Biography
Reuben T. Durrett, acting editor of the Louisville Courier, was arrested by military authorities in Kentucky about September 19, 1861. Officials alleged disloyalty and treasonable editorials. He was confined at Fort Lafayette and subsequently transferred to Fort Warren. A December 5 release order was followed by actual release December 9, 1861 after an allegiance oath. The approximate arrest day is retained in prose rather than entered as an exact date. The cited account records administrative wartime detention and supplies no criminal conviction. Source: Official Records, series II, volume II, section 1, printed pages 805, 806, https://archive.org/details/cu31924079570242/page/n820/mode/2up. His name also appears among the October 8, 1861 prisoner remonstrance signers reproduced in American Bastile (1869), printed pages 666-667, https://archive.org/details/americanbastile00marsgoog/page/n683/mode/2up.
Sneed’s formal return dates the executed arrest of Durrett, Morehead and Barr September 19, 1861. Durrett’s own December 3 letter describes seizure after midnight on September 18, consistent with the overnight operation, and arrival at Fort Lafayette September 25. The Lafayette admission is not inserted as admission to the later Fort Warren case. Former Courier assistant editor Randall’s affidavit says Durrett wrote several editorials but did not write the particularly disputed article “Once More”; this defense is attributed testimony. Durrett reported poor Lafayette food and bedding, inadequate clothing, an overcrowded voyage, family illness and financial hardship, while saying Warren’s officers had improved his treatment. Prentice appealed for his release because his wife was gravely ill. His signed December 9 allegiance oath corroborates the actual release already recorded. Source: Official Records, Series II, Volume II, section 2, printed pages 811–823, https://archive.org/details/cu31924079570259/page/n17/mode/1up.
