were rumors of threatened attacks upon it by Confederates from Canada,
though the first actual plan for a Rebel raid on the Great Lakes of
which we have any official evidence, seems to have been directed
primarily against the _Michigan_, the only Union war vessel in these
waters, while she still lay at Erie. In February, 1863, Lieut. William
Murdaugh, of the Confederate navy, laid before his superiors a plan for
capturing the _Michigan_ and destroying the lake cities. He proposed,
with a small steamer and fifty men armed with cutlasses, revolvers, and
small iron buoys to be used as torpedoes, to surprise and capture the
Union vessel by boarding and then, before news of the affair had reached
the Canadians, to send the smaller vessel back through the Welland
Canal, to work destruction along the New York shore of Lake Ontario, and
especially to the Erie Canal aqueduct at Rochester, while he himself
proceeded, in the _Michigan_, to treat in a similar fashion the locks
and shipping at Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago, Milwaukee, and the Sault
Ste. Marie, finally running the _Michigan_ ashore in Georgian Bay and
destroying her. The Confederate Cabinet approved of the scheme and set
aside $100,000 for its consummation, but Murdaugh says that when
everything was ready for a start Jefferson Davis, while deeming the
enterprise practicable, caused it to be laid aside for a time, lest such
a storm should be aroused over the violation of the British neutrality
laws as to put a stop to the building of Confederate ironclads then on
the stocks in England. Just six months later Secretaries Seddon and
Mallory suggested to Lieut. R. D. Minor, also of the Confederate navy, a
similar undertaking having for its main purpose the release of the
Confederates confined at Sandusky. The proposition was eagerly embraced,
and a party of twenty-two naval officers, who undertook to carry it out,
reached Montreal about October 21 and announced to the Johnson’s Island
prisoners, through the personal column of the New York _Herald_, that “a
carriage would be at the door a few nights after the fourth of
November.” The original plan contemplated taking passage on a lake
steamer at Windsor, opposite Detroit, and seizing her when fairly out on
Lake Erie. The prisoners were expected to overcome their rather scanty
guard, and their rescuers were simply to receive them on board for
transportation to Canada. But on learning that the lake steamers seldom
and at irregular intervals stopped at any Canadian port, and possibly
because the conspirators had ascertained that the _Michigan_ now lay in
front of the prison, a different method was adopted. Passage was to be
taken at St. Catherines on one of a line of steamers running from
Ogdensburg to Chicago, for the party, as mechanics and laborers who were
to be employed on the waterworks of the latter city. With numbers
increased to fifty-four from escaped prisoners found in Canada, the
conspirators assembled at St. Catherines armed with revolvers, butcher
knives, and two small nine-pounders, a store of dumb-bells having been
laid in to serve as cannon balls. A private named Conelly went to
Ogdensburg and paid the passage money for twenty-five men, with an
agreement that as many more laborers should be taken as he could secure.
The weapons were to be boxed up and marked “Machinery,” and the plan
was, after seizing the vessel, to arrive at Sandusky about daylight,
come into collision with the _Michigan_ as if by accident, board and
carry her, turn her guns on the prison headquarters, and demand the
surrender of the island, the reputation for humanity of the commander,
Col. William S. Pierson, being one of the factors relied on for the
success of the plot. The Confederate prisoners were to be taken to
Canada by some of the steamers lying at Sandusky, while the _Michigan_,
her crew reinforced by some fifty rebel officers from the island, was to
lay waste the shore of Lake Erie, paying especial attention to Buffalo.
But on November 11, Lord Monck, Governor-General of Canada, warned the
Washington authorities of the plot, at the same time taking precautions
to prevent its execution. Two days before, the military officials at
Detroit had sent word that an attack was to be made on the prison, and
the guard had been considerably strengthened; but Lord Monck’s message
caused general alarm among the lake cities. While Gen. Jacob D. Cox was
fortifying Cedar Point, at the entrance of Sandusky Bay, Gen. Dix was
recommending the removal of the prisoners from Johnson’s Island, so
greatly was he disturbed over the undefended condition of Buffalo,
whither he had hurried. A month later Gen. Halleck expressed the belief
that there was “no real foundation for the pretended raid,” but the
foregoing story of the preparations is taken from a letter to Admiral
Buchanan from Lieut. Minor, who attributes the failure of the enterprise
wholly to its betrayal to Lord Monck, which he charges to one McCuaig, a
Canadian sympathizer with the South.
