“I bet you concocted a great disguise to help with this, yes?”
“I definitely had to pretend to be somebody I wasn’t, and so, yes, a slight disguise proved helpful. I decided to go by the name of Mrs. Williams, which was the name of my deceased husband. Yes, Drouet, I have been married before.
“I had to convince General Washburn that I obtained the paper from the spy before he was captured by Shorter. Shorter also had a dispatch he wanted me to deliver to a Confederate agent in Memphis, a dispatch that the agent would then get into the hands of General Forrest. Shorter gave me instructions on where to find this agent, as well as a description of his appearance and a password proving to the spy that I could be trusted.”
“Loreta, had those Yankees found on your person the dispatch meant for the Confederate spy they would have hung you.”
“Well, Shorter stressed that this was a sensitive and important mission and that if I were found with the dispatch then, yes, the game would be over for me—and for good.
“Like I said, Shorter had heard of my prowess in assuming disguises and suggested I adopt the dress of a poor country woman fleeing to Yankee lines for protection.
“I agreed to accept the mission and was, right then and there, given a horse, pistol and ninety dollars. I was instructed to use the weapon only as a last resort and to absolutely not carry it into Yankee lines to see General Washburn. It was feared that the presence of a firearm on my person might arouse suspicions and deem me untrustworthy to the Yankees or give me away altogether.”
“So, you mounted the horse and made your way to Memphis?”
“I did. I made it to the Yankee lines with very little trouble. I made sure to hide away the pistol before encountering any Yankee soldiers. I hid it away in an unlocked church nearby. I eventually happened upon an inquisitive Yankee lieutenant who asked about the nature of my business. I answered that I had very important papers to deliver to General Washburn.
“The lieutenant asked from where had I obtained the papers, and I replied that I hailed from Holly Springs and that a gentleman there gave me one hundred dollars to get the papers through to General Washburn.
“The lieutenant asked me the name of the gentleman and what did he look like, but I replied that my instructions were to get the papers delivered to the good General and not to give away the name and appearance of the gentleman back in Holly Springs.
“The young lieutenant seemed to believe my story but said getting to see Washburn was not so easy to do at that particular moment and then proceeded to obtain for me a first-rate breakfast. He also asked about Confederate troop movements from whence I came, and I claimed to have seen a large force of them near Holly Springs which was far from the truth.
“To make a long story short, I made it to General Washburn with the help of the young lieutenant, and the papers were delivered.”
“Why is it I get the feeling you won over the lieutenant in more ways than one?”
“Well, the lieutenant seemed to fancy himself a possible suitor to the poor country woman I portrayed, paying heed to my every need as we made our way to Washburn, even putting me in the nicest private lodgings at his own expense and making me accept money from him with which to purchase better clothes.”
“I’ll bet he had to twist your arm.”
“Funny. I figured the benefits gained at the lieutenant’s expense were simply the spoils of the greater game in which we were all involved and accepted with the appreciative smile of a poor country woman.
“So, having seen the papers delivered to Washburn, and while staying in the Memphis hotel on the lieutenant’s generosity, I decided to slip out one night and pay a visit to the Confederate spy residing not too far away from the hotel so as to complete the second half of my mission.
“In a very short time, I made it to the address given me and knocked on the door. The agent answered, and he proved to look almost exactly as he had been described to me. I uttered the password and he then eagerly drew me inside and inquired as to the purpose of my visit. I gave him the information to be delivered to General Forrest, and he explained it would be delivered to him at once.
“During the course of our conversation, he learned about the young and adoring Yankee lieutenant and asked if I would attempt to extract from him certain troop movements much in need by our Confederates thereabouts. I replied that I most certainly would—and I did, having the information to the agent on the very next day—but that I did not feel safe coming back to his residence for fear of being discovered by my admiring lieutenant and his cadre of officers who would gladly see me hung if they learned my true purpose.
“We both agreed that I would write down the information on a piece of paper and hide it at a certain location where he could retrieve it. As I said, I got the needed information from the lieutenant, jotted it down, and then hid it away for our agent.
“The lieutenant gave me everything I needed to know about the number and position of Yankee forces along the Memphis and Charleston Railroad and that the force at Colliersville was being strengthened as we spoke in anticipation of an attack there.
“After learning the news of Forrest’s raid, I made as if frightened among my Yankee acquaintances in Memphis, expressing fears that Forrest might execute a raid on the city of Memphis and capture me. The doting lieutenant and his Yankee friends believed my acting job and assured me I was safe in their hands. Of course, Forrest did not raid Memphis, but he slipped by them after a somewhat lengthy campaign while securing enough cattle and assorted other booty to more than reward him for the trouble.
“Drouet, I was so proud of myself after what I accomplished on that job. You would have been excited and proud to have seen me in action. I successfully saw the false papers delivered to Washburn, delivered the needed information to our Confederate agent in Memphis in the dark of night, all while gaining for him Yankee troop information, a task above and beyond the scope of my original charge!”
“You are quite remarkable, Loreta. I stand in awe. You were born to this work of deception.”
