:

Owing to unforeseen circumstances, over which I have had no control, Lloyd’s Southern St. Bt. & RR Guide cannot possibly be re-released in January, as was anticipated, but will be re-issued on or about the 16th of February. Railroad superintendents will please forward the schedules of their different roads for publication to W. Alvin Lloyd, Richmond, Va. Respectfully, W. Alvin Lloyd. Publisher Lloyd’s Southern St. & RR Guide. Memphis Appeal please copy one week, and send bill to W. Alvin Lloyd, Richmond, Va.

The date in the ad—February 16—is very specific. It might mean that he expected to be released by then or it may be that someone else was working on the guide for him. A February release was not to be. It would be well over a year before the next guide was published. Alvin remained imprisoned, facing a trial.

On December 30, 1861, Albert Taylor Bledsoe, the chief of the Confederate Bureau of War, replied to Rockwell’s December 19 query about Lloyd: “The Secretary of War directs me to say that W. Alvin Lloyd is on record in the police book of Genl Winder as a suspicious character, and was under observation while in this city. He is supposed to be a reporter for Northern newspapers, and should be regarded with great distrust.”248

Sometime around New Year of 1862, under close guard, Alvin was given permission to go into town and get ambrotype portrait photos made so he could send them off to friends who would vouch for his actually being who he said he was—W. Alvin Lloyd—and not an imposter.249

On January 9, 1862, Alvin wrote a despairing letter to Jefferson Davis.

Dear Sir, I am still confined in prison and have been here now twenty-seven days. . . . It is an outrage. . . . My business is going to ruin . . . and Col. Rockwell is not acting properly with me; the woman I called my wife [i.e., Annie L. Taylor] and he are intimate; she boasts of it, Sir. She is a woman who was an actress, and because I would not allow her to go upon the stage, she is determined, she boasts, to keep me in prison. Sir, I appeal to you for justice.

Alvin goes on to describe the incident with Mrs. Morse: “This northern woman was in my room. She is from Pennsylvania . . .” His plea, his plea to his captors, his promise to take an oath if he is allowed to go out during the day into the city, “to return every night until they can prove something against me which I defy them or the southern confederacy to do . . . I will prove who I am. . . . I am a ruined man.”

And he was a ruined man, blaming vengeful women for this ruination. It did no good.

Jefferson Davis received Alvin’s letter on January 15. It came with an added endorsement signed by Custis Lee, Robert E. Lee’s eldest son and aide to Jefferson Davis.250

On or around January 10, 1862, both E. D. Frost and John Robin McDaniel received letters and photographs (ambrotypes) from Alvin. McDaniel wrote back, same day, in Lynchburg, “I, John Robin McDaniel, hereby testify that in the ambrotype which I to-day rec’d from Savannah, Geo., and herewith returned, I recognize a likeness of Wm Alvin Lloyd, who published ‘Lloyd’s Steamboat and Railway Guide’, in several numbers of which was published the likeness & Biography of myself, also that of Col. Sam Tate, Dr. H.F. McFarland & others. The likeness is so striking that I think I could easily have recognized him anywhere.”251

On January 11, 1862, “Edward D. Frost, Superintendent of the Mississippi Central Rail Road,” appeared before a notary public in Madison County, Miss., and swore that “he is well acquainted with one W. Alvin Lloyd,” and that Lloyd “was for some time the publisher of a Southern Rail Road & Steamboat Guide in the city of New York.” Frost goes on to say that he “has seen said Lloyd a number of times” and that he last saw said Lloyd in Canton, Mississippi, in the latter part of July, “being the day when the news of the battle of Manasseh was received. . . . Further, that the ambrotype likeness herewith transmitted, and to identify which this deponent has put his signature in his own proper handwriting on the face of the said ambrotype, is a likeness of the said W. Alvin Lloyd.” Frost wraps up his deposition by saying that the last time he saw Lloyd he was “preparing to commence the publication of the Guide at some point in the South, and left here for the purpose of collecting material for the same.”252

It is also known, from a later report written by General Lawton, that Alvin applied for a habeas corpus hearing [a demand to produce evidence, try him, or free him] before Levi Sheftall D’Lyon, judge of the City Court. This request was allowed, and the hearing, not a trial, took place with Alvin represented by counsel, and the government not represented.

In his 1865 claim, Alvin itemizes two expenses from the event that he charges to the US government. “Dec. 1861 – first part of 1862.” The first is for seven hundred dollars, “Amt paid for legal services in application for Habeas Corpus while imprisoned in Savannah, Ga., in gold,” and the second, for eight hundred dollars, as Lloyd appears to have been ailing, was “Amt paid for medical attendance, and medicines for myself and for the necessities of life, while confined in prison in Savannah, Ga. (pd in gold).”253

Judge D’Lyon heard Alvin’s evidence, and took several days to ponder it during which it is distinctly possible that D’Lyon was pressured by General A. R. Lawton—himself an experienced lawyer and war hero—who later wrote that if Alvin were tried he would likely go free. On Sunday the nineteenth, Alvin dashed off letters to John Robin McDaniel in Lynchburg, and E. D. Frost in Holly Springs, asking if they could both see their way clear to coming to Savannah to bear witness for him. Both requests were met with very similar answers.