The connection is not clear between the inchoate Murdaugh-Minor plot of
1863, and the actual Beall-Burley-Cole attempt of 1864. But the advent
in Canada, as a Confederate emissary, of Jacob Thompson, President
Buchanan’s Secretary of the Navy, probably explains the revival of the
scheme. At any rate Thompson reports to Secretary Benjamin that he sent
Capt. Charles H. Cole around the lakes as a lower deck passenger to
study the various harbors and to learn all he could about the
_Michigan_, in order to devise some plan for her capture. Cole had
belonged to Forrest’s command, had been taken prisoner, and had been
released on taking an oath of allegiance to the United States. Maj.
Robert Stiles, of Richmond, who had the misfortune to be confined in the
same casemate with Cole at Fort Lafayette at a later date, regards him
as an unmitigated villain and says it was believed that he had belonged
to both the Union and Confederate armies and had deserted from both, and
Judge Lucas, whom he once visited, entertains an almost equally
unfavorable opinion of the man who now established himself in Sandusky
and, professing to be engaged in the oil business, proceeded to
cultivate acquaintance with military and naval officers, his tactics
being based chiefly on the hypothesis that they suffered from a
perennial and unconquerable thirst. He was accompanied by a woman whom
he sometimes introduced as his wife, but who was regarded by some of the
_Michigan’s_ officers as a person of doubtful character. Cole did
succeed in establishing terms of intimacy with some army and navy
officers, and in a newspaper article of 1882, purporting to be based on
his revelations, it was asserted that he got two Confederates enlisted
on board the _Michigan_ and ten in the troops guarding the prison; but
the article contains such absurdities as an account of a visit to the
_Michigan_ by Jacob Thompson disguised in petticoats, and is otherwise
so palpably fictitious as to render it practically worthless. There are
Sandusky traditions that he won over some of the vessel’s engineering
force, with the result of disabling her temporarily, but these stories
are scouted by the one surviving officer of the ship, Capt. James
Hunter, of Erie, then an acting ensign, and they do not find the
slightest support in the official documents of the time. The naval
officer with whom Cole was most intimate was transferred to the Atlantic
coast before anything happened, on account of his habits, and Capt.
Hunter, whom Cole had tried to induce to leave the service, remembers
his indignation with the conspirator because the latter criticised this
transfer and otherwise presumed upon his acquaintance. Hunter suspected
him of being a counterfeiter.
The real leader of the enterprise, John Yates Beall, was the opposite of
Cole in every respect, being a young man of strong religious convictions
and of serious character throughout. He was a graduate of the University
of Virginia, belonged to an old family in the Shenandoah Valley, and
owned one of the best farms there. Having been wounded in October, 1861,
while serving as a private under Stonewall Jackson, he had spent some
time with a brother in Dubuque County, Ia., and on the discovery that he
was a Confederate had fled to Canada, thence returning South, and, under
a commission as an acting master in the Confederate navy, embarking in
those Chesapeake Bay privateering enterprises to which reference has
been made and in which Burley was associated with him. His biographer
claims for him the original suggestion of the Lake Erie undertaking, but
he is here without support from the official records. Beall’s operations
in Eastern Virginia caused the Federal authorities so much annoyance
that a considerable effort was made to end them, with the result that he
was captured on board a schooner he had just taken in November, 1863. He
and his companions were detained at Fort McHenry in irons for over a
month, with the idea that they should be regarded as pirates, but Gen.
Butler finally ordered them to be placed on the footing of prisoners of
war, and in May, Beall was exchanged. Returning to Richmond, he
participated in the fighting around Mechanicsville as a volunteer, but a
little later left the army, discouraged, his biographer says, both by
the neglect of his superiors and by the condition of his health. He
proceeded by way of Baltimore and New York to Canada, where on applying
to Jacob Thompson for the command of a privateer on Lake Huron, he was
told of a plan to capture the _Michigan_ and release the Johnson’s
Island prisoners, and at once volunteered his services. His diary says
that he also went to Sandusky and had a consultation there with Cole,
returning thence to Windsor, opposite Detroit, where Thompson made his
headquarters, to collect his men.
