Poisoning the well

The following story is copied word for word from the Ocean County Emblem
– Tom’s River, NJ Sept. 4th, 1861

“One of our soldiers”

Seargent (sic) A. P. Irons, of this village, returned home from Camp Alexander, D.C., on Saturday evening last, commissioned to recruit soldiers for the war. We learn from Seargeant Irons that our friends and soldiers are all well, and in good spirits; that they are well provided for with provisions, equipments, clothings, lodgings, &c. &c. He relates an attempt made by a rebel a few days ago to poison the soldiers by throwing poison in a well.

The man was seen throwing something in the well, and on being questioned he said he was cleansing the water and at once left. The water was soon analized (sic) and found to be poisoned. So desperate, bold, and determined have these fiends become that the severest vigilence in exercised by the government and the War Departments in detecting them in and about Washington. It is supposed that there is now some two hundred and fifty thousand soldiers in the immediate neighborhood of Washington, and all eyes are turned to McClellan as the great ruling power, and as the man in whom concentrates all the skill and the zeal of an invincible commander.