Judge D’Lyon finally recommitted Alvin to Chatham County Jail. This was in the few days between January 25 and early February, when a letter arrived at the jail from John Robin McDaniel, a letter written from Lynchburg on January 28 to “Mr W. Alvin Lloyd, Savannah.” The letter was received, opened, read, and copied by Waring Russell, the keeper of the jail. Alvin’s friend McDaniel was full of excuses. This was a severe blow to the isolated and increasingly fearful Lloyd.254

McDaniel wrote,

Dear Sir, Yours of the 19th inst. found me in deep, deep affliction—In one day I lost my dining room servant, George, a servant without equal for devotion to his master & mistress (I never spoke a cross word to him in my life, my interest and comfort was his, first, last and constant care and seemed to engross all his thoughts)—the loss of the slave is nothing, but as my friend it was a heavy loss indeed. . . . Also my nephew, who was to me as a child. My wishes at all times was laid with him. My two best friends are gone. I send under cover to Genl Lawton my certificate which I hope answer all you desire. I trust you will soon be released. It is impossible for me to leave here. I did not get Mr. Owens or the Mayor’s certificate. I thought it best not to ask them. Your friend John Robin McDaniel.255

It wasn’t long afterwards that Alvin received the second of his answers, this one terse and dismissive, written on February 3 by E. D. Frost at Holly Springs, on railroad company stationery, and addressed to “Mr. W. Alvin Lloyd, Chatham Jail, Savannah, Georgia. Friend Lloyd, I have written Col. Rockwell as you desired. It is entirely out of the question for me to leave here now. Mr. Goodman [Walter Goodman, president of the road] has been gone for nearly a month, and I am here alone with the whole road on my hand. Yours, etc. E.D. Frost, Super.”256

Secretary Benjamin wrote to General Lawton on February 10: “The President has handed to me the enclosed communication.” Upon first inspection, one would think this “enclosed communication” is the Lloyd letter to Davis of January 9. However, General Lawton, in his detailed report of the Lloyd case to Jefferson Davis, written on March 21, 1862, refers to two letters sent by Lloyd to Davis—on February 4 and February 21. The one of February 21 is of record. The one of February 4 is not. It is assumed Lawton made a mistake—should have said January 9. However, he may be right. Maybe Alvin did write another one on February 4 but it has not been located.257

During his testimony in the 1872 Court of Claims Case, the bold postmortem attempt to collect the large sum of money falsely owed to the Lloyd estate, Alphabetical Boyd says he saw Alvin “in Savannah in January or February 1862.” Throughout January and the first part of February, Boyd was still on detached service as a clerk with the Confederate Commissary Department, and we know that on February 20 he left camp without leave, being officially declared a deserter the following day. However, he hadn’t deserted. He was with Governor Letcher, of Virginia, wangling a commission, and is therefore still on the Commissary Department’s roll of March and April. If he was at his post at the Commissary Department until February 20—which he was—and then from the twentieth was with Governor Letcher, and then on March 15 was back with the Commissary Department, it doesn’t leave him any time to have been with Alvin in Savannah. As with most, if not all, of Boyd’s conflicting and perjured testimonies this too was an impossibility. This too was a lie.258

Boyd continues his fiction about his visit to the imprisoned Lloyd:

He was in jail at Savannah. I saw him in jail. I found out what he was in jail for from the colonel commanding the post. I can’t remember his name. He told me Lloyd had been arrested as a Yankee spy, and showed me an affidavit signed by Miss Jordan, an actress who stated that she had overheard conversations between Lloyd and other parties in which Lloyd was sending information to the United States Government, in regard to the plans of fortifications surrounding Savannah.259

Where Boyd got the name Miss Jordan from is unknown. It appears only once in the entire case, in Boyd’s 1872 deposition. And nowhere in a detailed study of the American theater of that time is found a suitable actress named Miss Jordan, in Savannah or anywhere else. Alphabetical must simply have gotten the name wrong. He should have said Miss Taylor, if in fact the wronged Annie Taylor hadn’t made the whole accusation up. And it is more than likely that she did, as Alvin was of course, never a spy. On the other hand, the affidavit Boyd mentions does sound like one of the truths, like swarms of dust motes, sparsely and rarely sprinkled throughout his and other former Lloyd associates’ testimonies. Alvin says he was arrested on an affidavit from Mrs. Morse, the hotelier’s wife. And he was. And Colonel Rockwell, Alvin’s captor, confirms that it was Mrs. Morse—even attaches her affidavit (which has not been located). No other affidavit is mentioned by either Lloyd or Rockwell. However, it seems probable that later in the war, Alvin told Boyd of his great betrayal by Annie, the young actress he said was intimate with Rockwell.

Rockwell later wrote that he heard rumors that Lloyd was in “communication with the Lincoln cabinet through a man named Boyd who brought him a letter from Mr Chase in his boot.”260

Curiously, even though Rockwell alludes to the rumor of a man named Boyd being Lloyd’s intermediary with the Lincoln cabinet, neither Alvin nor Rockwell ever mentions the actual Boyd visit to Savannah, and Rockwell certainly would have been more descriptive of Alphabetical if he had, indeed, met him. In addition, Rockwell, having heard rumors of Boyd and Chase and the boot, would have, if he had laid eyes on the man, had Alphabetical immediately arrested.

This rumor about Boyd being Lloyd’s courier. This Chase connection. Here we have a contemporaneous reference to it, and from Rockwell. In short, Boyd’s supposed courier career had entered the picture at this early date. Yet, nowhere does anyone else—Boyd, Lloyd, anyone—mention Boyd as a runner anywhere this early in time, and they would have. It could only have added to the strength of Lloyd’s 1865 bogus claim. And if Lincoln’s treasury secretary Salmon Chase had truly been involved, then he would have been Alvin’s witness in 1865. However, he clearly wasn’t, as he has never been mentioned again in this plot, before or since. Even more important, the Chase letter in the boot story would have been too good to pass up, especially for Boyd. Where did Rockwell hear this rumor about Boyd? If it had been from Alvin, then Alvin would have used it later. Surely Lloyd and Boyd must have been aware of the rumor—one way or the other—but for their own reasons chose never to revive it, especially as it is more than likely that it came from Annie Taylor, who would probably have known of, but not necessarily met, Boyd.

