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
Windsor, C.W., the United States authorities had been notified of the
expedition, and fully placed upon their guard, and if the plans of
Lieut. Col. Hill, the efficient commander of the post at Detroit could
have been followed, he would have captured the whole gang. However, he
telegraphed to Sandusky, and had Cole arrested while he was sitting at
the table, taking dinner with the officers on board the Michigan. This
effectually prevented Cole from communicating with the conspirators.
Col. Hill's plans were to let the pirates take the _Parsons_, and then
before they had time to do any damage, have the Michigan meet them on
their way to Sandusky and capture them all together, and thus relieve
the Government from any farther trouble with this most desperate band
of incendiaries. Col. Hill telegraphed to the commander of the Michigan,
requesting him to do this, and it is generally understood that the
reason why he did not do it was that the machinery of the vessel was out
of order, thus showing how well those who had been bribed had done their
duty. In addition to these attempts to capture the steamer Michigan, was
the celebrated St. Albans raid, which among others, was one of the
rebel modes of carrying the war into Africa and harrassing the northern
border.
This raid, which has become so famous in the history of this war, was
first started by a Texan, named _Bracey_, belonging to one of the rebel
Texan regiments. This man, for four or five years before the war, had
been going to one of the schools or colleges (according to his own
account of himself,) in St. Albans, and was well acquainted, both with
the city and country, in the immediate neighborhood. He gave all the
information he could, and offered to return there to get more, which
he, with one or two rebel soldiers did, and obtained all the necessary
information that would, in any way, aid them in their criminal designs.
Upon their report, on their return to Canada, the fitting out the
expedition immediately began--the money, arms, etc., being furnished by
the rebel agents in Montreal or Quebec. Of the details of this affair,
as carried out, the people have been fully advised by the newspapers,
and, to all intents and purposes, the raid has been a success, or
has operated in this manner by the winding and twisting course of the
Canadian law courts, which seem to be actuated by no fixed principles,
but wavering between the fear of the public opinion of the American
people, and their desire to aid the rebels in overturning the
government--and had it not been for the sudden turn the war has taken
in the last six months, the people along the northern border would have
been subjected to numerous other and similar raids. The St. Albans raid
was only a part of one grand scheme of the rebels, for the past two
years, to inaugurate a new mode of warfare, entirely beyond the pale of
that waged by civilized nations, and a relic of the more barbarous ages.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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