Confederate Agent: A Discovery In History by James D. Horan

Confederate Agent: A Discovery In History by James D. Horan

Author:James D. Horan [Horan, James D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, United States, Civil War Period (1850-1877), Military, Modern, 19th Century
ISBN: 9781786257093
Google: mkJwCwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Published: 2015-11-06T05:07:43+00:00


A meeting was held in September, 1864, at Toronto to plot the capture of the Michigan. Hyams was present. It was agreed that Cole was to lay the groundwork of the raid by bribery. It seems almost too melodramatic to say that drugged champagne was to be served to the captain and officers at a private dinner party the night of the raid.

Beall and twenty men were to seize the Philo Parsons, one of the largest steamboats on the lake. Passengers and crew were to be put ashore. The Parsons would then continue along her usual route until she reached Middle Bass Island. With the captain and officers drugged, Cole would shoot off a rocket from the bridge of the gunboat Michigan as a signal to the Parsons to steam up. The rocket would also announce to the Johnson’s Island prisoners that the Michigan was in Confederate hands. Armed with rifles and guns smuggled in by bribed guards, they were to storm the prison gates, protected by the Michigan’s booming guns. The escaped prisoners would march on Sandusky, capture the Federal arsenal there and “form a nucleus of an army, which could be used for greater things,” as Thompson put it in his report.

Cole set up his headquarters in the West House in Sandusky. He played the part of a young Philadelphia banker with inexhaustible funds. Through a young woman in town he managed to be formally introduced to Captain Carter of the Michigan. Night after night in the barroom of the hotel, Cole listened sympathetically to Carter’s denunciation of the Navy Department’s brass and its lack of appreciation of his naval talents. Through Carter, Cole also met the Michigan’s officer. There were rousing parties in the hotel. As Cole said in one of his letters, “sumptuous dinners, dispensed with the choicest wines.”

Carter repaid the lavish dinners with repeated invitations for Cole to spend an evening aboard the Michigan. Cole at first refused, then seemingly allowed himself to be coaxed. The Confederate was soon a daily visitor aboard the gunboat. He never failed to bring along a box of fine “segars” or a bottle of champagne.

When Cole discovered that Captain Carter knew the commandant of Johnson’s Island he hinted he would like to see the prison. Carter was only too glad to introduce his free-spending young friend to his Army friend.

Cole now divided his time between visiting the Michigan and Johnson’s Island. The prison commandant was soon receiving gifts of cigars and fine wine or champagne. It wasn’t long before he took Cole on a personally guided tour of the Rebel camp.

One can only guess the shock Morgan’s men received as they saw Cole, once a Morgan captain, strolling casually about the prison yard, arm in arm with the Yankee commandant. Cole cultivated the prison camp commandant until he was allowed freedom of the camp. During the day he lunched with the ship’s captain. In the afternoon he would go to the camp. After a few weeks the guards paid little attention to him.



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