Again, Boyd in 1872 claimed, “Lloyd was confined solitarily in Savannah for about six weeks, on account of an intercepted dispatch.” Alvin himself refers to “cruel and inhumane treatment” that he suffered while at Savannah. As for the “intercepted dispatch,” it is not clear what Boyd is talking about. No one, least of all Rockwell, ever mentions such a dispatch. In fact, on the contrary, Rockwell had no real evidence at hand to hang Lloyd. And such a dispatch would most definitely have seen him executed.261

On February 15, 1862, Alvin wrote to General Robert E. Lee, at that time “overseeing the fortification of the cities on the southeastern coast.”262

“I appeal to you for justice,” he wrote, telling Lee of his experience with the New York mob and that he had applied to Jefferson Davis for an “appointment . . . but there were no vacancies.” He tells of Mrs. Morse, calling her a “yankee woman” who was in his room when he made the remark about the Charleston fire. “I did not want her in my room,” Lloyd adds. “She made an affidavit against me . . . that she believed me to be a spy. . . that sir, is all the proof they can procure against me. . . . I am as true and loyal to our Confederacy as President Davis himself. No man could fight for the south as I have without loving it.” It is also quite clear from this letter that Virginia, Clarence, and a nurse had arrived in Savannah by this stage. “Governor Harris [of Tennessee] has given me permission to send one hundred and fifty dollars . . . to bring to the south a lady, child and nurse.” Nellie Dooley may not be the nurse in question, as she would later claim to have been in the South with Mrs. Lloyd all the time except for the “nine months” in Savannah. But Virginia and Clarence’s presence, of that there can be little doubt. And it seems that Mrs. Annie Taylor Lloyd had gone, left the man that married her three times, never to be heard of again.263

Two days later, on February 17, Lee sent a response to the authorities, to Henry C. Wayne, adjutant and inspector general in Milledgeville, but that letter has not been found.

That same day, the seventeenth, Alvin wrote another letter to Lee:

Genl Lee, I send you my Rail Road passes & Passports. Col. Rockwell and Genl Lawton have all my letters stating what my business was at the different places I have visited. Genl Lee, do be kind enough to investigate my case. I have been confined 65 days today. I am as true and loyal a man as there lived in our young Confederacy. Resptly, W. Alvin Lloyd. Feb. 17th/62. Genl Lawton has also the affidavits stating my loyalty [these are the McDaniel and Frost affidavits]. I received another letter this morning from John Robin McDaniel, Esq., of Lynchburg [this letter has not been located]. Respectfully, W. Alvin Lloyd.264

Yet again, on the seventeenth, in his determined effort to create a profile of his suspected spy, one he hoped would be convicted and hanged, Rockwell wrote to Captain W. H. Taylor, Assistant Adjutant General.

Captain, in obedience to the reference by order of Gen. Lee of certain documents accompanying a letter of W. Alvin Lloyd for a statement of the facts of the case with a view of ascertaining what steps can be taken to arrive at the guilt or innocence of Mr Lloyd. I have the honor to state that Mr Lloyd was brought to this post on the—Decr. Last, arrested upon an affidavit made by Mrs Morse, a copy of which is herewith forwarded. I was directed by General Lawton to examine him carefully, which I proceeded to do, a copy of which examination is also hereto attached. Before the examination was concluded, a number of papers taken from Lloyd’s possession, were placed in my hand, and I discovered that many of his statements were inconsistent with the facts disclosed by the papers. He asserted himself to be traveling with his wife & child.

Had Rockwell actually laid eyes on this wife and child? It doesn’t sound like it. The wife and child referred to here have to be Virginia and Clarence, yet we know Alvin was traveling with Mrs. Annie L. Taylor. A case could be made for Alvin traveling with Virginia and Clarence, but the woman he was in company with right then was definitely Mrs. Taylor.

The woman he called his wife he said he had married on the 9th of Nov. 1861 [this, of course, is Annie Taylor; remember the proof extant in the Orleans Parish marriage register of that date]. Among the papers was a receipted Hotel Bill for the board of Mr W.A. Lloyd and Lady [Annie] dated the 3rd Nov., and a free ticket on the Vicksburg R.Rd for Mr Lloyd & Lady [Annie] dated 6 Nov. 1861. He admitted the lady professed to in the hotel bill is the same woman he calls his wife [Annie]. There was abundant evidence in the papers submitted to me . . .

This evidence unfortunately is not seen in this document, but presumably they are some of the bigamy articles. After all of Rockwell’s fevered attempts to prove that Lloyd was a spy, here was the real reason that Rockwell was so determined to make Lloyd suffer further.

. . . to establish the fact that he had for several years imposed upon the community, both North and South, women in the character of wife who had no title whatever to the appellation, if he were the person he assumed to be.

What could this abundant evidence have been that so incriminated Alvin as a bigamist? Newspaper clippings, perhaps? Marriage certificates? Letters from outraged wives and lawyers? Rockwell doesn’t elaborate, and this abundant documented evidence is never referred to in the welter of correspondence between Rockwell, Lawton, Davis, Lee, et al.

But Rockwell, though demurring, must continue. He must prove his case against Lloyd.

Although I could not take cognizance of offences against good morals, yet as I had positive evidence that he had misrepresented his position and stood convicted of falsehood in one particular, his professions of loyalty weighed against his facilities for procuring information, and the fact that exact statements of the Confederate forces had reached the public through the Northern press in some unaccountable way, seemed to me not of the most trustworthy character. It was while examining this portion of the testimony, consisting in part of free tickets and passes on the Southern Rail Roads, my attention was drawn to the fact that he carefully withheld all mention of being in possession of such passes over Northern R.Rds. Those upon the Southern Rail Roads he voluntarily tendered for inspection as proof of his loyalty to the South. Perhaps he conceived the argument equally good for his loyalty to the North, though he was not aware that I was in possession of tickets of like character issued to him by Rail Road companies in the Northern, Eastern and Western states.

Alvin knew they were in his bags, knew Rockwell was searching his bags, and therefore must have known he had these tickets, which in and of themselves were not at all incriminating.

Rockwell presses on.

I took occasion, however, to ask him, while he was detailing the manner of his escape from New York, if he was not provided with free tickets on the roads over which he passed in his flight? To this he replied in the negative. I append a list of the Southern Rail Roads upon which he had free tickets, and which he produced, and also a list of the Northern R.Rds equally generous to him, which he carefully suppressed. The General will observe that a pass over the Cleveland and Erie Rail Road is herewith forwarded, which was among his papers taken from his possession, which he stated in his examination was part of his route from New York to Cincinnati. I also noticed in this connection a free pass over the Ohio & Miss RRd to the end of the year 1860, upon which road the copy of the Steam Boat & R Rd Guide, of which he claims to be the publisher, informed me that Capt. (now Major General) Geo. B. McClellan was general superintendent. He also called my attention to several articles published in the Steam Boat & R Rd Guide as indications of his sympathy with the Southern cause, and which he says caused his violent expulsion from N. York. I was certainly unable to view them in that light as they were mostly directed to the abuse of the Abolitionists as a party, & calculated only to solicit Southern trade.

