Blood and Daring (27 page)

Not knowing Cole’s fate, Beall ordered the
Philo Parsons
closer to Sandusky where, under the light of the full moon, he was startled to see the
Michigan
‘s lights ablaze and crew standing ready on deck. Seventeen of Beall’s twenty crewmen promptly mutinied. A deal was made and the ship turned back into the lake. Most of the crew and the hostages were let off at Fighting Island in the Detroit River. The ship then steamed to Windsor. The remaining crew stole everything of value, including a piano, and then scuttled the ship.

Burley fled back to the foundry in Guelph. Beall took a train to Toronto and reported to Thompson at the Queen’s Hotel. Thompson told him that the
Michigan–Philo Parsons
escapade was front-page news in Canada and Northern states. On Thompson’s advice, Beall decided that it was time for a hunting trip and promptly left for the Muskokas, north of the city.

When informed of Cole’s fate, Thompson wrote a letter of protest to Colonel Hill, Johnson Island’s commandant of post. He argued that Cole had done nothing wrong and that it was illegal to hold him solely for being suspected of contemplating an illegal act. Further, Thompson argued, “If you can justly condemn Captain Cole as a spy, every soldier and officer of the United States coming within the armies or limits of the Confederate States could be tried and condemned as such. We admit your right to return him to prison as a recaptured prisoner, but any other punishment, in our judgment, would be against justice and the law.”
⁶²
Cole remained behind bars.

Not satisfied to stay in hiding, Beall sent an article to the
Toronto Leader
that sought to explain and justify his actions by directly addressing Canadians: “The United States is carrying on war on Lake Erie against the Confederate States (either by virtue of right or sufferance from you), by transportation of men and supplies on its waters; by confining Confederate prisoners on its islands, and lastly, by the presence of a 14-gun steamer patrolling its waters. The Confederates clearly have a right to retaliate, providing they can do so without infringing on your laws.”
⁶³

Many American newspapers used the
Philo Parsons
episode to renew their anti-Canadian rhetoric. The
Detroit Tribune
, for instance, reported in an editorial that was reprinted in the
Globe
, “These pirates have grossly violated the rights of asylum to Canada, and if our neighbours were animated by one spark of generous humour they would feel insult that has been perpetrated as keenly as ourselves, but the bitter and senseless prejudice which has warped their feelings has also blunted every sense of honour and propriety.”
⁶⁴

The bogus Niagara Falls peace initiative and then the
Philo Parsons
escapade led Union general John Dix to maintain an even closer eye on Thompson and his men. Shortly after the botched
Philo Parsons
incident, Dix wrote to Stanton, “That it is one of the chief purposes of the insurgents to advance their own cause by bringing about a rupture between the two countries through their agents and officers in Canada there can be no doubt.”
⁶⁵

Lyons was in Quebec City visiting Governor General Monck when informed of the latest border troubles and was shaken by the thought that Thompson’s actions might unravel years of his best efforts to maintain peace. He collapsed in bed for twenty-four hours.
⁶⁶
Lyons was justifiably perturbed, for the
Philo Parsons
incident had ramifications far wider than merely military. American generals and Lincoln’s cabinet questioned Canada’s sincerity and its ability to patrol its border. British acting-minister to Washington Joseph Burnley, stepping up during Lyons’s absence and subsequent illness, assured Seward and Russell that Monck was doing all he could to arrest the men responsible and to avoid future incidents.
⁶⁷
The Americans were unconvinced. Seward called the
Philo Parsons
episode “hostile and piratical” and promised consequences.
⁶⁸

In September 1864, the number of American ships on the Great Lakes was increased. From Sandusky, Major General Hiscock wrote to Stanton, praising the fleet’s growing numbers as well as the improved quality and armaments of individual ships. He noted the purpose of the action and who was to blame: “to prevent the rebels who find security in Canada from seizing steamers engaged in commerce and converting them into war vessels, with a few of which they may, if not prevented, do us
incalculable mischief.… Ex-Secretary Thompson is employed in Canada in setting on foot expeditions of the most dangerous character.”
⁶⁹

