NOVEMBER 6, 1864:
The Camp Douglas Conspiracy:
One of the grand ironies
of the Civil War was each side’s
well-nigh unshakeable commitment to the idea that the other side also believed
in its cause. President Lincoln fervently felt that most Southerners would
ultimately reassert their allegiance to the United States (and although he was
bitterly disappointed in this during the war time and again, events did prove
him correct).
A
far more unlikely belief was the Confederacy’s, that large masses of
Northerners supported their cause. While it is true that most Northerners were
not abolitionists and while it was true that (at least in the war’s earliest
days) many in the North were equivocal about secession, the government in
Richmond, time and again, badly misread the Unionist mindset. Throughout the war, Richmond tried to cajole
and compel the Border States into joining the Confederacy. Even as late as
November 1864, it remained an idee fixe of
Jefferson Davis and his Cabinet that a massive Northern fifth column existed.
In truth, most pro-Confederate Northerners had long since moved South, and
those that remained were either (1) people who wanted reunification of the
country as the United States on any
terms or, (2) put simply,
crackpots.
Jacob
Thomas was the Confederate Commissioner in Toronto, Canada, ostensibly a consul
of sorts, but in actuality he had been acting as Richmond’s Director of Terror
Operations. Among the targets were New
York, Chicago, and other major Northern cities.
One
of Thomas’ agents, Captain Thomas Hines, came to Thomas with an audacious idea:
Hines
believed he could raise a force of about 5,000 Confederate sympathizers from
the Sons of Liberty and Knights of The Golden Circle chapters in and around
Chicago. Hines planned to use this force
to free the several thousand Confederate prisoners being held at Camp Douglas.
Hines
then intended to arm the Camp Douglas inmates. With this anticipated force of approximately
10,000 fighters, Hines intended to seize the city of Chicago, raise the Rebel
Flag, and declare the establishment of a “Northwestern Confederacy” which would
then declare war on the United States in tandem with the Southern Confederacy.
All
this was planned for Federal Election Day. The idea was to disrupt the Federal
election in Lincoln’s home State, demonstrate the weakness of the Federal Union,
and create a groundswell of secessionism in the North. Hines’, Thomas’ and
ultimately Davis’ hopes were that the Union would fracture into a number of
localized nations, and that the Confederacy could then dictate peace terms to (and,
not incidentally, economically dominate) the several new nations.
There
were serious problems with Hines’ plan:
First,
Chicago was a major center of Unionism and was not likely to become the
epicenter of the anticipated “Northwestern Confederacy” just by being even
impolitely asked. The city was also a major staging area of the war, with tens
of thousands of Federal troops and tons of war material being moved in and out
of the city on a daily basis. Hines ignored this pointed fact in his
presentation to Thomas.
Second,
the men at Camp Douglas were hardly in fighting trim. Like most Civil War
prisoners of war, many were badly malnourished and many more were ill. At best,
perhaps only a thousand men, if that, would be able to join Hines’ Confederate
coup. Hines either ignored this fact or did not take it into account when
planning the uprising with Thomas.
Third,
Hines had more than a little trouble recruiting his 5,000 Sons of Liberty and
K.G.C. fighters. As of August, he had exactly 25 untrained, ill-disciplined men
--- mostly thieves, cutthroats and pickpockets from Chicago’s evil slums --- to
stage his revolution.
After
the Democratic National Convention in August, Hines apparently cancelled his
planned putsch, but his would-be recruits
continued to talk about it. Word of the planned coup finally reached the ears
of Union military officers.
On
this day, a Union detail raided the home of Charles Walsh, leader of the Sons
of Liberty. They discovered a small cache of guns and ammunition, which Walsh
claimed were his private property.
Nonetheless,
Walsh was arrested and interrogated. Under pressure (and probably tortured) he
gave up the names of several other Sons of Liberty including Illinois Circuit Court Judge
Buckner Stith Morris, treasurer of the group. 106 men were ultimately arrested,
including a half-dozen or so P.O.W.s from Camp Douglas. A few more arms caches
were found. Chicago was placed under Martial Law for the duration of the
Election Day process, and polling places were patrolled by armed Union soldiers
(this may have been done to intimidate many Copperheads into not voting). The
few score men actually charged with anything were confined to Camp Douglas for
the remainder of the war. None of the “revolutionaries” ever came to trial.
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