And now Rockwell is intent on criticizing Alvin-as-writer.

On a comparison since of the articles with his epistolary appeals to Gen. Lawton & the Secretary of War, I am induced to believe that his only relation thereto is that of publisher and not author. I did not view them therefore as indications of his sentiment toward the South, and consider them of no greater weight than the rumors conveyed to me of his communication with the Lincoln cabinet through a man named Boyd who brought him a letter from Mr. Chase in his boot, or the statement made to me in Richmond by a person present on the occasion of his being charged by one who professed to be cognizant of the fact, with voting for Lincoln. I enclose also for the consideration of the General, a letter from the War Dept., bearing upon the character he sustained at Richmond, at the very time he was applying to the President for a situation under the Government.

Rockwell summarizes Lloyd’s escape from New York as Lloyd wrote in his letter to Robert E. Lee.

He [Lloyd] left the city within the time allowed him, without pausing on the very extraordinary number of minutes allowed in this highly improbable proceeding. In his examination it is obvious to remark he failed to mention this peculiar exhibition of violence, and stated to me that his clerk informed him that they were about to hang him summarily, and in corroboration produced a printed notice to that effect, which I returned to him, and he said he fled immediately to escape the danger. The extension of time vouchsafed to him, according to his later statement, may account for his carrying with him a great number of blank checks on the Leather Manufacturers Bank, evenly & carefully cut, apparently with scissors which were found among his papers, and whose presence in the baggage of a person leaving in a hurry would argue some degree of premeditation.

That is probably true as Lloyd didn’t fear the mob and was arranging to flee with the merchant’s daughter. And knowing Lloyd, the “mob” may have been one or two businessmen he’d blackmailed.

Rockwell now addresses what he considers to be very bad judgment on the part of jailer Waring Russell.

When Lloyd was placed in custody, the jailer unusually allowed him to send off a large number of letters. In these he might have conveyed away all evidence of a direct character to impeach his loyalty. I cannot but believe however where suspicion is so evident, he having been arrested heretofore in Memphis and escaping for want of proof, and in Nashville (where he applied to Gov. Harris for permission to send gold North to bring home his wife and child, not a lady nurse and child as he represents to General Lee), and escaping there for want of proof. Delay and circumspection may render conviction absolutely certain, if he be a spy. If not, his detention would be none too grave a punishment for his moral delinquencies.

“Moral delinquencies.” And there it was—Rockwell’s real and pressing condemnation of Alvin Lloyd. He is morally delinquent. And finally, another jab at Lloyd’s writing skills.

It will be seen that the letter of Lloyd strengthens me in the conclusion I have reached in my estimate of his literary abilities. I have the honor to be, Captain, very respectfully, Wm S. Rockwell, Lt Col, etc, comdng Post.265

Here is Rockwell, a man with a good deal of power, so far unable to find enough evidence to hang a perceived traitor, a Yankee spy, who in reality has sashayed around the south with wives and lovers on his arm. Imagine Rockwell’s frustration. His impotence. His rage. His jealousy, perhaps.

If Lloyd was privy at all to the next communication, he might feel a modicum of relief. Henry C. Wayne, adjutant and inspector general at Milledgeville, replied to Lee, on February 19, 1862: “I received this morning and submitted to the Governor [Governor Joseph Emerson Brown, of Georgia] your letter of the 17th instant, relating to W. Alvin Lloyd, a suspected correspondent of the enemy. His Excellency desires me to say that he has never heard of the case before, and that he must leave him in the hands of the civil authorities in Savannah and of the Confederate officers in command there.”266

Now an emboldened Alvin is writing to Lee on February 20, 1862: “Genl Lee, please send me by the girl my ‘Guides,’ passes (R.R.), passports, affidavits, which I sent you a day or so since. Respectfully, W. Alvin Lloyd. Feb. 20th, 1862. Will you be kind enough to let me know when the case was sent to Richmond for investigation and what further proof is required. Please give me an answer. Respectfully, W. Alvin Lloyd.”267

Who is the girl Lloyd refers to? That is unknown, as she is not mentioned again. Lee must have complied with Alvin’s request, because the passports and affidavits are all of record and viewable.

With no word or sign of a release forthcoming, Alvin wrote to Judah Benjamin on February 21, 1862. He begged the secretary to hasten the investigation, as he had been in prison seventy-one days now. This letter was received at the War Department on February 27, 1862. The same day, Alvin wrote to Adjutant General Samuel Cooper in Richmond.268

The Savannah newspaper of February 24, 1862, advertised that a letter was waiting at the post office for “Mrs. Annie Louisa Taylor.” However, Annie had gone and Virginia was in the city.

Alvin sent another letter to Lee in an effort to explain that he told Rockwell about his connection to a New Orleans newspaper that may have been confusing. It seems Lloyd was desperate to prove his veracity, retell his story and equally desperate to find a reason to again communicate with Lee.

Genl Lee, In my memorandum to Col. Rockwell, it seems he misunderstood me to say that I was connected with the New Orleans “Delta” now. He misunderstood me. Myself and Brother (who is in Fort Lafayette, or was) [this may well be true about Fort Lafayette, but there is no corroborating evidence to that effect] were connected with Major J.P. Heiss, publishing the Delta in 1852 & 1853 [John P. Heiss was, indeed, publishing the Delta in that time period]. I mention this, Genl Lee, so that you will not think I told an untruth. I published my guide at the Delta office in 1857 [from an examination of the New Orleans newspapers of the time, it was the Times-Picayune office, or the Crescent’s office, but it is not certain], then I moved to New York, where I have published since that time, circulating it South, and it is the only (truly) Rail Road Guide ever published. Yours truly, W. Alvin Lloyd. I was born in Kentucky. My parents were born in Winchester, Va. W.A.L. Feby. [25] 1862.269

On February 25, 1862, Alvin wrote a second letter to Samuel Cooper, pushing the adjutant general to investigate his case immediately. Alvin had been in jail now two months and thirteen days. “It is indeed hard upon me,” he writes. He told Cooper that his health was failing, and that he was threatened with paralysis. “I have no air. No exercise.”270 He is in extremis.