Sunday evening, September 18, 1864, Burley stepped on board, at her
wharf in Detroit, the small steamer _Philo Parsons_, which ran between
Detroit and Sandusky. He asked the clerk, Walter O. Ashley, to stop the
next morning at Sandwich, on the Canadian side of the river, to take on
three friends of his, one of whom was lame and could not well cross the
ferry. Ashley consented on condition that Burley should himself come
aboard at Detroit. On Monday morning, accordingly, Burley was one of the
passengers who started with the boat, and at Sandwich three men, one of
whom was Beall, jumped aboard. Later at Amherstburgh, or Malden, also on
the Canadian side, sixteen roughly dressed men, with an old trunk tied
with a rope, took passage. They appeared to have no relations with the
Beall and Burley party, and were supposed to be returning Americans who
had run away from the draft. At Middle Bass Island, which was the home
of Capt. Atwood, commanding the steamer, he went ashore, leaving her in
charge of the mate and Ashley, who was a part owner. After leaving
Kelly’s Island, which is about six miles from the Ohio shore, Beall, who
had been talking with the mate at the wheel, drew a pistol and declared
that as a Confederate officer he took possession of the steamer. At the
same time three others leveled revolvers at Ashley, and Burley ordered
him into the cabin, whither the passengers, some fifty in number, were
also driven, a guard being placed at the door. The old trunk was opened,
and proved to contain hatchets and revolvers, with which the captors of
the boat armed themselves. Burley proceeded to smash a trotting sulky
that stood on deck and throw overboard the pieces, together with the
rest of the deck load, consisting of iron, household goods, and tobacco.
He and Beall then took the clerk to his office and compelled him to give
up the steamer’s papers, later in the day taking also what money he had,
amounting to some $90. These events occurred between four and five
o’clock in the afternoon, and the boat had run down the lake to a point
from which, as the mate, Dewitt C. Nicholls, afterwards testified, the
_Michigan_ was plainly visible in Sandusky Bay. He was asked many
questions about her, and when it was learned from him that the _Parsons_
had not enough fuel to take her much farther, he was ordered to turn her
about and head for Middle Bass Island, where wood could be taken on
board. While she was still lying at the wharf there, the _Island Queen_,
a smaller boat which plied between this group of islands and Sandusky,
came up, having on board about twenty-five unarmed Union soldiers, who
were on their way to Toledo to be mustered out. As she unsuspiciously
moored alongside, some of Beall’s men jumped on board and took
possession. A dozen pistols were fired, and the engineer of the _Queen_
was shot in the face, but not seriously injured. Gen. Dix, who made an
official report on the whole affair, says that several persons were
knocked down and that some injuries were suffered from blows with
hatchets, one of which caused a profuse loss of blood, but this was the
limit of personal suffering inflicted by the raiders. The passengers of
both boats, after some detention in the cabin and hold of the _Parsons_,
were put ashore on the island, as were most of the two crews, a few men
being retained on the _Parsons_ to handle her. The soldiers were paroled
not to bear arms against the Confederacy until regularly exchanged, and
the civilians were required to promise that they would say nothing of
what had happened for twenty-four hours. Then the two steamers, lashed
abreast, got under way, but after going about five miles, the _Queen_
was scuttled and set adrift, after wards sinking on Chickanolee Reef.
The _Parsons_ continued on her way toward Sandusky for a time, but owing
to a failure to receive at Kelly’s Island a messenger from Cole, all the
party except Beall, Burley, and two others, weakened at the prospect of
attacking the _Michigan_ with hatchets and revolvers. Beall regarded
their prudence as mutiny, and required from them a written statement,
which was drawn up on the back of a bill of lading and can be found with
the names of the signers in Capt. T. T. Hines’s account of the affair in
vol. 2 of the _Southern Bivouac_. With great reluctance on the part of
Beall, the boat’s head was turned toward the Detroit River, and the
residents of Middle Bass, who were out burying their valuables, saw her
steaming by in the darkness, “like a scared pickerel.” On the way a
Confederate flag was hoisted, the mate, Nicholls, being required to
assist in the unpleasant task of getting it up, and there was some talk
of attacking a vessel or two that were passed and of robbing the island
home of a Detroit banker named Ives. A boat load of plunder was landed
near Malden, and at Sandwich the _Parsons_ was abandoned, some of her
furniture being put ashore and her injection pipes being cut, so that
she would fill and sink. The raiders then disappeared, a couple of them
who were later arrested by the Canadian authorities being discharged by
a justice of the peace after a detention of two hours.
