CHAPTER XXIV

THE GREAT LAKES IN THE CIVIL WAR

As the northern frontier of the United States the Great Lakes, although at some distance from the decisive battles of the Civil War, were the scene of strong Confederate activity, especially in the last year of the struggle. In April, 1864, Jefferson Davis sent three men to Canada as “Special Commissioners of the Confederate Government.” They established quarters at Montreal and Toronto, and prepared themselves according to their written and verbal instructions to use in any way possible the feeling of hostility to the administration, which existed in the Northwestern states, and to organize this sentiment into definite opposition to the further prosecution of the war. That was where they began. The most daring Confederate leaders in Canada and the South had dreams of a Northwestern Confederacy which should come into being after a general uprising and should be matched by the Southern Confederacy and an Eastern Union. There were at this time probably one hundred escaped Confederate prisoners in Canada, as well as many Southern men and Confederate sympathizers who had come there when, for some reason, they were better able to serve their cause at this distance.

Talk with Northern men who visited Canada disclosed to the commissioners the fact that there was in all the lake states a large body of disaffected men who did not support the administration. These were divided into two classes: first, the members of secret societies of a political and semi-military nature, of which the “Sons of Liberty” was the leading organization; and secondly, a large number who were actuated mainly by a general weariness and dissatisfaction with the war. Especially in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois the “Sons of Liberty” had great strength. It is difficult to find out the exact figures. In the three states it is thought they may have had one hundred and seventy-five thousand members. Chicago had a strong chapter of two thousand men, which was constantly adding to its numbers. The latter class, of those who were generally disaffected with the situation, was strengthened by Mr. Lincoln’s call in July of 1864 for five hundred thousand more men for the army. Indeed, it was along this line that the secret societies did most harm. When the time for definite action came, these men were not ready to strike a blow against the Union; but the sentiment of the bodies was against volunteering, and by reducing the numbers of ready volunteers they made drafting, with its attendant discontent, necessary in these last years, after these same states had sent out so many regiments of their best sons to serve gallantly on the field.

The first project of the Confederates on the Canadian frontier was to liberate all Confederate prisoners in the North, and in this purpose their hopes centred in Chicago, for here there was a great prison with thousands of men in confinement. Camp Douglas had been laid out in the summer of 1861 as a camp for military instruction. It was located on land belonging to the Douglas estate, just north of the grounds of the first Chicago University. In this region, where stands to-day the Douglas monument, no streets were then laid out, but the whole was open prairie, save for the little University building erected four years before, and one solitary residence. The camp was first used as a military station, but in February, 1862, after the battle of Fort Donelson, it was hastily prepared for the reception of prisoners and eight or nine thousand Confederates were placed there. Temporary quarters were erected to hold them, but the barracks became so crowded that the United States regiments were obliged to encamp in tents on the prairie. During this year Camp Douglas served as military prison for seventeen thousand Confederate prisoners and furnished barracks as well for eight thousand paroled Confederate troops. In 1863 it was much improved by a thorough rebuilding which followed a season of inclement weather, when the unsanitary and crowded conditions made the men, already weakened by exposure and army life, a prey to all kinds of disease. It was in the fall of this year that many dramatic escapes were made, the prisoners taking up the floor of their barracks and digging gradually at night and during the absences of the guards a long tunnel large enough for one man to crawl through to the open land beyond the camp fence. On a dark night eight or ten men would make their way out, watching from the outer end of the tunnel to escape between the rounds of the sentinel. During November some seventy prisoners made their escape through a tunnel over fifty feet long, of whom fifty were afterwards recaptured. The next year the prisoners’ barracks were raised four feet above the ground to prevent such escapes.

It was no wonder that the thoughts of the Canadian Commissioners turned to this prison. During the year 1864, seventy-five hundred men came to join the five thousand already there, and in spite of the large death-rate that summer from smallpox and other contagious diseases, this was a body of men who, if liberated, could do great things in the Northwest.