By March 17, 1862, Alvin Lloyd had been in jail for seventy-one days, and he knew he couldn’t last much longer.

Frantic, he wrote another letter to Judah Benjamin. He was “suffering innocently . . . a new born babe,” wanting “justice,” etc. He let the secretary of state know that he would like to “get a little fresh air (which I stand greatly in need of).” Alvin’s letter went unanswered.271

Which is not to say nothing happened as a result of that letter. On March 21, 1862, from Savannah, General Lawton wrote a letter to Jefferson Davis, making a report on the Lloyd case. After summing up the history of Lloyd’s arrest and confinement, Lawton tells the President,

The question does not, at present, seem to be an enquiry into the facts to ascertain the guilt or innocence of the prisoner. If he be a traitor, the municipal courts are competent to try and determine the complicity with the enemy. I have no means of determining if a Grand Jury could be furnished with sufficient proof to put the prisoner on his trial, nor can the fact be ascertained before the session of the Superior Court, which will occur in May next. Should the proof be at hand, however, the Court on conviction could pronounce his punishment. The civil judicatory has already ruled that his capture and detention was not illegal, and there, as far as these tribunals are concerned, the matter rests at present.

And then comes Lawton’s opinion: A real blow.

On the other hand, if he be a spy, the civil courts possess but a doubtfull [sic] jurisdiction over the offence [sic]. The military courts, however, have ample power to try and punish. The evidence to ascertain the fact and convict of such a charge is at any time exceedingly difficult to obtain, and in the present condition of the Country, almost impossible. If he be, as is suspected, and that upon reasonable grounds, as correspondent of the Northern newspapers, it is obvious that the evidence to increase the suspicion to certainty is beyond the reach of the Government, and, if brought to trial, he must be discharged for want of proof, even in the face of grave suspicion. The circumstances surrounding his case, it would seem, though short of absolute certainty, would rather warrant the conclusion that it would be unwise to set him at liberty. It appears also that Lloyd has been arrested upon similar charges twice before, once at Memphis, and again at Nashville, and while in Richmond, with most unblushing impudence, applying to the President for official stations, he was actually under the surveillance of the police, and suspected of the very crime which has brought him into difficulty here.

Lawton is obviously unaware of the bigamy arrests.

I have therefore not deemed it prudent to overrule the decision which deprives him at present of his liberty. I transmit herewith Lt Col Rockwell’s report to me with the accompanying papers, viz:—copy of letter from War Department; copy of Lt Col Rockwell’s report to Genl Lee; schedule of free tickets upon Rail Road in Lloyd’s possession; proceedings upon the Habeas Corpus; and a letter from Govr Harris of Tennessee, written at Lloyd’s request. I have the honor to be, Very Respectfully, Your obdt servant, A.R. Lawton, Brig Genl comdg.272

The Lawton report was endorsed by G. W. Randolph, Secretary of War: “Respectfully submitted to the President in answer to his call. The War Department has taken no further action in the case.” Finally, Jefferson Davis endorsed it with, “Let the prisoner be informed of the report of his case as presented within.”273

Proof, it was always about proof. And there was none. Only suspicions and nagging doubts.

But here is the reason Alvin was detained without trial for so long: The authorities, particularly General Lawton, knew that a trial would set him free, but they also suspected him of being a spy. So, they dispensed with due process, and kept him incarcerated. But certain questions loomed:

General Lawton surely would have known Lloyd. Yet he didn’t seem to. Lawton had for years before the war been president of the Savannah and Augusta Railroad. Rockwell, too, had been secretary of the Milledge­ville Railroad. He had to have known Alvin. Yet it seems he didn’t. Was Lloyd such a disreputable scoundrel in the guise of a glad-handing, peripatetic rover? Did his serial bigamies, his travels with so many women, disturb and disgust those who should have and would have known him such that he became to so many a pariah, a soul-deficient sinner?

Time crawls. Lloyd remains imprisoned. It is now July 4, 1862. It used to be Independence Day in Georgia as it was in Maine, as it had been all over the old United States of America, but since the war, it was just another day on the Dixie calendar. But it was still Alvin’s birthday, regardless of politics. It was also the day he penned another letter to the Confederate President. From his jail cell he wrote:

To His Excellency, Jefferson Davis, Richmond. Mr. President, it has been nearly 4 months since I received a letter from Col. Davis [Joseph E. Davis] stating to me that you had written to Genl Lawton the charges, proof, etc., against me to be forwarded to you, so that my case should receive the proper attention. Since that time I have not heard one word relative to my case. I have been in jail nearly 7 months, Mr. President, and no trial, and no proof against me, and I know full well, for I have done nothing in the world against our stripling country. On the contrary, I have done all in my power for the Southern Confederacy.

He goes on:

I have my family here and they are nearly destitute. It has cost me all the means I could command to support them and myself for 7 months. . . . Lieut Col. Rockwell here has kept back the letters and affidavits in my favor he showed my wife a couple of months since—Govr. Harris’ (of Tenn.) letter stating that I was a true and loyal Southern man beside 15 or 20 others from gentlemen in Louisiana, Mississippi and Virginia. Col. Rockwell told my wife that I had injured myself by writing to you, and that I had written too many letters, etc. I pray you, Mr President, to deal with me as you would be dealt by. I am poor, and am as innocent as you yourself of any disloyalty. Once more, I beg of you, Sir, to have my case investigated, for my life is wearing away in jail. Why is it that an innocent man should suffer the way I have and am suffering. I humbly beg of you to have justice done me, and let me go free to serve my country & attend to my business.

