James Murray Mason and John Slidell are imprisoned in Fort Warren on Georges Island.

The men are Confederate Commissioners to England and France, respectively. On their way to Europe aboard the British mail packet Trent, they were intercepted and taken prisoner by a Capt. Wilkes, an act that outraged the British government and nearly provoked a war with England. The two are set free by order of President Lincoln to avoid an international incident on January 1, 1862.