Beall’s plan of attack on the _Michigan_ is not intelligible. Cole
intended to have some of her officers ashore that evening participating
in a revel, and perhaps there was some basis for the later talk of
drugged wine to be sent aboard. Captain Hunter remembers two occasions
when Cole did send wine to the officers. The prisoners knew some scheme
for their release was on foot, for Archibald S. McKennon, of South
McAlester, I. T., the present counsel for the Seminole Nation, who was
then on the island, tells the writer: “We were organized into companies
and regiments and had armed ourselves with clubs, which were made of
stovewood and other material at hand, with which to make the fight. I
think I was a captain of the organization. Anyhow, I occupied some
position by which I had information of the contemplated movement, for I
remember I had several conferences with the colonel of the organization
as to my duties, and we were in constant expectation of orders to make
the fight, which never came. It surely would have been a pitiable
affair, for the undertaking was wholly impracticable.” Capt. Hunter has
an ingenious theory that Beall intended that just as the _Parsons_
entered the Bay, she should burst into flames, and when the _Michigan_
sent her boats to rescue the passengers, the conspirators could get
possession of these and with them gain the deck of the warship without
arousing suspicion. Gen. Dix did find on the _Parsons_ some combustible
material, but he was probably right in supposing that it had been
prepared for the purpose of burning Banker Ives’s house or the _Parsons_
when she was abandoned. It looks as if Beall was trusting largely to
luck, which, as the case turned out, was overwhelmingly against him. For
on Saturday, two days before he boarded the _Parsons_, a man professing
to be a Confederate refugee in Canada called at the military
headquarters in Detroit and gave such information that the following
telegram was sent to the _Michigan’s_ commander:
DETROIT, _September 17, 1864_.
CAPT. J. C. CARTER:
It is reported to me that some of the officers and men of your steamer
have been tampered with, and that a party of rebel refugees leave
Windsor tomorrow with the expectation of getting possession of your
steamer.
B. H. HILL,
_Lieutenant-Colonel, U. S. Army, Military Commander_.
FREDERICK J. SHEPARD.
BUFFALO, N. Y.
(_Conclusion next month._)
[Illustration: Fleuron]
ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS
LETTER OF ROBERT STUART, INDIAN AGENT, TO JOHN C. SPENCER,
SECRETARY OF WAR.
[Secretary Spencer was the father of the unfortunate Midshipman Philip
Spencer, of the brig _Somers_, who was hanged for mutiny by the
orders of Captain Mackenzie. The letter is about incursions of
Canadian halfbreeds. The endorsement is by General Winfield Scott,
then Commander of the Army. It is interesting as referring to the
now almost extinct buffalo, then found in enormous herds, and as
showing the widely scattered posts of the “Old Army,” and their
various duties. General Scott’s endorsement is in a hand as minute
as he himself was large.]
Washington, _February 19, 1842_.
HON. JOHN C. SPENCER,
Sec’y of War.
SIR:
I have the honor to communicate in writing, the substance of the verbal
information I gave you some time since, relative to the annual hunting
expeditions which are made by the British half breeds of Red River, into
the territory of the United States. These keen & expert hunters usually
leave the colony in the month of June, after having made the necessary
preparations for curing the meat of the large numbers of Buffalo which
they annually slaughter. Their route is in the direction of Devil’s
Lake, & thence diagonally across towards the Missouri River, the very
region which abounds with Buffalo. From the information which I have
received on this point 15 to 20,000 of these animals are destroyed
annually by them. They also each Fall, divide into small parties and
carry off much valuable furs. The bands of Sioux Indians, who are the
possessors of this region are conciliated by presents of Liquor, &c.—and
do not consequently attempt to molest them, nor would it be easy to
prevent these incursions, if the Indians were so disposed; for the
halfbreeds usually number 300 or 400 men, well armed & united under a
species of discipline. * * * * * *
If measures were taken to put a stop to these expeditions, the Hudson
Bay Company would be cut off from their supplies of pimegan
(pemmican—ED.) (dried and pounded Buffalo meat) upon which they rely
much for subsistence; and the halfbreeds, deprived of a lucrative trade,
would soon be compelled to separate into smaller bands, and remove
farther into the North. Ohio & Michigan would then be resorted to by the
agents of the Co. to obtain provisions, and the States would be so far
benefitted in furnishing supplies, in lieu of those of which our own
Indians & Traders are now so improperly deprived.
