Biography
George Eustis Jr. was secretary to the Confederate diplomatic mission of James M. Mason and John Slidell. He was seized with them aboard the British steamer Trent on November 8, 1861 — the Trent Affair that nearly brought Britain into the war — and held at Fort Warren until the commissioners were released in January 1862.
The return lists arrest on November 8, 1861. It lists the historical residence as New Orleans, Louisiana. It records actual discharge on January 1, 1862. The individual disposition or conditions read: By order Secretary of State. Source: Official Records, Series II, Volume II, printed page 233, https://archive.org/details/cu31924079570242/page/n248/mode/1up.
The Fort Warren return records admission on November 24, 1861; this is a prison admission, not a separately verified physical arrest day. The November 27 return separately records the prisoner’s reported arrest date as November 8, 1861; that self-report is not substituted for a conflicting contemporary record. It lists the historical residence as New Orleans, Louisiana. Source: Official Records, Series II, Volume II, printed page 154, https://archive.org/details/cu31924079570242/page/n169/mode/2up.
The primary execution reports establish January 1, 1862 as actual release from United States custody: Dimick delivered all four to E. D. Webster at 10:30am and they departed Fort Warren at 10:45am; Frederick Seward and Lord Lyons independently confirm delivery to HMS Rinaldo at Provincetown at 4 p.m.. Mason’s own February 2 account agrees and records onward travel via Bermuda and Saint Thomas, arriving Southampton January 29. The December 26 promise and December 28 transfer instruction were preliminary orders, not the executed release. British acceptance described liberation without conditions; onward transport to a neutral port was not a criminal sentence. The women continued to England and were not arrested with the four. Source: Official Records, Series II, Volume II, printed pages 1162–1165 and1241–1242, https://archive.org/details/cu31924079570259/page/n363/mode/1up and https://archive.org/details/cu31924079570259/page/n442/mode/1up.
