Washington, May 12, 1861
There are plenty of spies In the very midst of the federal troops here and elsewhere, but there being no declaration of war made, they cannot be treated as spies, they must be proved to be traitors to their country and dealt with as such.
At a battalion drill yesterday of the Fifth Massachusetts regiment, under command of Lieutenant Colonel Greene, a deep ditch was made in the suburbs of the City, over which the troops were exercised in charging, in order to accustom them to all the emergencies of actual service. Col. Greene and his command won much applause by their excellent and soldierly display.
The steamer Bienville, with the First regiment from Connecticut, arrived up the Potomac within forty miles of the city last night, and anchored till this morning, when she came up to the city. The regiment is under command of Colonel Tyler.
The steamer Cahawba, with the Second Connecticut regiment under command of Colonel Terry, will arrive here to-morrow. The men had a pleasant passage and are all well.
The New York Herald, New York, NY
Alfred Howe Terry
Colonel, later General, Alfred Howe Terry rose through the Union ranks as a competent officer, though never acquiring the glory or reputation of some of his peers. He led troops at the first Battle of Bull Run, in South Carolina and Virginia, and commanded the forces that captured Fort Fisher, which guarded Wilmington, NC, one of the south’s last major ports after the fall of Norfolk, VA in 1862. At the end of the war, Terry commanded the Department of the South where, as mentioned earlier, he held at least one meeting at Lange’s saloon.