Louis P. Stone Letter
Content Description
This collection contains a letter from Louis P. Stone (1843-1903) to Colonel Tracy describing his exploits as a U.S. Secret Service operative and requesting payment for his services. Stone was a U.S. Secret Service operative during the first two years of the Civil War. The "Secret Service," before officially inaugurated as the investigative branch of the Treasury Department in 1865, was the unofficial name for the intelligence services in the Union Army. The letter contains Stone's account of being taken prisoner by Gen. Floid [John B. Floyd] on October 15th, 1861, one hundred miles within enemy lines while on a secret expedition for Gen. Rosencrans. He escaped from Richmond on February 22nd, 1862. He also speaks of the hunt for Stonewall Jackson and the Battle of Cross Keys (1862) in Virginia, and of being captured again and held in Lynchburg, Va.
Dates
- Creation: 1863 May 3
Creator
- Stone, Louis P., 1843-1903 (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
This letter is open for research use.
Conditions Governing Use
Materials in this collection which were created in 1863 are in the public domain. Permission to publish or reproduce is not required.
Biographical / Historical
Louis P. Stone was born in January 1843 in New York to Lucien and Catherine Stone. He married Emma F. Hukill and they had one child together, Bessie P. Stone. He was a Secret Service operative during the Civil War. Before the war, Stone was a druggist in Cincinatti and would later become a hotel owner in Deadwood, South Dakota. He was taken prisoner in October 1861 by General John B. Floyd while across enemy lines and escaped in February 1862. He was taken prisoner again in Lynchburg, Virginia but managed to escape to Washington where he fell ill and borrowed money to return home to Cincinatti. Louis P. Stone died of pneumonia in March 1903 at the age of 50 in Deadwood, South Dakota.
Extent
.04 Cubic Feet (1 legal folder)
Language of Materials
English
Metadata Rights Declarations
- License: This record is made available under an Universal 1.0 Public Domain Dedication Creative Commons license. The Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library of the University of Virginia makes its bibliographic records and the metadata contained therein available for public use under the CC0 1.0 Public Domain Designation. (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ )
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from McBride Rare Books by the Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia Library on 9 April, 2024.
Condition Description
good
- Title
- Louis P. Stone Letter finding aid
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Joseph Azizi, Archivist; Charleston Baker, Student Processing Assistant
- Date
- November 19, 2024
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library Repository
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
P.O. Box 400110
University of Virginia
Charlottesville Virginia 22904-4110 United States