February 15, 1863, The New York Herald
When the startling news reached the community of the rottenness and unseaworthy character of the transport vessels of the Banks expedition, some of which had foundered, while others had been rescued with difficulty and towed ashore in a sinking condition, public indignation was excited throughout the whole country against the parties supposed to be responsible for this gross neglect or wilful fraud, involving the lives of the brave troops who had volunteered to fight the battles of the Union in the distant South. A strong expression of public opinion constrained the United States Senate to order an investigation. A select committee was appointed, of which Mr. Grimes was chairman. The transactions brought to the light of day by the report of this committee are well calculated to astound the whole community; and the more so because the negotiations were, by the order of the Secretary of War, taken out of the hands of the Quartermaster General, to whose department they specially belong, and placed under the control of Mr. Tucker, Assistant Secretary of War.
Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York were each the scene of these transactions; but the largest amount of the business was done at the first named city. The dramatis personoe in Baltimore were Amasa C. Hall, who acted openly with the knowledge of the government officials and the shipping interest of that port in the double capacity of broker for the shipowners and agent for the government in the hiring of transports; Charles Coblens, a Prussian Jew, a pedlar and a horse jockey, who could neither read nor write English, and who suddenly became an extensive shipowner, chartering vessels to the War Department; John F. Pickrell, partner of Coblens in this particular business, and acquainted for nine years with Assistant Secretary Tucker, who had heretofore business transactions with him, and is the only person connected with the government who knew him before the breaking out of the rebellion; Col. James Belger, Quartermaster at Baltimore, and the Hon. John Tucker, Assistant Secretary of War. The actor who played the most conspicuous part was Hall. Hardly any vessels had been chartered at Baltimore for the last eighteen months that had not been secured through his agency, and of the earnings of these vessels from five to twelve per cent had found its way into his pocket. During that time it was well understood among shipowners, agents and brokers that no vessel could secure a charter of Colonel Belger unless she were offered by Mr. Hall. According to the testimony of Belger himself, of the steamers, brigs, tugs, schooners, ships and barges chartered since July 1, 1861, numbering two hundred in all, one hundred and sixty were chartered directly from Hall, and twenty-two of the remaining forty were owned by parties for whom he acted and from whom he received percentage; and it is the conviction of the committee that he received a broker commission from the owners from the remaining eighteen. Belger admits that Hall told him he was receiving five per cent commission on the charters effected through him. He knew it upwards of a year ago, according to the testimony of Mr. Applegate, who offered to charter his vessel directly to Belger in order to save the government the five per cent commission demanded by Hall; but Belger refused and referred him to Hall. In fact Hall had an unlimited license to charter what vessels he pleased and to pay what prices he thought proper. Belger says he had nothing to do with the prices, but merely signed the charters to give them official character. As a sample of Hall’s operations we may refer to the case of the steamer Cecil, owned by Captain Rice, who offered her to the government for fifty dollars per day. Hall gave him eighty dollars, but subsequently demanded two hundred and sixty-two dollars commission. Rice at first resisted the demand as an imposition, but ultimately paid him one hundred and fifty dollars. At the expiration of a month or six weeks Hall demanded more from Rice. The latter refused, whereupon Hall told him he was a secessionist, and he would soon show him what he would do. Rice was not intimidated by his threats, but soon found that his boat, by order of Hall, ceased to be employed, and he sold her for $5,000 to Pickrell & Coblens, who had been sent to him by Hall to purchase her because they were ready to pay the blackmail. She was again immediately employed, and she was still under charter at the close of last month, having earned in eleven months $27,000. Coblens, the Jew, purchased eleven vessels at a cost of $65,000. They were chartered, through Hall, at a cost of about a thousand dollars per day. An old vessel named the Patapsco, which had been cast off by the government as unfit for service, was purchased by Hall for $1,200, and transferred to Coblens, who hired her, through this same Hall, to our War Department for $85 per day. Coblens admitted to the committee that he had refunded $1,500 to the government which he had fraudulently obtained upon sales of horses by bribing the inspector; that he bribed three of the clerks in Colonel Belger’s office, and had some connection with a sale of damaged corn to the government. He was now a very wealthy person, rejoicing in the possession, in whole or in part, of ten steamers, three barges and eighty acres of valuable land in the vicinity of Baltimore, though but a few months ago he was a poor man. The same is true of Hall. “He was,” say the committee, “a poor man eighteen months ago, with a character not wholly above reproach; he is now rich, and fast growing richer, by the receipt of a large daily revenue from commissions upon the earnings of vessels still in the government employment. The bestowal of this large patronage almost exclusively upon him cannot be reconciled with any theory of strict integrity on the part of government officers.” So exclusive was the monopoly of this business enjoyed by Hall that it at length attracted the notice of the Quartermaster General at Washington, who called to it the attention of Belger and Tucker; but neither of these officers appears to have made any serious effort to correct the abuse. Hall, indeed, sure of the ground on which he stood, is sufficiently bold to tell the Quartermaster General in effect that it is none of his business. He says in a letter to Belger: – “The Hon. John Tucker, Assistant Secretary of War, is aware of and fully understands the nature of my business transactions with the government as an agent for the owners and masters of vessels, and I would respectfully refer to him for any information that General Meigs, Quartermaster General, may require.” This intimation put a stop to farther grumbling, and Hall went on his way rejoicing and prospering.