Chapter 7

Sterling Price would never have invaded the State of Missouri in the fall of 1864, had it not been to give all the aid and assistance the rebellion could afford, to the conspiracy just then ready to break loose, and this explains the position that Hood occupied for nearly two months in Northern Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee. He would never have placed himself in such a position, had it not been deemed absolutely necessary by the Richmond Government, that his army should be placed where upon the breaking out of the conspiracy he could exercise a great influence over its prospects of success. To further the objects and views just stated, Jacob Thompson, of Miss., formerly Secretary of the Interior under Buchanan's administration, was made a secret agent for the Rebel Government in the Canadas, and two hundred and fifty or three hundred thousand dollars in specie, or its equivalent, was placed in his hands by the Rebel Government, for the purpose of arming and equipping any expedition he might place on foot from British America, for the injury of the inland or ocean commerce of the United States, or harrassing its Northern borders, and particularly for the release of the Rebel prisoners of war at Camp Douglas and Johnston Island, and from the beginning of Mr. Thompson's services in Canada, we may date all the regularly organized and officered expeditions from British America against the United States. Chief of all these expeditions were the two attempts, during last year, to release the prisoners of war at Camp Douglas, near Chicago, Ill., and the two different attempts to capture the steamer "Michigan" (a United States vessel of war stationed on Lake Erie, carrying eighteen guns), and release the prisoners on Johnston's Island. All four of these expeditions failed totally in the objects for which they were organized, mainly by some friendly parties having put the military authorities on their guard soon enough to enable them to defeat the attempts, and in some instances to capture the parties concerned in them.

