Tuesday, April 7, 1861: Lt. Worden boards a train in Washington, D.C. bound for Florida. He carries the special orders of Navy Secretary Gideon Welles.

Thursday, April 11, 1861: After four days of railroad travel through the South, Lt. Worden arrives in Pensacola, Fl. where he meets with Confederate General Braxton Bragg and obtains permission to deliver his orders to Capt. Henry A. Adams, Commander of the U.S. Naval Squadron at Pensacola.

Friday, April 12, 1861:  Taking the gunboat USS Wyandotte out to the Squadron Flagship, USS Sabine, Lt. Worden conveys the secret orders to Capt. Adams to land the troops onboard the USS Brooklyn  (86 soldiers and 115 marines) to reinforce the garrison at Fort Pickens. His mission completed, he took the 9:00 PM train to Montgomery, Al.

Saturday, April 13, 1861: At about 4:00 PM, the train stops at the last station before reaching Montgomery and four Confederate officers come onboard. Worden is arrested as a spy, even thought he is still in his Navy uniform. Lt. John Lorimer Worden becomes the first POW of the Civil War.

Monday, April 15, 1861: After a weekend in detention, Lt. Worden is moved to the Montgomery City Jail.  The same day, first he sent a telegram to his wife, Olivia: "arrived here on the thirteenth am detailed well  & comfortable hope to see you in a few days. " Then he wrote a longer, more realistic  letter: "I am under arrest here as a prisoner of war. I cannot tell you how long I shall be detained, but hope and trust it will not be long.  In the meantime, I pray you to keep up good spirits & a cheerful heart. I cannot write fully. Kiss the little ones for me & believe me as ever, your affectionate husband." Worden will remain imprisoned in Montgomery until November 13, 1861.

Tuesday, May 7, 1861: Secretary Welles writes to Olivia Worden in Quaker Hill, and reports that he has received a letter from Lt. Worden reporting that he has been imprisoned and is “well treated by those who have him in custody.” Welles says that Worden’s “conduct has always been that of an officer of high standing and I sincerely regret that at present there appears no way of releasing him from his unjust detention.

Wednesday, May 8, 1861: Old shipmate and family friend Lieutenant Henry A. Wise, USN, writes to Olivia Worden saying he had received her “sad note” and had immediately gone to Commodore Hiram Paulding and Secretary Welles. Both men assured Wise the matter was under control and let him believe that Worden “will shortly be released.” Meanwhile, some politicians have called for arrests of Southern officers in retaliation for Worden's imprisonment, but Welles said such action would “not be judicious.” In a line to Olivia meant to be encouraging, Wise says “and when he does get out he will be a commander with his pocket full of money, for he must be economical where he is, and then you can both go on a spree.”

November 16, 1861: Worden Released!

After having been in custody in the Montgomery (Alabama) City Jail since April 15, following his arrest by Confederate officers on April 13, on November 13, 1861, Lieutenant John Lorimer Worden received parole granted by the Confederate Secretary of War and was released from prison. He was ordered to report to the adjutant general in Richmond, Virginia, in exchange for Lieutenant William Sharpe, ex U.S. Navy, now C.S. Navy, who had been captured at the Battle of Hatteras Inlet (August 28-29). On November 14, Worden departed from Montgomery for Richmond, arriving there on the evening of November 17. He reported to the adjutant general with orders from the secretary of war to carry out the exchange. The next day, under a flag of truce, a message was conveyed to Admiral Louis M. Goldsborough, commander of the Union's North Atlantic Blockading Squadron headquartered at Hampton Roads, Virginia, onboard the USS Minnesota, to release Lt. Sharpe and send him to Norfolk in exchange for Lt. Worden. This is done and Worden’s imprisonment was officially ended.

Note: During the Civil War the two sides used the traditional European method of exchanging prisoners of war, usually one-for-one of equal rank. This partly explains why it took so long for Lt. Worden to be exchanged. There were no Confederate Navy lieutenants taken prisoner until long after the war started. One aspect of the exchange system was giving "parole" to released POWs who were allowed to return home but not to bear arms against the other side until the formal exchange had taken place. In some cases, when the capturing side could not maintain (guard & feed) all the prisoners they took at a battle, POWs were almost immediately released on parole. This was the case of Lt Worden's first cousin William E. Worden who was taken prisoner at the 2nd Battle of Bull Run on August 30, 1862 and released on September 3rd and sent to Annapolis, MD, where there was a large parole camp. James H. Worden, William's older brother, on the other hand, was taken prisoner in a naval engagement off Sabine Pass, Texas, on January 21, 1863, but was not released until March 1865. Confederate navy POWs were hard to come by plus the North was not anxious to let go free Southern men with badly needed technical skills.