“Oh, but there is more, Drouet—so much more!”
“Pray, don’t let me stop you. I want to hear everything. Give me the best stories first.”
“I know you’re indulging me, Drouet, and that you were involved in enough of your own shenanigans since the mint heist. I want to hear all about it.”
“All in due course. Pray, continue.”
“You won’t believe that I was tasked by the Yankees to capture the notorious lady spy.”
“Which one? There were several.”
“A one Loreta Janeta Velazquez.”
“Ha! And who assigned you this momentous charge?”
Before she answered, Loreta smiled proudly as if to say “You won’t believe what I am about to tell you.”
And then she told me.
“Lafayette Baker, head of Lincoln’s National Detective Bureau.”
I admit, as her words began penetrating my brain, I almost doubted their validity, but as they sank in further, I swiftly allowed that Loreta could pull off such an amazing feat of infiltration if anyone could.
“Well, thankfully, it looks as if you failed in that mission! Pray, my dear, please proceed.”
“I went to the north for a time to visit my brother who was being held in a Yankee prison. Seeing our many Southern boys who had been captured on the battlefield reinforced my feelings of intense dislike for their captors. I established in my mind that these blue-bellies were not so smart that I could not successfully infiltrate their ranks in the Yankee capital itself.
“I determined to make for Washington City and, while visiting some friends there I had known before the war, work to meet those in the city who could assist me in my work.”
Oh, how I admired the audacity of this woman!
“I found my old friends, both working in the employ of the Yankee military, one a general and one a captain.”
“Who were these officers?”
; Loreta gave me the identities of both men, but I uphold her wishes in keeping their names forever buried, lest they pay today for their inadvertent support to the lady rebel spy back then.
“I began socializing to some degree with both officials, but the general seemed most glad to see me and pay me continual attention. Naturally, he wanted to know about all my adventures since we had last met.
“Oh, I have to also tell you that both these Yankee gentlemen knew me as Mrs. Williams, the name of my deceased husband. They also knew that I am of Spanish extraction and that most all of my family resided at that time in Cuba and in Spain.
“Both men had known my late husband, but neither knew that he had passed while in Confederate military service at the very outbreak of the war. I told the general that my husband had northern sympathies and that after his death I had been plundered by the hated rebels and decided to come north where I had resided for some time.
“And, so, it was through the general that I met Lafayette Baker of the National Detective Bureau.
“Upon meeting Mr. Baker, I quickly ascertained him to be a first-rate thug and a second-rate detective, one willing to use whatever means at his disposal, legal or illegal, to extract information from a man. He seemed willing to use whatever devices necessary to rise to the top and to draw into his possession as much personal wealth as possible. He was not at all content with who he was or with his place in the world. I took him as being a man of average intelligence at best, and one who, if given ample clues, still stood ill-equipped in procuring valuable information for the Yankee war department.
“On the very night that the general introduced me to Baker, I recounted to him the ruse of a story about my late husband succumbing to an untimely death right at the war’s beginning, but in the service of the northern army, not the Confederate. Neither the general nor Baker had any way of knowing that my husband had actually died while as a rebel officer very early on in the late conflict.
“Luckily, my story was reinforced by the general who introduced us, a fact which put me in good stead with Colonel Baker at the outset. I told Colonel Baker that my position since my husband’s passing had been precarious, having lost everything through the rebellion and that I desired employment of any capacity in his detective corps.
“I told him I had traveled extensively throughout the South and knew many prominent people there upon whom I sought revenge for my predicament. Baker asked me many questions, some about my motives, some about previous employment and a host of other matters. I answered each of his queries quickly and with enough apparent frankness that I felt I had made a good impression upon him, as well as on my friend the general who stood by during the entire conversation. As I said before, the general was so thoroughly impressed with me that he advocated my case in the strongest of terms to Colonel Baker then and there.
“Colonel Baker said he would think the matter over, that he did not know if he had any open positions at present, and that is how he left it.
“So, I went about my business, leaving Washington City when I needed to call on my Confederate contacts, and then returning to Washington City when those calls were completed.
“Over a course of time, I called upon Colonel Baker at his office and furnished him a number of bits of information of no real value, but which nonetheless aided him in breaking up fraudulent practices and bringing certain criminals in his own department to justice.
“Baker was average at sniffing out corruption in the various bureaux under his direction and even in other government agencies in Washington City, but barely adequate in purging the corruption once he had been made aware of it. Much to his chagrin, however, he received nothing but scorn and no accolades for pursuing the criminals, as the corruption ran deep and with the full knowledge and some participation of those whose charge it was to prosecute such.
“The Colonel seemed to become more favorably impressed with me as time went by and I knew in my heart he would eventually find me a position in his corps—and he did!
“And that was his mistake…he had been taken in, and by a woman. I began my work in his detective bureau and watched him as he exposed corruption in his own department and in other areas of Lincoln’s government. Limited as he was, he rooted out rascals throughout Washington City once made aware of them. Unfortunately for him, these scoundrels had protectors in the Congress and other high places, and the very people who had secured his services on behalf of the government now officially sought to destroy him.