All summer the leaders of the movement tried to get their Northern sympathizers to move, but the “Sons of Liberty” set as the first possible time for action the 29th of August, the date of the meeting of the National Democratic Convention in Chicago. At this time, and under the guise of politics, large numbers of men could be introduced into the city without suspicion and it was hoped that the sentiment of the convention would be one of strong disaffection to further prosecution of the war. Captain Hines, one of the leading agents of the Confederacy, and sixty picked men were ready to head the movement; arms had been brought into the city, and the prisoners had been notified to be ready; but the rank and file of the prospective army did not materialize. The government had got wind of the project and had sent extra troops to the city. These amounted to only a thousand men, but the convention was not so rabid in its opposition as had been hoped, and when it came to the moment the “Sons of Liberty” were not ready to strike the decisive blow, and the leaders were soon convinced that the time was not ripe. They could not count on a sufficiently large number of Northwestern men for their support, and without them they could do nothing.

The next step in the programme of the disappointed Commissioners was to capture the war steamer _Michigan_, the only armed vessel on the lakes, which was now at Sandusky, and to release the Confederate prisoners on Johnson’s Island within that inlet. The Camp Douglas scheme had been to march southward through Illinois to the support of the Southern army. The present plan was to go by steamer from Sandusky to Cleveland, capture that city, and proceed through Ohio to Virginia. The plot was worked out to its last detail. Every signal was arranged. There were conspirators in the city and on the island, and even on the gunboat itself. But the plan was disclosed by a spy to the lieutenant-colonel at Detroit, who telegraphed an instant warning to the commander of the _Michigan_, and Cole, the leader in this part of the plan, was taken. Mr. Beall, who was to bring men from Canada, received no word of this misadventure, but proceeded to execute his share of the scheme. To disarm suspicion the first of his party, a Mr. Burley, took passage on the steamer _Philo Parsons_, a merchant vessel plying between Detroit and Sandusky. Mr. Beall and two others embarked at Sandwich on the Canadian side of the river, and sixteen men came on at Amherstburg. This last party embarked in worn and ragged garments, passing as tramps who had gone to Canada to better their fortunes, but without success. Their only baggage was one great old-fashioned trunk tied with ropes. After the steamer left Kelley’s Island, outside Sandusky Bay, Beall announced to the mate in a loud voice that he hereby took possession of the boat in the name of the Confederate States. As he spoke his followers opened the trunk and pulled out a formidable array of revolvers and hatchets which they brandished about. The crew and passengers had no choice but to surrender. As the boat needed fuel Beall had it put about and headed for Middle Bass Island, ten miles from the Ohio shore and about the same distance from Johnson’s Island. Here the passengers were set on shore and another steamer, the _Island Queen_, was boarded as she came up to make her usual landing, and taken possession of with much uproar and some shooting. Her passengers were also landed after a time of suspense on their part, and she was towed out into the lake, scuttled, and set adrift to sink where she might.

Beall again headed the _Philo Parsons_ for Sandusky Bay and the gunboat _Michigan_, but when he reached the inlet there was no sign of the signal lights and rockets which were to have guided him. It was bright moonlight, and the conspirators could see the lights on the gunboat, and even the outlines of her dark hulk, but all was quiet and peaceful. Then seventeen of Beall’s men declared that they would go no farther. No one of the expected signals had been shown; Cole had evidently failed, and they did not mean to rush blindly into battle with a gunboat already warned of their approach. The steamer was brought to a stop and Beall and his assistant, Burley, urged the men on, but in vain. The seventeen men drew up and signed a formal protest, in which they stated that they as a crew would here express their admiration of John Beall, both as captain and military leader, but being convinced that the enemy was already apprised of their approach and so well prepared that their attack could not possibly succeed, and having already captured two boats, they declined to prosecute the enterprise further. Beall and his two supporters had no alternative but to head about for the Detroit River. He landed several prisoners on an island in the river, among them the captain of the _Island Queen_, and then went on to Sandwich on the Canadian shore. He and his men removed everything of value from the _Philo Parsons_, bored holes in her keel and sides, and left her to sink, while they made their escape into the interior.

