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Towards Confederation
Influence of the American Civil War
Excerpts from Confederate Operations in Canada and New York
Source: Confederate Operations in Canada and New York by John Headley, The Neale Publishing Company, 1906.
Captain Thomas Hines was the first Confederate officer chosen by Confederate president Jefferson Davis for service along the northern borders. An account written in the third person was published in the Southern Bivouac as follows:
"In March 1864, Mr. Davis determined to send into Northern territory some Confederate officers who should especially undertake to effect the release of Confederate prisoners. Hines was given authority to collect and organize, for the accomplishment of his mission, all of the Confederate soldiers then in Canada, most of whom were themselves escaped prisoners. He was to be in active command of any force so created, but was subsequently ordered to report to and receive general instructions from the commissioners who… reached Canada in May (1864)."
A report of some Confederate agents appointed for "special duty in Canada":
"The Queen's Hotel where we stopped fronted on Toronto Bay. It may be said we found Confederate headquarters here at this hotel… There was everything in the prospect at Toronto to make a sojourn enjoyable. The leading newspapers of Canada were published here and the South got a friendly comment on the course of events."
A report by Captain John Y. Beall whose attempt to rescue Confederate prisoners from Johnson's Island in Lake Erie failed. From a letter to the editor of a Canadian newspaper that had criticized his conduct:
"Immediately on my arrival in Canada I went to Colonel Thompson at Toronto… He informed me of a plan to take the "Michigan" (14 guns) and release the Confederate officers confined at Johnson's Island… We arranged our plans… I came to Windsor to collect men… On Monday morning we started… Off Kelley's Island I seized the "Philo Parsons"… When the "Island Queen" came up we took her… I then started to attack the "Michigan," when seventeen of my twenty men mutinied… This necessitated my turning back…"
In a further communication to a Canadian journal Captain Beall defends his conduct:
"Mr. Editor: You condemn the conduct of those who captured the two steamers on Lake Erie as infringing the laws of Canada… The United States is carrying on war on Lake Erie against the Confederate States… The Confederates clearly have the right to retaliate, provided they can do so without infringing your laws… This did not infringe your laws… This attack was matured and planned to be carried out in the United States; there was not a Canadian, or any man enlisted in Canada… No act of hostility was carried out on Canadian waters or soil…"
Lieutenant Young leads the St. Albans Raid:
"A profound sensation was created all over the United States and Canada on the morning of October 20, 1864. The papers published the particulars of a raid upon St. Albans, Vermont, by a band of Confederate soldiers. It appeared that the attack was made by a party under the command of Lieut. Bennet H. Young of Kentucky. The town had been fired upon, several citizens had been shot in the melee, and a large sum of money taken from three of the banks. The guerillas had been chased by the citizens… (at the border) The party at once donned their citizens' clothing… dispersed and proceeded on foot to Canada… Young and his comrades preferred to await their fate in the courts of Canada, since their extradition had been demanded by the Government of the United States."