By early October, General Hooker had ordered another regiment to move north to guard Buffalo and Detroit. Dix ordered guns installed on five tug boats and sent them to guard critical ports, while extra funds were sent to expedite the construction of an armed revenue cutter fleet.
^*
The additional ships were in plain violation of the 1817 Rush-Bagot Agreement. Burnley reminded Seward of the agreement and the importance to British-Canadian-American relations of abiding by it, but Seward was unmoved. He dryly replied to one of Burnley’s letters of protest: “Any excess … which may thus be occasioned in the armament of United States vessels in that quarter over the limits fixed by the Arrangement of April 1817, will be temporary only, and as it has been made necessary by an emergency probably not then foreseen, may not be regarded as contrary to the spirit of the stipulations of that instrument.”
⁷⁰

Thompson must have smiled as he read of each Union soldier, gun, ship and dollar deployed north rather than south. His individual operations may have been failing, but he was successfully distracting the enemy. His undertakings on the lakes were not finished, nor were a number of other initiatives that would soon come to fruition.

The American peace movement, spearheaded by the anti-Lincoln machinations of Thompson and the Copperheads, had sputtered as the Union made successful military advances in 1863, but it was revived in the late spring of 1864, not by Union defeats but by the enormous prices paid for its victories. Lincoln had appointed Ulysses S. Grant his general-in-chief. Grant summoned the same determination that had earned his reputation in the west, and in May and early June fought important battles in his Overland Campaign: The Battle of the Wilderness, and battles at Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor. They were unprecedented in their
ferocity and cost the Union 55,000 casualties. With increasing numbers of Northerners questioning the price of victory and the profits of peace, hope for the Confederacy rose.

The Copperhead movement crept back into the headlines and brought Vallandigham, still in Canada, back to public attention. In February 1864, peace movement agitators Dr. Thomas Massey from Ohio and Harrison Dodd from Indiana had visited him in Windsor and brought news of the growing strength of secret organizations that were dedicated to ending the war. Secret societies had long been part of American life. The Order of American Knights had grown in the Midwest and recently changed its name to the Sons of Liberty, to claim a spiritual connection with the courageous activities of the American Revolution. Massey and Dodd told Vallandigham that the Sons of Liberty had three hundred thousand passionate members in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. They were organizing themselves into county-based military units, each swearing their lives to defeating Lincoln in November in order to end the war. Vallandigham was further told that he had been elected to lead the Sons of Liberty as its Supreme Grand Commander, from his exile in Canada. He accepted, and there were soon rumours of his beginning a campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.
⁷¹

A few weeks later, Kentucky captain Thomas Hines met with Jefferson Davis. Hines was well respected for his cavalry exploits with Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan’s brave and free-ranging regiment. Hines was a rather small, effeminate man but he showed great strength in the saddle, fortitude when captured and determined grit in working with Morgan and five other officers who tunnelled their way out of the Ohio Penitentiary. Hines had an idea. He told Davis he would work with Thompson and Vallandigham to coordinate Sons of Liberty regiments and Canadian-based Confederates to perpetrate prison breaks at Chicago’s Camp Douglas and Johnson’s Island. The new army would initiate a popular revolution to realize the Copperhead dream of ending the war and establishing a Midwest republic, with Chicago as its capital.

Davis approved the idea and Hines left for Toronto. Secretary of War James Sedden’s written orders to Hines stated that he was “to proceed to
Canada through the U.S.… collecting any members of Morgan’s command … in Canada and to employ them in any hostile operation against the United States consistent with neutral obligations in the British Provinces.”
⁷²
Hines was given access to two hundred bales of cotton, which he sold to finance his activities.

Hines met Thompson at the Queen’s Hotel and they developed his idea into a plan. On June 9, Thompson sent Hines to Windsor to meet with Vallandigham, and two days later he joined them. Vallandigham bragged about his growing popularity among the people in Ohio and throughout the Northern states, and invited Thompson to join the Sons of Liberty.
⁷³
Thompson accepted. Now that he was a member, Vallandigham was able to tell him of the 300,000 fellow members who were waiting for a signal to rise up and overthrow state governments in Missouri, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and replace them with provisional governments dedicated to peace. Thompson came onside and forwarded $500,000 from his Canadian account to bankroll the endeavour.
⁷⁴

Vallandigham left Windsor for Ohio to deliver a number of inflammatory speeches meant to build interest in the Copperhead cause and the Sons of Liberty plots. He also hoped to earn publicity by being arrested again. General Ambrose Burnside, head of the military’s Ohio Department, had arrested him the first time and now refused to offer him the compliment of attention. Vallandigham was soon back in Canada.