The halfbreeds of the North are for the most part a fierce & turbulent
race, impatient of control, & so much feared by the Hudson Bay Co. that
they are said to keep in pay some of their leading men, with a view to
prevent outbreaks. They are not nearly so numerous as they have been
represented, probably not exceeding 600 to 800 men, in all, and the
white settlers, who numbered 1000 to 2000 a few years since, are mostly
dispersed. I would suggest whether it might not be well to send a force,
not less than 300 to 400 Dragoons, at the proper season, which would at
once overawe both halfbreeds & Indians.
Sir, Your Obd’t serv’t,
ROBERT STUART,
Act’g Sup’t Ind. Affairs.
_Endorsement_: When the 5 troops of the 2d. Dragoons, now in Florida,
shall join the headquarters of the reg’t., in the So. West (say in June)
the 1st Dragoons may be concentrated, or nearly so, on the Upper
Missouri, & thus furnish the detachment of two or three troops wanted
for the within purpose. Three troops would be sufficient—Mr. Stuart does
not give the southern limits of the halfbreeds. Feb. 20, 1842.
_Postscript_: Of the 1st Dragoons, one troop is now at Fort Atkinson
(Nebraska—ED.), 6 are at Ft. Leavenworth, & 3 on the Arkansaw. I still
think 3 or 4 troops of horse, say even 150 men, enough.
WINFIELD SCOTT.
_Feb’y 25, 1842._
AUTOGRAPH LETTER OF EDGAR ALLAN POE.
[Addressed to his uncle, William Poe, of Augusta, Ga. Dated
Philadelphia, August 15, 1840. Valuable for its details of plan of a
proposed new magazine, and his past connection with others.]
DEAR WILLIAM,
Owing to a temporary absence from town I did not receive your welcome
letter of the 28th July until this morning. I now hasten to reply, and
in the first place let me assure you that, if I have not lately written,
it is rather because I have been overwhelmed by worldly cares which left
me scarce a moment for thought, than that I do not feel for you the
kindest affection as well as deep gratitude for the services yourself
and brothers have so often rendered me.
Herewith I send you a prospectus of my contemplated Magazine. I believe
you know that my connection with the _Southern Messenger_ was merely
that of editor. I had no proprietary in it and my movements were
therefore much impeded. The situation was disagreeable to me in every
respect. The drudgery was excessive, the salary was contemptible. In
fact, I soon found that whatever reputation I might personally gain,
this reputation would be all. I stood no chance of bettering my
pecuniary condition, while my best energies were wasted in the service
of an illiterate and vulgar, although well-meaning man, who had neither
the capacity to appreciate my labors nor the will to reward them. For
this reason I left him and entered first into an engagement with the
_New York Review_ and afterwards with the _Gentleman’s Magazine_,
writing occasionally for [both] journals; my object being merely to keep
my head above water as regards money until a good opportunity [should
arrive] of establishing a Magazine of my own in which I should be able
to carry out my plans to full completion and at the same time have the
satisfaction of feeling that my exertions were to my own advantage. I
believe that the plans I here speak of and some of them you will find
detailed in the Prospectus, are well devised and digested, and will meet
with the hearty support of the most desirable and intelligent portion of
the community, should I be able to bring them fairly before the public I
feel assured that my fortune is made. The ambition which actuates me I
know to be no ordinary or unworthy sentiment and knowing this, I take
pride in earnestly soliciting your support, and that of your brothers
and friends. If I fully succeed in my purpose I shall not fail to
produce some lasting effect upon the growing literature of this country,
while I establish for myself individually a name which that country
‘will not willingly let die.’...