“But none of that was my concern. Now, as a double agent, I went to work for the detective bureau and successfully completed numerous missions similar to those undertaken in Memphis, as well as infiltrating the Yankee treasury department.”
Mention of subverting the treasury department sounded unbelievable even to me. Both Loreta and myself had fruitfully completed numerous missions, together and separately, against sizeable odds, but penetrating the treasury department in Washington City stood as an almost impossible task.
I leaned toward her.
“I have to hear about this, Loreta.”
“You will. One day as I sat in Colonel Baker’s office, he told me he had a special assignment for me and would I be interested? I answered as I usually did, in the affirmative, but requesting the details. I will never forget his exact words:
“I want you to find this woman who is traveling and figuring as a Confederate agent. Some of my people have been on her track for a long time, but she is a slippery customer, and they have never been able to lay hands on her.”
“I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt he spoke of me, especially when he commenced speaking of some of my movements on behalf of the Confederacy while away from Washington City. I felt particularly vulnerable at that moment and wanted more than anything to be out of his office and out of Washington City.
“I ‘accepted’ only as a ruse to leave Washington City for good. As Colonel Baker began telling me even more about the movements of the mysterious Loreta Velazquez, I felt very uncomfortable in his presence.”
“I understand the sentiment.”
“Drouet, how he could know of certain of my movements in striking detail and not also know that the lady villain of which he spoke sat in his very office at the same time was absolutely beyond me. The moment was surreal. I maintained my composure in his presence and resolved then and there to leave Washington City and head south as soon as I departed his office, never to return again.”
“So, obviously, this was after you managed to sneak your way into the Yankee treasury?”
“That is a true statement, Drouet. And that is yet another reason I fled Washington City quickly upon hearing my Yankee boss mention the capture of Loreta Velazquez. I did not want to have to answer for crimes of that magnitude in any country. Had Colonel Baker been able to identify me as a culprit in the treasury shenanigans I would have hung for sure.
“So, I removed myself from Baker’s circle at the close of the war without putting an end to the notorious lady spy, Loreta Janeta Velazquez. I did begin tidying up that business when I arrived back in New Orleans a few weeks ago as Colonel Snider. In the taverns and other establishments frequented by blue-coats in the Vieux Carre, I began letting it be known that I, Colonel Snider, had seen to it myself that Velazquez had been eradicated in no uncertain terms. Word of it soon spread so thoroughly that I began hearing conversations of it as I passed by groups of people or sat in a public house sipping on bourbon.”
“A brilliant word of mouth campaign, to be sure, Loreta. But why did you have to do her in? I’m particularly fond of her, you know.”
“Loreta Velazquez needed to be put to rest, at least for the time being, at least until animosities toward me in the north quieted to a considerable degree.”
“Your secrets—all of them—are safe with me.”
“And yours with me, Drouet—every dark and delicious one of them.”
“Okay, so please elaborate on this treasury business, as I just have to know how you c
harmed your way into such a high place in the land of blue-coats.”
“So I told you I had a reason for mentioning Baker successfully exposing corruption across the Federal government, and for expounding on how I learned of other, up to then, unknown officials whose existence I learned from my Confederate confidants in Washington City.
“These facts will help you understand how I gained sufficient enough trust from Baker to be directed by him to help uncover more rascals within Lincoln’s national treasury.
“I learned early on in the war how our Confederate agents made great use of the Federal treasury to obtain cash for their activities against our enemy. All of that had to do with utilizing Confederate sympathizers in the Federal treasury department.
“Both sides were involved in a multitude of counterfeit schemes to injure the national credit of the other, so I did not hesitate to involve myself in this game at the first opportunity afforded me. That occasion was made available to me by none other than Colonel Lafayette Baker, director of Lincoln’s national detective agency.
“Baker always seemed to have a goodly horde of Confederate bills on hand to be used by his agents in the field. He had given me these bills to use on several of my own trips south while ‘in his service.’
“Having gained enough confidence from Baker as to my diehard loyalty to the Federal cause, I soon felt sufficiently safe to approach a Confederate spy in the Federal treasury. I learned of this gentleman’s existence from our own Confederate operatives hidden throughout Washington and New York City. Even though this Confederate sympathizer within the treasury had proven time and again to be an efficient spy for our cause, he was not the sort of man for whom I had much admiration. He exuded a weak persona, and this made working closely with him seem particularly distasteful. Nonetheless, one cannot be too picky in choosing one’s associates in the undercover business, so I marched on like a soldier.
“My Confederate operative friends assured me I could approach this clerk and gain access to the private rooms of the treasury building, as this official was intimately knowledgeable as to the villainies being performed there and with the individuals working within these rooms directly involved with those traitorous practices. My Confederate associates also felt confident I could secure from the clerk a letter of introduction to one occupying a supreme position within the Federal government. Indeed, I obtained this letter, and when the name of the highly placed Federal official was named by the clerk, it caused me great astonishment.
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