To aid Mr. Thompson in his nefarious efforts in Canada, several officers of various ranks were detailed from the Rebel army, by the Richmond government, most prominent among these were Col. St. Leger Grenfell, an Englishman of great military experience and daring, and Capt. T.H. Hines, a young officer, who having been one of Gen. John A. Morgan's pets, was recommended by him for the position he held in Canada, but who was possessed of no more than ordinary military talents or genius, unless his shrewdness in getting other and better persons involved in difficulty, and condemned either to prison or death, and getting himself out, evidenced military prowess. In connection with these men, were a great many citizens, of both the United States and the South, who while they were not authorized to act in any way by the Rebel government, yet showed their zeal in the cause of the rebellion, by aiding and advising with Mr. Thompson, and advising and exhorting all the rebel soldiers in Canada, and the refugees from the Northern States, to take an active part in the different schemes there on foot, to harass the northern border of the United States. The most prominent of this class were George N. Sanders, C.C. Clay, formerly Representative in the United States Congress from Alabama, Col. Steele and Daniel Hibber. There was still another secret agent of the rebels on special duty in Canada, viz., Judge Holcombe of Virginia, who was sent there for the purpose of secretly establishing agencies for the returning of rebel soldiers, who desired to go South. However much Mr. Holcombe's mission removed him from military matters, he nevertheless approved of the different expeditions which were then being organized, and did more perhaps, than any one else, to cause the irritation now existing between the Canadians and the citizens of the United States. His policy in establishing agencies in Canada, was to get some prominent and influential citizens of the country who sympathized with his government, to act as agents to furnish rebel soldiers who had escaped to Canada, and who desired to return South, with all the necessary clothing, rations and money, &c., to enable them to go to Montreal or Quebec, where there were regularly established rebel agencies, who upon the arrival of such soldiers so furnished with money, for all the money so advanced, with perhaps interest, was returned. In this way Mr. Holcombe enlisted, besides the feelings, the interests of a great many prominent business men, whose means had been advanced to rebels, and all along the Grand Trunk and Great Western railway, in all the principal towns and cities, he succeeded in establishing such agencies, which although at first intended only for those who were rebel soldiers, finally became nothing more than recruiting rendezvous for the rebel army, which all the skedadlers, refugees from the Northern and Border States who wished to join the Southern army, were received, fed, clothed and quietly transported to the South. Upon the departure of Mr. Holcombe south, his business was turned over to C.C. Clay, who after that acted in this capacity. It was during Holcombe's stay in Canada, that the speculative brain of George N. Sanders, first originated the great humbug of the Niagara Falls peace conference, at which there was but one rebel official, and he was not authorized to act in any such capacity. But the speculative Sanders, having lived like Barnum nearly his whole life, upon humbugs, made his last and greatest effort to humbug the American people, into the belief that the Southern people really desired peace, and that he Clay and Holcombe, although not regularly authorized by the Rebel government, still could speak for and influence the Southern people. While in reality the whole conference was nothing on the part of Sanders & Co., but the last act of a desperate political gamester, who ventured his all upon one last throw of dice, to win or lose it all. If Sanders, Holcombe, Clay and others, could have made the people of the North believe the South really desired peace, and that the only obstacle in the way was the obstinacy of the General Government, which did not desire it, but wished to annihilate the Southern people, they could have materially affected the then coming Presidential election in the North, and perhaps elected a Democratic president, who would have added to the disasters then affecting the country--general and complete ruin. The election of such a man as Gen. McClellan, at such a time, and professing such principles as actuated the Democratic party at that time, would have insured to the South her independence, rather than further war and a dismemberment of the Union. All this these parties professing to represent Southern opinion well knew, and had they been successful, would have reaped a rich political reward. Having endeavored to give a correct outline of the characters of the rebel leaders in Canada, and the different spheres in which they acted, it is now necessary to give some idea of the different classes of individuals who were led by such men, and prompted by them to undertake the many hair-brained expeditions, which they first plotted and started. These persons are rightfully and very expressively divided into four different and distinct classes: 1st. The Rebels. 2d. The skedadlers. 3d. Refugees. 4th. Bounty jumpers and escaped criminals. The term rebel is applied only to persons who have been or are connected with the rebel army, and they again are subdivided into two classes; first, those rebels who have gone to Canada as a means of escape to the South; and, secondly, those who, having been accustomed to easy and luxurious living in times of peace, and having become thoroughly disgusted with service in the army, where they were subjected to strict military discipline, sought in Canada an asylum from compulsory service of both parties. 2d. Skedadlers, as they are called, are those persons who having been drafted, or seeing a possibility of it, in the United States army, had fled to Canada to avoid the service. This class consisted mostly of fast young men, having either their own or the pockets of their parents well lined, and accustomed to live without labor of any kind, were not disposed to take a part on either side which would subject them to the inconveniences, hardships or privations of a soldier's life; and partly of persons who, while they sympathized with the rebellion, still did not care to make their precious bodies targets for the sake of upholding the principles which they professed to entertain. 3d. Refugees, or persons who, for the sake of expressing their opinions and feelings against the government, without fear of imprisonment, had removed to Canada where they could vent their spleen and malice against all things connected with the United States, and vaunt their pernicious principles under the protection of the outstretched paw of the British lion. 4th. Bounty jumpers and criminals who could not be pursued and brought back to this country for punishment under the existing extradition treaty between the United States and Canada. This last class exceeds by far all the others in point of numbers, and the low degree of infamy to which they are reduced--rebels, skedadlers, refugees and bounty jumpers, with a mixture of escaped criminals, forming an almost indescribable mass of people, from all nations, all climes, and of almost every imaginable description, and chiefly distinguished for being more frequently found in the bar-rooms, billiard saloons, gambling halls, &c.

CHAP. XI.

THE FIRST ATTEMPT TO RELEASE THE PRISONERS OF WAR AT CAMP DOUGLAS--THE CHARACTER IN WHICH THEY CAME--UNDER THE LEAD OF CAPT. HINES--THE REASONS WHY THEY FAILED TO EFFECT THEIR OBJECT--REBEL OFFICERS AND SOLDIERS DRILLING COPPERHEADS IN SOUTHERN ILLINOIS AND INDIANA.

