The Great North-Western Conspiracy in All Its Startling DetailsAyer, I. Winslow
History
The Great North-Western Conspiracy in All Its Startling Details
Ayer, I. Winslow
Knights of the Golden Circle; Northwestern Conspiracy, 1864
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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