After General Schenk’s arrival in Cumberland, one of his first decisions, says a correspondent of an Ohio paper, was very characteristic. A secesh Colonel had sold his negro to the Confederate government, taking pay, of course, in scrip. The negro, employed in fortifications, managed to escape to Cumberland, where he spread himself considerably. A constable, knowing the circumstance, and wishing to turn a penny, had the negro thrown into prison as an escaped slave. General Schenck, hearing the facts, sent for the parties. “By what right,” he asked of the constable, “do you hold this man in prison?”
“As a fugitive from service.” “Don’t you know that he escaped from the service of the rebels?” “Yes, but we have a law in Maryland that covers the case, General.”
“And I have a law on which it can be decided. Col. Porter, set that negro at large and put this constable in his place.”
The astonished snapper-up of trifles was marched off to the cell lately occupied by his proposed victim. After being detained there precisely the same number of days he had imprisoned the darkey, he was set at large, fully impressed with the belief that your grim visage General was not to be trifled with.
– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, April 8, 1862, p. 2
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