Note B — PRISON LIFE IN THE OLD CAPITOL
Reading edition
Colonel William P. Wood was born in Alexandria, Va., on the 11th of March, 1820, and died at the Soldiers’ Home, Washington, D. C., March 20, 1903.
He was a veteran of the Mexican and Civil Wars, and one of the survivors of the Walker filibustering expedition to Nicaragua. When the Mexican War broke out he enlisted in the mounted rifles under Sam. H. Walker, the noted Texan Ranger. After serving out his term, he returned to Washington and married a Maryland lady.
When Stanton became Secretary of War he appointed Wood to be Superintendent of the Military Prisons of the District of Columbia, and concentrated the “State” prisoners and all others in the Old Capitol, to which was afterward added the Carroll Prison (Duff Green’s Row).
Wood was the first Chief of the United States Secret Service when it became part of the Treasury Department.
At the time of his death a bill was before Congress to pay him $15,000 for his services in the famous Brockway case. Wood captured the author and secured the plate of this noted 7.30 Bond counterfeit. The work on this bond was so well executed that it passed as genuine until Jay Cooke & Co. forwarded $84,000 to the United States Treasury for redemption.