He replied that it might be so, but he had no authority to hear rebutting testimony. I have now been confined five weeks, without hearing from my afflicted family since a few days after leaving, though I have written every few days.

SAMUEL H. BUNDY, M. D.,
Marion, Ill.

Dr. Bundy, as the reader will naturally infer without its being suggested to him, was one of the most afflicted men in the Old Capitol. He had, as he states in this narrative of his arrest, been torn from his afflicted family on his way home from the burial of a dear child, and was not permitted to return to give a word of consolation to a bereaved mother, or to make any provision for the other members of his family, three of whom were then sick, one of whom as it resulted, on a death bed. Day after day and week after week did this afflicted man lie in bed agonized with the thoughts of home, from which he was prevented receiving even one letter by the damnable tyranny exercised over victims of despotism by the Secretary of War. No one could look unmoved at Dr. Bundy. He knew that he had left at home three children dangerously ill, but he was not permitted to know whether they still remained in existence or death had taken them to keep company with their little brother who was buried on the day of the Doctor's arrest. Every prisoner in the Old Capitol who knew the circumstances of his arrest sympathized with him; but sympathy only seemed to affect him the more. His sensibilities were thus excited, and the wonder is that he was not driven to madness. At length, towards the end of September, Dr. Bundy, who had become almost indifferent to existence, was taken before Judge Advocate Turner-why called Judge Advocate it is difficult to say, as he is the mere servile, subservient

tool of the Secretary of War. No doubt the letters from Dr. Bundy's wife had informed the tyrants, who examined all letters to and from the prisoners, of what had occurred at the Doctor's home. Another

of his children had died, and he was not informed of the affliction. Was it to spare his feelings or to lacerate them with the infliction of still greater cruelties?

When the Doctor returned from his interview with Turner, he appeared downcast and dejected. Was he to be kept still longer in subjection? was the inquiry which rose foremost in every mind. I ventured to ask him what was his fate as decided by the subservient satrap of the War Department. He replied that he was discharged. Thank God! was my exclamation of feeling. But why, said I, are you so downcast, Doctor? He made no reply, but handed me a paper, a letter it was from one of his neighbors, which related the death and burial of another of Dr. Bundy's children. My heart swelled with the emotions excited by the circumstances of the Doctor's case, and without making any verbal observation, I handed back the letter. There was not a prisoner in the room who was not filled with indignation at the villains who had been the cause of so much affliction, and who did not sympathize with their fellow victim in his mental distress and bereavement. Every one for the time being became insensible of his own sufferings, so overwhelming were those of him who was now about to bid them adieu and return to a home deprived in his absence of a darling child.

Aud of what, the reader will be apt to inquire, was Dr. Bundy guilty-of what was he accused? He was never informed, reader, of what he was accused, and of course was not found guilty of any offense or crime whatever. Why then was he kidnapped-why so cruelly torn from his family in such trying circumstances? Go ask the tyrants and despots at Washington. They alone can answer.

DR. A. B. HEWITT AND JOHN W. SMITH, OR THE WANDERING JEW.

A FEW days after being thrust into the Old Capitol, the two secesh prisoners who were in No. 13 were removed to other quarters, and their places were filled by Dr. A. B. Hewitt, of Chatham, Illinois, and John W. Smith, of Jacksonville, Illinois, more familiarly known among the prisoners as the Wandering Jew. These victims had been for some time in the hospital, where they had been placed, not for the purpose of benefitting their health, but on account of the crowded state of the prison, which was full from yard to attic.

Dr. Hewitt was a practicing physician where he lived, and had nothing more to do with politics than to read the newspapers and talk over their contents with his neighbors and patients. He was very lame in one of his legs, so much so that it was painful to see him attempt to walk. This, of course, would not have prevented him from committing treason, if he were so disposed; but unless the proof were clear that he did commit such a crime, no one but a malicious person would accuse him of such an offense. Nevertheless, it seemed that the country was not safe while he was at large, so, early in August, 1862, he was kidnapped at his home in Chatham, Ill., and transported to the Old Capitol, Washington, and for want of room in the Bastile

proper, was placed temporarily in the hospital. On the 26th of August, he and the "Wandering Jew" were transferred to Room No. 13, where they remained till towards the end of September. No. 13 being needed about that time to accommodate some Federal officers accused of serious offences, the occupants of 13 were transferred to No. 16, which became famous afterwards as the abode of nearly all the Prisoners of State.

Dr. Hewitt whiled away his captivity in making finger-rings of peach stones. He labored as industriously at this employment as if it were his trade, and it was all that he did, for his temperament was such that when the peach stones gave out and he had nothing to do, his mind became affected almost to madness by being subjected to the treatment of the Old Capitol. Many a time did we prisoners of despotism wish that we could be seen by our fellow citizens in the condition to which arbitrary power had reduced us. Haggard in appearance, restless as caged wild beasts in our movements, and agonizing from the spirit which burned within us which felt that it should be free, we were such pictures of despotism applied to freemen as would have moved, had they seen us, the American people to emulate the illustrious example of the Parisians and tear open the bastiles and avenge outraged liberty on the tyrants who had dared to violate it in our persons. But good care was taken that we should neither be seen nor heard. Our persons were secured by guards, and our correspondence was subjected to the surveillance of the tyrants and their dependant underlings.

"The Wandering Jew," as Mr. John W. Smith was called in the Old Capitol, was an old man, of not less than sixty-five years of age, blind of one eye, a homeless, and apparently friendless wanderer. He was a native of one of the counties of Virginia,

contiguous to Washington, but had left his native State in his youth and wandered to the West, where he spent most of his subsequent life on the frontiers. He migrated to Kansas soon after that portion of the country became organized into a territory, and engaged in merchandizing and general trading there. During the troubles in the territory between the John Brownists and their opponents, he lost his property by the theft of the John Brown and Lane gangs of marauders.

This naturally soured Mr. Smith against the Abolitionists, whom he regarded with an aversion which with him knew no bounds nor duration. The immediate cause of his arrest, so well as he could ascertain it, (for he was never informed, no more than any one else so far as known,) was his inveution of a bomb for disabling locomotives while in motion without injury to the railroad trains. The object, it would seem, of Mr. Smith in this invention was to place it at the disposal of the Federal Government as soon as he had it perfected, and proper models made of it for experiment. He knew à friend at St. Louis, to whom he communicated his invention and design, requesting aid from his friend to enable him to get up a proper model, as the Ordinance Department, it appears, takes no notice of inventions whose utility cannot be practically demonstrated.

The correspondence between Mr. Smith and his friend at St. Louis was seized on suspicion of its having referred to some diabolical design on the Federal Government, and Smith himself was kidnapped at Jacksonville, Illinois, early in August, 1862, and transported to the Old Capitol. He was placed in the hospital temporarily with Dr. Hewitt and others, for whom there was no accommodation any where else, and in due time became an occupant of No. 13, and subsequently of No. 16.