It is the writer's intention to speak first of two expeditions to Chicago, for the release of the prisoners confined there. The first of these took place during the Chicago Democratic Convention, when it was hoped that the rebels from Canada and their sympathizers from Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois, who came armed to assist them in their projects, would be enabled to go quietly into the city without fear of detection, in the vast crowds who were then assembling there, from all parts of the United States, and under the guise of friendly visitors, were to be ready at a moment's notice whenever their leaders called upon them to spring out before the people in their true light, and effect the release of those rebels confined at Camp Douglas. As early as the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth of August last, at the request of Jacob Thompson, secretly and quietly circulated all through the Canadas, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, all the Rebels, Skedadlers, Refugees, and others who could be relied upon to take part in the expedition, began to assemble in Toronto, Canada West, at the different hotels and boarding houses; of these, at that time, it was generally reported that there were about three hundred; but so far as positive evidence goes, out of this number only about seventy-five men were induced to join this expedition and go to Chicago. At Toronto the objects of the expedition were made known to nearly all of them, and arms furnished them--_arms manufactured in New York city and shipped to Canada for that express purpose_. The details of the affair were only known to a few of the leaders, who maintained the strictest silence upon the subject, and enjoined upon the men the most implicit obedience to their orders, pledging themselves for their safety and the feasibility of their plans. On the nights of the twenty-sixth, twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth of August, these men began to leave Toronto, by all the different routes leading to Chicago, in squads of from two to ten, and began to arrive at the Richmond House in that city, as early as the Saturday before the Convention. They were all pledged to fight to the last, and never under any circumstances surrender, as their lives would be forfeited, if caught. The whole expedition was under the charge of Capt. Thomas H. Hines, who had a commission as Major-General in the Rebel army, to take effect and date from the release of the rebel prisoners of war at Rock Island or Camp Douglas. Hines is the person who is said to have effected the escape of General John H. Morgan himself, and others from the penitentiary at Columbus, Ohio, and although it is not generally known in the North or South how Morgan escaped, and there not being one word of truth in his report, he has enjoyed for a long time the reputation of having been the author of it, and of being a desperate shrewd character. The real facts in the case were (and it does not do the service of the United States much credit to mention them,) that General John H. Morgan "_was bribed out_." It was absolutely necessary however for General Morgan to make some report of his escape to the public, that would hoodwink the United States Government and save the officers, whom his friends in the North had bribed to let him out, from punishment by the authorities, and therefore a very romantic tale was made up, and Morgan's pet _Capt. Hines_, was made the hero of it; and it was the object of the rebel government in sending Hines to Canada to give an air of truth to this romantic tale, to secure the United States officials who have failed in their duty to their country. Hines was assisted in his efforts by Col. St. Leger Grenfel an English adventurer of great military experience, personal bravery and daring, who has had a romantic connection with nearly every important war in America, Europe, Asia and Africa for the past thirty years, and served in the Southern army with the rank of Col., as Adjt.-Gen. to Morgan, and afterwards on General Bragg's staff; but who pretended to have resigned his commission in the rebel army and was living quietly in Canada; also by one Capt. Castleman of Morgan's command, from Kentucky, who acted as Quartermaster of the party, and about seventy-five, rank and file, (nearly all of whom were officers) of the rebel army from Canada. These men were to be met here in Chicago by parties from nearly all the middle, western and border States, who came armed like themselves and for the same purpose. Of those citizens who came to Chicago, armed and ready like the rebels, there were over a thousand persons organized and officered, camped in this city, just waiting for the command, and there were in the vast throng then assembled in Chicago five or six thousand, who, while they would not attach themselves to any organization, and were afraid to risk the first attempt, yet if the first attempt had been successful they would have joined the others in their work of devastation and destruction. The above is most too low an estimate of the number of these malcontents who did not join any military organization, but would have eventually joined if it had been successful; for rebel officers have been heard to say in Canada, after the Convention was over, that if they could have "_started the thing right,_" they would have had an army of twenty-five thousand in a week. With such a force, or even a force of ten thousand, in possession of the city of Chicago, almost every city and large town where there were many Democrats, and where the Sons of Liberty, the Illinois Societies, Illini, &c., had full sway in Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio and Illinois, were to raise the insurrectionary cry, and endeavor to bring all peace men and Democrats under their banners. They were also to endeavor to maintain themselves in their respective neighborhoods, districts, States, etc., were to seize upon all the railroads and public buildings, and in the event they were not strong enough to hold all the country, they were to rally around the liberated rebels and their friends at Chicago, Camp Chase, Camp Morton, and other places, after destroying all the public works, railroads, etc., that would be of any service to the Government, in following them up, or baulking their movements. In the meantime, however, the military authorities in Chicago had not been idle, and the rebels and their abettors looked with dismay upon every fresh arrival of troops and artillery, as it was reported in their headquarters by spies, who had the temerity to go to the observatory just opposite the camp, from which they could see almost all over it, and send up hourly reports of everything taking place inside.

They not only had their spies, one might almost say, in Camp Douglas, but in the telegraph offices, and were in or so near Post Headquarters, that they were able to chronicle nearly every event of any importance to them, that transpired, in any of those places.