And he self-pityingly adds: “Col. Rockwell does not like me because I have written him letters that spoke the truth.”

The letter was received on July 11, 1862. Jefferson Davis wrote, “Secretary of War. The papers in this case were sent to the War Office. Have they been examined? If so, what conclusion has been reached? [signed] J.D.” Secretary of War George W. Randolph added, “W. Alvin Lloyd asks an investigation of this case. Chief of Bureau. Is anything known of this case, or the papers referred to by the Presdt.?”274

Remarkably, impossibly, according to Alphabetical Boyd, in his 1872 examination, Alvin was spying for Lincoln at the exact time he was imprisoned. An outright lie, of course, but as Boyd relates these events, lawyer Totten would hope the examiners were not privy to all of Alvin’s lengthy correspondences with Confederate officials. They were not.

He [Lloyd] Boyd says, “ . . . made a trip to Richmond on parole. He remained in Macon about four months altogether. He visited Richmond from Macon. He went to Richmond and got a pass from Jefferson Davis. He went under the surveillance of a detective, and got a pass from Davis to report to General Winder. He then visited the defenses of Richmond. This was in June 1862. He got information as to strength and location of batteries and number of troops around Richmond” [to report to President Lincoln].

Of course, in June 1862 Alvin was in prison in Georgia. When the examiner questions Boyd in 1872, he answers with this:

Question: “What did he do with this information?”

Answer: “He made a report in writing, which he gave to me for Mr. Lincoln, which I delivered in the latter part of July, or first of August, to Mr. Lincoln in person.”

In the cross-examination of his 1872 deposition, Boyd elaborates on this fiction during the month of June 1862.

Question: “You speak of information as to the number and strength of batteries and number of troops around Richmond as having been contained in the dispatches delivered by you to the President in the latter part of July or first of August 1862. Did Mr. Lloyd visit those defenses?”

Answer: “Yes, Sir.”

Question: “When?”

Answer: “I think it was about June 1862.”

Question: “Were you in Richmond at the time he visited these defenses, as you say?”

Answer: “Yes, Sir.”

Question: “Did you accompany him in his visit?”

Answer: “Yes, Sir.”

Question: “You state that when Mr. Lloyd went to Richmond in June 1862, and visited the rebel defenses, he was still under surveillance of the rebel authorities, including General Winder. How did he get access to the fortifications and defenses around Richmond, being a suspected man?”

Answer: “He went in company with myself, and was acquainted with a great many prominent officers commanding the various batteries, and visited them socially.”

Boyd then goes on to say that he and Lloyd saw “General Pendleton [Confederate General William Nelson Pendleton] of the Artillery commanding defenses around Richmond. Also a Major Harding commanding Batteries 4 and 5.”

Question: “Where did he see General Pendleton?”

Answer: “At his headquarters between Batteries 4 and 5.”

Question: “Did you hear any of the conversation between them?”

Answer: “Yes, Sir.”

Question: “Who commenced the conversation?”

Answer: “I commenced the conversation.”

Question: “What was the purpose of that conversation so far as it relates to the defenses of Richmond?”

Answer: “Lloyd asked the general the number of batteries, the number of guns mounted, and how many artillerists were employed in the defenses. He took us and showed us the new barbette batteries of rifled guns commanding the Charles River road. Explained the defenses.”

Question: “How did you get access to General Pendleton’s Head Quarters?”

Answer: “I had an order from General Lee.”

Question: “Did Lloyd have an order from General Lee?”

Answer: “No, Sir.”

After Richmond, preposterously, it seems Alvin had to slip back undetected into the Chatham County Jail in Savannah, in order to write up his report of the observations he had made while in the Confederate capital.

In reality, at the beginning of July, Alvin was still confined to jail. His original diary, the selected pages torn out and presented to Union authorities in 1865, add a bit of brightness:

Friday, July 4th, 1862. In prison. I am 36 years of age to-day. My dearest Virgin- (wife) ia & Clarence came at 7½ a.m., and spent the day with me. My Virginia brought me Green corn, Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Cantalope, Water Melon, [illegible vegetable]. A splendid dinner, and we were happy. This morning a villain dared to follow Virginia, and called at the house last night.

He was not thirty-six. He had adjusted his age. He was forty. His March 1869 death certificate, the details for which were provided by his widow, Virginia, gives July 4, 1822, as his date of birth. That’s obviously the date Virginia understood to be his birthday. However, she does say he was born in Louisville, and that his mother was born in Kentucky. Both facts are wrong. But July 4 is correct. The birth year—vanity, perhaps? Lloyd was diminished and ailing.

The house referred to is almost certainly one Virginia took in Savannah, to be close to her husband. Lloyd’s surviving diary entry continues:

She gave it to him good. Poor Virginia and Clarence. Got [illegible] last night [illegible] follow her as Kincaid, the scoundrel, followed Virginia again. He will live to regret it. Savannah can boast of nothing but mean men—a lady whose husband is in prison cannot walk the streets in open day light without being insulted. Where is Southern chivalry? Where is the high-toned Southern gentleman? God will protect dear Virginia & her child. Dear Virginia & Clarence remained all night with me and did not leave until 6 p.m. Saturday, as it was raining & my sweet Virginia & Clarence left at 6 p.m. to make some purchases and to see if the scoundrel spoke to her again.

This man, Kincaid, is a mystery, if he truly existed.

There are problems with this “diary.” The first is that it was not written on the day, July 4. Nor on the day following. Although the diary heading is “July 4th” Alvin is actually recording the events of the fourth and fifth, after both days have passed. So, when was it actually written?

Usually a personal diary, a private record, is a sprinkling of days, or a precise order of days, so that what might otherwise have been lost to the natural memory over the years, such as who Virginia was, can be preserved. Given the sheer number of wives Alvin had at that moment in time in different parts of the country, it is hardly surprising that he had to stop and think. He was on pretty safe ground until the end of that written line, in other words as far as “My dearest Virgin-,” and then found himself struggling, and wrote “(wife).”

