Lincoln Arrests and Imprisons Methodist Preachers in Maryland

A report in the Richmond Daily Dispatch, December 31st 1861

METHODIST PREACHERS ARRESTED

The Rockingham [County, Virginia] Register, of the 27th instant, says:

We learn from Rev. Captain Rippetoe, a gallant Captain in the Confederate Army, and a most excellent member of the Baltimore Annual Conference, that the following preachers have been arrested by the Lincoln despotism, and sent either to Fort McHenry or Fort Lafayette: Revs. S. V. Blake, (formerly a Presiding Elder on the Rochingham District), Dr. J. McK. Reilley, and Fellder Israel. These gentlemen are all well known in Virginia and Maryland as pious, God-fearing men, who minded their own business, and never interfered with matters beyond the province of their sacred and holy calling.