Biography
Robert Mure of Charleston, South Carolina was a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Scotland. He was arrested in New York on August 14, 1861 on suspicion of carrying Confederate dispatches to Europe. Officials found a sealed dispatch bag and letters from the British consul at Charleston, but the case summary expressly reports no dispatches from the Confederate Congress among the seized papers. Allegations about militia service are attributed to officials rather than treated as a proven offense. He was released on parole October 17, 1861, with restrictions on entering or corresponding with the seceded states. The cited account records administrative wartime detention and supplies no criminal conviction. Source: Official Records, series II, volume II, section 1, printed pages 643, 644, https://archive.org/details/cu31924079570242/page/n658/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.
The Fort Lafayette return records admission on August 11, 1861; this is a prison admission, not a separately verified physical arrest day. It records actual discharge on October 17, 1861. Source: Official Records, Series II, Volume II, printed page 229, https://archive.org/details/cu31924079570242/page/n244/mode/1up.
Kennedy’s August 15, 1861 report explicitly records delivery that morning to Burke at Fort Hamilton and immediate transfer to Fort Lafayette, after the August 14 arrest. The return’s August 11 admission conflicts with these contemporary execution reports and is not adopted as an admission date. Mure said he was a cotton merchant carrying the consul’s sealed bag as on earlier annual European trips, denied knowledge of treasonable contents, and requested an opportunity to give a sworn deposition. On September 9 Earl Russell reported that opening the consular bag in London disclosed no ground for the suspicion against its contents; this does not settle allegations about separately seized loose letters. Mure’s October 2 letter describes overcrowding and family distress. The October 15 release instruction preceded the October 17 signed parole and physical release. Sources: Official Records, Series II, Volume II, printed pages 645–647, 656, 658–660, https://archive.org/details/cu31924079570242/page/n660/mode/1up and https://archive.org/details/cu31924079570242/page/n671/mode/1up.