On the third day of the Convention, it was announced from rebel headquarters at the Richmond House, that the expedition was a failure, that owing to the precautions taken by the military authorities, and the non-arrival of a thousand or two of other Copperheads, who had promised to be in Chicago, ready to assist in the undertaking, and owing to the want of sufficient discipline and organization among the Copperheads, who were on hand, that an attempt at that time upon the garrison of Camp Douglas would involve the destruction of the lives of too many prisoners, and perhaps the killing and capturing of all those who made the attempt to release them. As soon as it was generally known among the rebels that they had failed in attaining the objects for which they came to Chicago, Col. Grenfell and Capt. Castleman made their appearance among them, and stated that it had been generally agreed upon that all who were willing should go to Southern Illinois and Indiana, to drill and organize the Copperheads for the coming struggle, which they thought would take place very soon, or in other words, as soon as Gen. Lee should have Gen. Grant's army in full retreat towards Washington city, or should have inflicted some other almost irreparable disaster upon the Union arms, which event both they and the Copperheads with them, were not only wishing to take place, but confidently expecting every day; that they with Hines and others were going home with some delegates to the Convention, where they could live quietly and work to a great advantage. On the fourth day of the Convention, the men and officers were paid various sums from twenty to one hundred dollars, and it was left to their option whether they would go to Southern Illinois, Indiana, or return to Canada. Some fifteen or twenty went to Canada, and about fifty went to Southern Illinois and Indiana. Thus ended the first attempt to release the rebel prisoners of war at Camp Douglas. It was certainly a bold movement, both on the part of the rebels, who exposed themselves to such great risk of suffering a disgraceful and ignominious death, and the citizens who aided them in their nefarious designs. But it seemed that an angel of an all-seeing Providence stretched its protecting wings over the fair city, which was doomed by the rebels and their friends at the North first to see and feel the demoralizing influence of an insurrectionary force. What expression, or what degree of contempt is most appropriate for the citizens connected with these rebel efforts;--persons owing a true and faithful allegiance to the Government, yet aiding and abetting its public enemies, persons who while professing a common fealty with their fellow citizens, would welcome to their homes incendiaries, and incite them to murder and plunder those very fellow citizens, and compel them to suffer all the horrors of a cruel warfare! No epithets that human ingenuity could heap upon them would be too harsh, or too undeserved, no contempt too humiliating for a people so devoid of honesty and all the qualities essential to render them prosperous and happy.

CHAP. XII.

SECOND ATTEMPT--HINES IN COMMAND AGAIN--COPPERHEADS AGAIN TO BE THE MAIN FORCES TO BE RELIED UPON--REBEL GENERALS TO TAKE COMMAND OF THE RELEASED PRISONERS AND THE INSURRECTIONARY FORCES--THE DAY OF THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION APPOINTED AS THE ONE MOST PROPER FOR THE UPRISING--THE CAPTURE OF SOME OF THE REBEL LEADERS AND THEIR SYMPATHIZING FRIENDS.

At the time the rebel officers and soldiers left Chicago, after the Convention, none of them had any idea of ever coming back again, except Capt. Hines and a few of the leaders who consulted with him. He was shrewd enough to see that any effort at that time would be fruitless, and determined, so far as possible, to have all the Copperheads who would assist him in any second affair of the kind, drilled and organized, and men able to render effective assistance. It was for this purpose that he, with his comrades, went to Southern Illinois and Indiana with cavalry and infantry tactics and all the appliances for instructing others in military matters. The conspirators having failed at Chicago during the convention to make their starting point, having failed to make the great bonfire, which was to be the signal for thousands of others not quite so large, to burn up brightly from almost every hill-top in Ohio, Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois, it was necessary for their leaders to meet again, and determine upon a new programme. It appears that they did meet again, and again the starting-point of the whole conspiracy was the release of the rebel prisoners of war at Chicago, and from facts brought to light by the evidence before the great military commission held in Cincinnati, Ohio, the plan of operations was nearly the same as that of the first. The prisoners being released at Chicago, those at Johnston's Island, Camp Morton, Camp Chase and other places were to be released by their friends, and then all were to be immediately placed under the command of rebel generals sent here for the purpose of heading the rebellion, when it once broke out. This may seem like fiction to some; the idea of rebel generals being here in the North for the purpose of aiding and taking the lead of the conspirators; but it is nevertheless true, as disclosed by one of the prisoners taken at Chicago; and it also appears that these generals had several states partitioned off into districts and departments, of which, each department commander was to have exclusive control.