Another problem is that Alvin forgets to mention the rather salient fact that on that very day, July 4, he had written a letter to the President of the Confederate States of America. It seems he might have intended this diary for use as an exhibit in the claim that was destined for a very sensitive US War Department in June 1865. It would have been damning to include the fact that he had written a letter to Jefferson Davis.

Another selected diary entry says: “Wednesday, July 9th, 1862. My dearest Virginia & Clarence came to spend the day with me. They came at 7½ and left at 7.10. God bless them. Dr. King called twice.”

And on July 10, 1862: “My dear Virginia & Clarence came & spent the day with me. They came at 7½ a.m. and left at 6.30. Dr. King called.”

On July 11, Jefferson Davis received Alvin’s July 4 letter, and still on July 11, this from Alvin’s diary: “My dearest Virginia & Clarence came & spent the day with me. They came at 7½ a.m. and left at 6.38 p.m. Dr King and A.S. Hartridge, aid to Genl Mercer, called and brought an order to the Lieutenant, namely Russell, to allow me to go into the garden at any time. The order was positive, and, if he refused, Genl Mercer would arrest & put him (Russell) in irons. The order was [illegible] with Virginia, and Clarence went into the [illegible].”

In May, General Lawton had been transferred to Virginia, and General Hugh Mercer had taken his place at Savannah. Things were about to change for Alvin—for the better—notably in the form of Dr. William Nephew King, his attending physician, and conscientious intercessor for Alvin with General Mercer. Dr. King was a homeopath as well as an allopathic doctor. If it weren’t for Dr. King, Alvin would have remained in the Chatham County Jail. Dr. King was the best friend Alvin ever had, except for Virginia. Her devotion to a man no longer able to provide for her or their child—a man she’d married when she was a child of thirteen, who’d been repeatedly unfaithful—is astonishing. She chose to remain, spending endless hours with her suffering, imprisoned husband and exposing her small son to a barbaric city jail and its inmates, to his father’s plight. Virginia chose this life, at this difficult, torturous time.

On July 14, 1862, Dr. King wrote to Alvin. Maybe now, his durance would be less torturous. Maybe.

I had a conversation with General Mercer a little while ago, telling him your condition in detail. He says he thinks it best that you change your quarters. I mentioned Augusta as a pleasant point, but he said he could not send you there at the present time, as they had no military prisoners there, & it would put the Government to an unnecessary expense in keeping a Guard with a file of men, but that he would send you to Macon if you wished, tomorrow night in the quarter to 10 p.m. train, yourself, wife & child, who will be allowed to visit you daily and you are to be allowed the liberty of the prison yard. I am very sorry on account of Mrs. L that you would not go to Augusta.

Virginia had friends or relatives in Augusta, where Confederate Powder Works, the largest gunpowder factory in the Confederacy, made the town an armed camp that contained a huge arsenal.

Dr. King continues:

I tried my best for you, but saw that the Gen had reason, for the refusal said nothing more about it, but should [illegible] for any prisoner sent there will [illegible] you. He says he cannot say when your trial will come off, as it will require time to collect evidence, witnesses & papers, but that he will do what he can for you, & I think you may rely upon him in your absence to assure I shall do all I can to bring about & further your cause. I handed the Gen your note this morning. I fear I will not have time to see you this afternoon, therefore I am scratching you these hasty lines. I will see you in the morning. I remain, My Dear Sir & shall ever, Very Sincerely Yours, Wm Nephew King. P.S. I send you two powders which put with ½ tumbler full of water and taken every 2 or 3 hours after eating. WNK. 275

It is not known what these powders were or how they might have helped Lloyd, nor what exactly was wrong with him.

And this, from Dr. King, on July 15:

Savannah. Mr W. Alvin Lloyd. My Dear Sir, I have had to go out to White Bluff, and do not think I can get back in time to make my adieu to yourself & Mrs. L, which I regret much, as I should have been glad to know your condition before starting, but I hope, however, you are much better, and that you will take a favorable turn by your change of locality & atmosphere. I shall be happy to hear from you & will do all in my power to assist you, to hasten your trial. I know the Gen will do what is right. I hope you will not think anything by my not presenting you a bill for my services, but I have none against you. Your thanks are quite compensation enough. I only wish I could have done more for you. With kind wishes for yourself and Mrs L. I remain, My Dear Sir, Very Sincerely Yours, Wm Nephew King. Excuse haste.276

Alphabetical Boyd, in 1872, clearly forgetting his earlier testimony when he claimed Lloyd wasn’t imprisoned, said, “He remained, altogether in prison in Savannah, about nine months, when he was sent to Macon by order of a physician, about June 1862 [it was mid-July].” Boyd also says, “His health was much reduced while he was in Savannah. He suffered considerably from paralysis.” It is true that when Lloyd limped into Washington City, he was greatly impaired. But the real reason for this serious debility will become apparent.

That night, July 15, 1862, Alvin, Virginia, and Clarence pulled out of Savannah Station on the Central Railroad’s scheduled 9:45, for the 190-mile trip to Macon, arriving at their destination just after 6:00 the following morning. Macon would be their home for the next two months or so. But the prisoner-Alvin would not be housed in Camp Oglethorpe, the prison stockade by the railroad tracks on the banks of the Ocmulgee River, where in April of 1862 Union prisoners of war were transported, held, and often died. But not Alvin, spared because of the all-important intervention of Dr. King.

Virginia, in 1872, testified about her husband that “he was taken very ill in the prison, and he was then sent up to Macon, and ordered to be put in the prison there, but he was not put in the prison, but in the jailer’s house, and while in Macon he was paroled.”277

Lloyd says, “After remaining in close confinement for 6 months, Genl A.R. Lawton, the Brig General who had charge of the city was removed to Virginia. Genl Mercer, at the desire of my physician, Dr William Nephew King, ordered me to be removed to Macon, for the benefit of my health, which was greatly impaired by confinement, where I remained 3 months longer, when Genl Mercer discharged me (see the discharge).”278

In Macon, Lloyd lived in the home of his jailer: “I was treated very kindly as well as my wife and child at Macon by Col. Jack Brown whom I ever shall remember with great kindness.”279

William Andrew Jackson Brown was thirty-two then, a Georgia lawyer and planter, married with children. He had actually been promoted to colonel only on June 21, 1862. Jackson was at Macon only a short time.

