This year, growing desperation in the Confederacy led to agents in Canada plotting to invade the northwestern (now Midwestern) U.S., specifically the states of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. It was hoped that Confederate sympathizers in these states would help spark massive uprisings, which would force the Lincoln administration to sue for peace.
The conspirators expected help from the Sons of Liberty, a clandestine organization of about 300,000 members “sworn to oppose the unconstitutional acts of the Federal Government and to support states’ rights principles.” The group was strongest in the Northwest, but only a fraction of its membership actually accepted money from the Confederates to help.
The uprisings had to be postponed twice due to lack of coordination, and they were finally scheduled to begin in late August. They were to start with a raid on Camp Douglas in Chicago, which housed some 10,000 Confederate prisoners of war. The prisoners would be freed and armed from local arsenals, and the raiders would then disrupt the Democratic National Convention taking place in Chicago in late August. The operatives estimated that with Copperheads and the Sons of Liberty joining the cause, they should have 50,000 raiders moving through the Northwest within 10 days.
Captain Thomas Hines, who had served under John Hunt Morgan, and about 60 Confederate operatives came to Chicago to launch the movement. However, Colonel Benjamin J. Sweet, commanding Camp Douglas, learned of the plot while censoring mail. He strengthened his garrison and allowed prisoner John T. Shanks to escape. The Federals followed Shanks and arrested several members of the plot. Those not arrested aborted the raid.
The press sensationalized the plans based on rumors and innuendo. One newspaper article described what could have been caused by such a raid: “The country through which they bent their way would be devastated by pillage, incendiarism, rapine and all the horrors which can be imagined.”
Bibliography
- Robbins, Peggy (Patricia L. Faust ed.), Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War. New York: Harper & Row, 1986.
- Time-Life Editors, Spies, Scouts and Raiders: Irregular Operations. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1983.