He was sent back to us at Savannah.  As he came into the prison gate Lieutenant Davis was standing near.  He looked sternly at Frank and his Rebel garments, and muttering,

“By God, I’ll stop this!” caught the coat by the tails, tore it to the collar, and took it and his hat away from Frank.

There was a strange sequel to this episode.  A few weeks afterward a special exchange for ten thousand was made, and Frank succeeded in being included in this.  He was given the usual furlough from the paroled camp at Annapolis, and went to his home in a little town near Mansfield, O.

One day while on the cars going—­I think to Newark, O., he saw Lieutenant Davis on the train, in citizens’ clothes.  He had been sent by the Rebel Government to Canada with dispatches relating to some of the raids then harassing our Northern borders.  Davis was the last man in the world to successfully disguise himself.  He had a large, coarse mouth, that made him remembered by all who had ever seen him.  Frank recognized him instantly and said: 

“You are Lieutenant Davis?”

Davis replied: 

“You are totally mistaken, sah, I am -----”

Frank insisted that he was right.  Davis fumed and blustered, but though Frank was small, he was as game as a bantam rooster, and he gave Davis to understand that there had been a vast change in their relative positions; that the one, while still the same insolent swaggerer, had not regiments of infantry or batteries of artillery to emphasize his insolence, and the other was no longer embarrassed in the discussion by the immense odds in favor of his jailor opponent.

After a stormy scene Frank called in the assistance of some other soldiers in the car, arrested Davis, and took him to Camp Chase—­near Columbus, O.,—­where he was fully identified by a number of paroled prisoners.  He was searched, and documents showing the nature of his mission beyond a doubt, were found upon his person.

A court martial was immediately convened for his trial.

This found him guilty, and sentenced him to be hanged as a spy.

At the conclusion of the trial Frank stepped up to the prisoner and said: 

“Mr. Davis, I believe we’re even on that coat, now.”

Davis was sent to Johnson’s Island for execution, but influences were immediately set at work to secure Executive clemency.  What they were I know not, but I am informed by the Rev. Robert McCune, who was then Chaplain of the One Hundred and Twenty-Eighth Ohio Infantry and the Post of Johnson’s Island and who was the spiritual adviser appointed to prepare Davis for execution, that the sentence was hardly pronounced before Davis was visited by an emissary, who told him to dismiss his fears, that he should not suffer the punishment.

It is likely that leading Baltimore Unionists were enlisted in his behalf through family connections, and as the Border State Unionists were then potent at Washington, they readily secured a commutation of his sentence to imprisonment during the war.