Thompson reported to Davis on July 1 that the uprising would begin as scheduled in mid-July. He wrote: “Though intending this as a Western confederacy and demanding peace, if peace be not granted, then it shall be war. There are some choice spirits enlisted in this enterprise, and all that is needed for success is unflinching nerve.… In short, nothing but violence can terminate the war.”
⁷⁵
Hines reported to Davis that he expected success in simultaneous prison breaks at Chicago, Rock Island, Columbus, Indianapolis and Johnson’s Island, and in the attack on Chicago that he would personally lead. Hines expected that he and Thompson would soon command fifty thousand men.
⁷⁶

Thompson began coordinating the purchase of rifles and ammunition through James Holcombe. Holcombe arranged for weapons to be secured in New York and sent to him in Montreal. On July 27, Holcombe assured Thompson that things were going well but that that he needed more money to close arms deals. His letter indicated the growing Confederate links between Canada and the North: “Our friends are here and urge the promptest measures, as the time is very brief. They have contracted for five thousand; these will cost thirty thousand in gold. No payment until they are received. Bill Canada Bank of England, payable to their order, can be cased, and should be sent in small denominations at once to New York.”
⁷⁷

On July 22, Thompson met with Confederate captain John Castleman and colonel Hines in St. Catharines. They sat with a number of men who had arranged to become delegates at the Democratic Party’s national convention in Chicago, which had been scheduled for July 1 but had been postponed when news of possible rebel trouble from Canada had leaked. Thompson was asked to forward more money and more guns.

They met in St. Catharines again on August 7. Excuses were made and more money requested. Thompson sent a coded message to Davis asking him to organize a military diversion in Kentucky for mid-August to draw Union troops south. Thompson issued a warning and prediction: “The rank and file are weary of the war, but the violent abolitionists, preachers, contractors, and political press are clamorous for its continuance. If Lee can hold his own in front of Richmond, and Johnston defeat Sherman in Georgia prior to the election, it seems probable that Lincoln will be defeated.”
⁷⁸

Thompson seemed unaware of the fact that anything he said or did was soon reported to Seward. And the efficiency of Seward’s spies meant that Lincoln was kept fully aware of the ideas and activities swirling in the interconnected worlds of the Copperheads, secret societies and what was becoming known as the Confederates’ Canadian Cabinet. Lincoln and his advisors were divided as to the legitimacy of the threats posed, but Lincoln took them seriously and so actions were taken to address
them.
^79
*
Shortly after the St. Catharines meeting, more soldiers were sent to Chicago to increase security at the convention and more troops were sent to the state houses in Indiana, Illinois and Ohio.

With delays and additional troops sapping the enthusiasm of their followers, Sons of Liberty leaders continued to try to rally their people. Sixty Canadian-based Confederates met at the Queen’s, and Hines gave them instructions, a hundred dollars each and train tickets for Chicago. They arrived on August 28, the day before the convention was scheduled to begin at the Amphitheatre. They waited for the thousands of armed and determined men that Illinois Sons of Liberty leader Amos Green had promised. None arrived. Green and the twelve thousand dollars that Thompson had sent him were gone. Many of Thompson’s men exercised the better part of valour and quietly slipped away.

From Toronto, Thompson hastily concocted a revised plan. He ordered Castleman and Hines to gather as many men as they could and to commandeer a train, cut telegraph lines and liberate Confederates at the Rock Island and Springfield prisons. The rebel force was then to burn bridges and cut remaining telegraph wires except for one, through which messages could be sent to Washington and elsewhere explaining what had happened. The plan was set but, as in Chicago, it fizzled. They were betrayed and Castleman was arrested. The others fled back to Canada.