This bold attempt caused great excitement on the northern borders of the United States and in Canada. The British government redoubled its watchfulness, and the United States sent detectives across the lakes to keep a close lookout on the Canadian ports. So successful was this care that the next expedition planned by Beall within a few weeks failed utterly. He was to start with a vessel from Canada, capture the American steamers in Buffalo harbor, take the city if possible, and then proceed to Cleveland and to the prisoners at Johnson’s Island. The Confederates were so closely watched that they could not even get arms or supplies on the boat.

September had seen these two attempts on the lakes. The next step was the famous St. Albans raid, when Confederates descended from Canada into Vermont, and in a half hour tried to fire the town, robbed the banks, shot at the citizens, and were gone again, leaving consternation in their wake. The whole frontier was aroused by this time. The citizens of the lakes became alarmed for their business and commerce, fearing that such attempts would paralyze trade. The convention of 1817 with Great Britain had limited the naval force on the lakes of each of the two nations to three armed vessels, neither fleet to be increased without six months’ notice to the other power. On October 24, four days after the St. Albans raid, the British were notified that the United States would now deem themselves at liberty to increase the armament within six months if in their judgment the condition of affairs should require it. Congress in December authorized the construction of six revenue cutters on the lakes, but the war was fortunately drawing to a close and no further action was taken.

The Canadian officials made up their minds that there should be no more open raids to cast reproach on the neutrality of their government, but the Confederates were becoming more desperate as the end of the struggle drew near. They had not given up their hopes in Chicago, but now set the night of election day, November 8, for an attempt on Camp Douglas. The plan of the leaders, as they afterwards confessed, was to attack Camp Douglas, releasing the prisoners, to seize the polls, and stuff the boxes until the city, county, and state were for McLellan, the Democratic candidate, and finally to “utterly sack the city, burning and destroying every description of property, except what they could appropriate for their own use and that of their Southern brethren--to lay the city waste and carry off its money and stores to Jefferson Davis’s dominions.” Colonel Sweet, commanding at Chicago, was warned of this plan by United States detectives so early that he was able to break up the conspiracy without open bloodshed. When, on November 6, the city began to fill up with suspicious characters, especially the leaders of the August gathering, and it became evident that the Confederate sympathizers would soon outnumber the small garrison at Camp Douglas, Colonel Sweet caused the arrest of Colonel St. Leger Grenfell and fourteen other Confederate officers, and also the heads of the “Sons of Liberty.” This completely broke up the conspiracy.

Two more attempts were made by the Confederates from Canada, one to burn New York City, and the other to wreck trains on the lake roads. The Confederate Commissioner, Thompson, received word in December that seven Southern generals were to be moved from Johnson’s Island to Fort Lafayette, New York. He detailed Beall and ten others to take the train and release them. They were to stop the train at a lonely place between Sandusky and Buffalo by putting rails across the track, and to secure the engineer and conductor. While Beall and a few men went to secure the money in the express safe of the train, others were to arm the generals and intimidate the passengers. The coaches were to be detached, the engine derailed, and then the Confederates were to take such money as they would need, get into sleighs, and scatter over Ohio and Pennsylvania, while the leaders drove to Buffalo and caught the train to Canada. The detectives discovered their plans, and Beall and his companion were arrested while they were asleep in an eating-room near the place of the proposed attack. When the others failed to find their leader, they hastened to escape to Canada.

Beall was tried for this and other similar deeds, and for his capture of the _Philo Parsons_ and the _Island Queen_, and sentenced to be hanged for his conduct as a spy and for carrying on irregular and guerilla warfare against the United States. The Camp Douglas leaders were also tried by military courts. St. Leger Grenfell was sentenced to death, but this was commuted to imprisonment for life in Florida, from which he escaped three years later. The other leaders received sentences of imprisonment for terms of two, three, and five years. Camp Douglas had in 1865 nearly twelve thousand men in its barracks, but at the close of the war these were gradually sent to their homes, the property was sold, and the buildings torn down.