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.