lieutenant in 1840. His services in the Mexican War were unimportant and
he was a first lieutenant of the Brooklyn Navy Yard when the Civil War
broke out.

In the month of April, 1861, when a conflict was inevitable, the
Government was anxious to send dispatches to Captain Adams commanding
the fleet at Pensacola, who was waiting for orders to reinforce with two
companies of artillery, that post being in danger of capture by the
Confederates. The dispatches intrusted to Lieutenant Worden were orders
for such reinforcements to be made.

It was so delicate and dangerous a duty, since Worden was compelled to
make his way through the South which was aflame with secession
excitement, that he committed the dispatches to memory and then
destroyed them. He applied to General Bragg in command of the
Confederate forces in that neighborhood for permission to make a verbal
communication from the Secretary of War to Captain Adams. Permission was
given, and, going on board, Worden delivered his message like a boy
reciting his piece at school. Captain Adams gave him a written
acknowledgment of the receipt of the dispatches, adding that the orders
of the Government would be carried out.

Having thus cleverly eluded the suspicious watchfulness of the
authorities, Lieutenant Worden started for home, but when near
Montgomery, Ala., then the capital of the Confederacy, he was arrested,
taken from the train and thrown into prison. This was on the order of
General Bragg, who discovered how he had been outwitted, and the prompt
reinforcement prevented the capture of Fort Pickens, for which Bragg had
made every preparation. The post was held by the Unionists throughout
the war and was the only one south of Mason and Dixon's line so held.