This letter, dated July 20, 1862, is Enclosure 24 in the Lloyd Papers. The envelope in which it arrived, reading, “W. Alvin Lloyd, Esq., Macon, Geo. Kindness of the Guard,” is Enclosure 25.

Savannah. Mr. W. Alvin Lloyd, Macon. My Dear Sir, I am in rect. of your letter, which was left in my absence from the office, on the table, in an out of the way place, so I did not get it until the Guard called to inquire for the reply. This will account for the delay, which I sincerely regret, as it has kept you in that hell [underlined] so many more days. I called upon Gen Mercer but he was out. I handed your letter to his son, Capt. Mercer, and explained to him the treatment you had been subjected to. He seems much astonished and promised to attend to it by that evening’s Guard going up. I hope by this time you are comfortable again, and feeling well. I have been done to death for the past week and was nearly broken down. Do let me hear from you again as soon as you like. With kindest regards to Mrs. L and yourself, I am very sincerely yours, Wm Nephew King.

From Macon, Alvin dashed off a letter on July 21 to his friend John Robin McDaniel, and eight days later, from his office at his company, Hose and Fire, Lynchburg, Virginia, John Robin replied:

Mr Wm Alvin Lloyd, Macon, Geo. Dear Sir, Yours 21 inst to hand, I regret to hear of the delay in your case, and do not understand it. I would with pleasure write to Genl Mercer, if I had any acquaintance with him, but I have not. A letter from me to President Davis could do no good, for if he knows of me at all he knows me as one who never was one of his warmest friends but now no accounts of his policy, or efficiency, and have not been particular in expressing my opinions, because I go for the cause of my country, and not more. I trust however you will be soon released and that your health will be completely restored. Be pleased to present my regards to Mrs. L. Your friend, Jno Robin McDaniel. 280

Alphabetical Boyd swore that he finally arrived in Washington in late July or the first of August 1862. During his direct examination in 1872, the question was put to him about his visit to Mr. Lincoln: “Where did you come from on that occasion?”

Answer: “From Richmond.”

Question: “For what purpose did you visit Mr Lincoln on that occasion?”

Answer: “To carry dispatches and letters from Lloyd to the President.”

Question: “What did these dispatches and letters relate to?”

Answer: “They related to the movements of the troops at Richmond, towards Maryland, to the harbor defenses of Savannah, and to the imprisonment of Lloyd, his trials and tribulations.”

However, in his 1865 deposition, Boyd had sworn that “he does not know what information was contained” in this package so delivered. So, in 1865 he didn’t know what was in the package, but by 1872 he did.

While up in Washington delivering the latest dispatches, Boyd testified that he was offered a contract by Lincoln on July 29, 1862, similar to the one Lloyd had, but at half the salary. This is the wording: “Mr T.H.S. Boyd is employed to go South and return with dispatches or other useful information. He will be allowed one hundred dollars per month. Signed A. Lincoln, July 29 1862.” When asked where the contract was, Alphabetical said he’d left it with his (unnamed) lawyer in Baltimore. All this according to Boyd’s deposition of July 19, 1865. After the war he was never called upon to show it as evidence. Just as well, as it never existed.

Dr. King, clearly sympathetic to Lloyd’s sufferings in Savannah, on August 3, 1862, wrote to “W. Alvin Lloyd” in Macon:

My Dear Sir, Upon my return to the city, I found a letter from you which had been in this office for some days, which will account for the tardiness of my reply. I am indeed glad to hear of your parole, tho’ I have not had time to ascertain its source, as I have been up in the Barracks to see Gen Mercer about it and to find out the other questions you desired answered, but he was not in. I will see him to-night or in the morning, and let you know as early as possible. I am sorry to hear your health is no better, but keep your spirits up.

This next passage must have meant the world to an increasingly incapacitated and depressed Lloyd, sure that his right to a fair trial had been denied him and convinced his unendurable punishment would kill him. It seemed Dr. King was determined to save him.

You have seen the darkest day, since your health will, with the invigorating influence of a pure atmosphere, freedom from confinement, and a plenty of exercise, soon return, to cheer both yourself & Mrs. L, poor thing, her sufferings have been almost as much as yours. I am so glad you have found a just & good friend in the kind-hearted & noble soul Col. Brown. Get him motivated [illegible] he will see justice done to you, that which has been shamefully & basely denied by that “Tub of Guts,” Col. R. [Rockwell] who, dressed in a little brief authority sits [illegible] “Monarch of all he Surveys.” He will have a reckoning [illegible] friends when this war is over. He knew you asked for nothing but your rights due to you at a military tribunal, you furnished the necessary papers to bring an open trial & prove you guilt or innocence, but took them & laid them away, caring little if you lived to see the postponed trial, or whether you ever had a trial or not. Humanity should prompt him to action, if nothing else, but there is not a spark of it in a thousand such hearts. If it is, it is so carefully buried that it will never come to light. I have written you not one letter since you left, not because I did not feel like it but because I did not have a moment to spare. I thank you for your solicitude in regard to my health. I am pretty well run down & have much to do in [illegible] as the summer months are down on us in great earnest. We have [illegible] fevers, and the troops are suffering no little. I shall tell the General about the state of your health. Could you not get the questions in regard to who pays the expenses of paroled persons answered by Col. Brown? before I could write to you again, but I shall do so at as early a date as possible. The Hebrew [jailer Russell] gnashes his teeth when he thinks how I served him. If I had my way, I would make him gnash them open to the gums, & then gum it to the bone. He will get his [illegible] at a future day when the [illegible] Mayor of the city of Savannah [illegible] With kind remembrance to Mrs. L & the boy & good wishes for you and your cause. I am, my dear Lloyd, very sincerely your friend, Wm Nephew King.281

The time when Lloyd was brought to his knees, the time of his great suffering, is perhaps coming to an end. But his freedom, what resembles his freedom, is not at all what he’d wished for, wanted, or dreamed.