The Great North Western Conspiracy In All Its Startling Details

I >> I. Windslow Ayer >> The Great North Western Conspiracy In All Its Startling Details

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About the first of October, the restrictions upon the purchase and sale of
firearms were removed, and the trade in the city in this department became
very active.

[Illustration: COL.G. ST. LEGER GRENFELL,

"Who has fought in every clime, the man who advised raising the Black Flag
and murdering Union soldiers, and who was to have assumed command of the
Rebel prisoners upon being released from Camp Douglas, and to whom the
citizens of Chicago would have had to appeal for mercy."]

The intensity of hatred of Union soldiers, by the Copperheads would almost
challenge credence. It was a common thing to seek to embroil them in
personal altercations, and to fall upon them with violence and malice, and
it is our opinion, that in almost every case where soldiers ever became
involved in personal difficulty, the provocation came from Copperheads. We
may mention an instance in point. During the summer, a Union soldier
presented himself at our office and required surgical aid. His head was
bleeding copiously, and his hair matted with blood, and so mutilated was
he that he could scarcely speak or walk. He was perfectly sober, and
evidently a very quiet, worthy man. It was doubtful how his injuries might
terminate, but the poor fellow received our best attention, and thanks to
a kind Providence, recovered after a long and painful illness. It appears
that he was beset by a party of Copperheads, without the least
provocation, only that he was a _Union soldier_. For our act of humanity
in rendering professional aid, we were gravely suspected for a time of
being "a dangerous man," and received several lectures of censure from the
Sons of Liberty. He was but a "Union soldier," and his death, they said,
was a matter of congratulation rather than of regret.

CHAP. X

THE REASONS WHY REBEL AGENTS WERE SENT TO CANADA, AND THEIR
DOINGS--VARIOUS PLOTS OF MISCHIEF, HARRASSING, PILLAGING, &c.--THE
WATCHWORD OF THE REBELS IN CANADA.

The United States armies being continually pressed forward, step by step,
towards the heart of the Confederacy, occupying more and more of the soil
from which their commissary was but illy and scantily supplied, together
with a desire on the part of the Southern people, to let the people of the
North see what invasion meant, to make them feel and see the destruction
and desolation following our army of invasion, determined the Richmond
government, in 1863, to send its agents to the Canadas, well supplied with
money, to endeavor to foment discord, and to intensify the dissatisfaction
already existing in certain political circles, with the government, to
such an extent that it could be made available for their own uses and
purposes. Knowing that thousands of their soldiers were confined at
Johnston's Island, and Camp Douglas near Chicago, almost within twelve
hours' travel of Canada, it was the great object of the rebel government
to release those prisoners of war, and in the mean time having stirred up
and excited a formidable conspiracy in the North, particularly in the
North-West, having in view the subversion of the government, and the
securing of material aid and assistance to the rebels, and those rebel
prisoners being released through the instrumentality of the rebels from
Canada and those of the Northern sympathizers who could be induced to join
in the expeditions for that purpose, the conspiracy was to culminate all
over the North--but principally in Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky,
Missouri and New York, and effect the release of the prisoners of war
confined in the various prisons in those States. The prisoners at all
these places being released, were to form a nucleus around which all the
dissatisfied people of the Northern States could rally, and endeavor to
maintain themselves and their cause here in the North, and by rallying in
formidable numbers, to cause the withdrawal of so many troops from the
field in front, to establish peace at home, that it would materially
change the whole character of the war, and remove the seat of war from the
cotton States to the Northern States--Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri.
Upon the withdrawal of the troops in any considerable numbers from the
front, was to follow the advance of the rebel armies into Kentucky,
Tennessee and Missouri.

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.

[Illustration: JAMES A. WILKINSON, Past Grand Seignior of the Chicago
Temple of the Sons of Liberty, and one of those who brought the
"Butternuts" to Chicago "to vote and to fight."]

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.

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