Biography
Benjamin F. Corlies was detained on September 13, 1861.
B. F. Corlies was arrested in New York and confined at Fort Lafayette by order of the Secretary of State, accused of printing bank bills for the Confederacy. Marshal Robert Murray reported the arrest September 12, 1861; an order to release him followed September 17 and he was actually released September 18 on an allegiance oath. September 12 is the arrest-report date; no exact physical arrest day is assumed; the later oath establishes the given name Benjamin. Source: Official Records, Series II, Volume II, section 1, printed page 750, https://archive.org/details/cu31924079570242/page/n765/mode/1up.
The Fort Lafayette return records admission on September 13, 1861; this is a prison admission, not a separately verified physical arrest day. It records actual discharge on September 18, 1861. Source: Official Records, Series II, Volume II, printed page 229, https://archive.org/details/cu31924079570242/page/n244/mode/1up. The institution-specific admission recorded here does not establish the start of all custody in this case; a complete imprisonment total is therefore left unspecified.
The September 18, 1861 oath explicitly names Benjamin F. Corlies, supporting expansion of the abbreviated given name; the scan was checked visually. Partner Charles A. Macy Jr. said the lithographed banknote order was a routine $135 transaction for the Bank of Pittsylvania, received September 2 and delivered September 9, and denied any intention to violate federal law. He described the firm’s support of Union service. The September 17 release instruction preceded the September 18 oath and discharge. Sources: Official Records, Series II, Volume II, printed pages 752–753, https://archive.org/details/cu31924079570242/page/n767/mode/1up.
