William Schouler, A history of Massachusetts in the Civil War: Volume 1

[64] carriage, and driven to within a square of our station, where my man with the package jumped off, and waited till he saw the carriage drive up to the door, and Mr. Lincoln and the detective get out and go into the station. He then came up, and gave the package to the conductor, who was waiting at the door to receive it, in company with a police officer. Tickets had been bought beforehand for Mr. Lincoln and party to Washington, including a tier of berths in the sleeping-car. He passed between the conductor and the police-officer at the door, and neither suspected who he was. The conductor remarked as he passed, “Well, old fellow, it is lucky for you that our president detained the train to send a package by it, or you would have been left.” Mr. Lincoln and the detective being safely ensconced in the sleeping-car, and my package safely in the hands of the conductor, the train started for Baltimore about fifteen minutes behind time. Our man No. 3, George——, started with the train to go to Baltimore, and hand it over, with its contents, to man No. 1, who awaited its arrival in Baltimore. Before the train reached Gray's Ferry Bridge, and before Mr. Lincoln had resigned himself to slumber, the conductor came to our man George, and accosting him, said, “George, I thought you and I were old friends; and why did you not tell me we had Old Abe on board?” George, thinking the conductor had in some way become possessed of the secret, answered, “John, we are friends, and, as you have found it out, Old Abe is on board; and we will still be friends, and see him safely through.” John answered, “Yes, if it costs me my life, he shall have a safe passage.” And so George stuck to one end of the car, and the conductor to the other every moment that his duties to the other passengers would admit of it. It turned out, however, that the conductor was mistaken in his man. A man strongly resembling Mr. Lincoln had come down to the train, about half an hour before it left, and bought a ticket to Washington for the sleeping-car. The conductor had seen him, and concluded he was the veritable Old Abe. George delivered the sleeping-car and train over to William in Baltimore, as had been previously arranged; who took his place at the brake, and rode to Washington, where he arrived at six A. M., on time, and saw Mr. Lincoln, in the hands of a friend, safely delivered at Willard's, where he secretly ejaculated, “God be praised!” He also saw the package of railroad reports, marked “important,” safely delivered into the hands for which it was intended. This being done, he performed his morning ablutions in peace and quiet, and enjoyed with unusual zest his breakfast. At eight o'clock, the time agreed upon, the telegraph-wires were joined; and the first message flashed across the line was, “Your package has arrived safely, and been delivered,” signed “William.”