Blood and Daring (25 page)

Back in Niagara Falls, Vallandigham continued his gubernatorial campaign by employing the well-established Confederate communication network. Routes from Wilmington to Bermuda to Halifax, and overland routes through Canada East and West had been used from the outset of the war by Confederate officials to communicate with Europe and each
other. Codes had been created. In a number of cities, drop spots had been established for the exchange of documents and messages. Couriers such as Robert E. Lee’s uncle, Cassius Lee, for example, lived in Hamilton and moved freely throughout Canada and the Maritimes, helping to provide the lifeblood of communications to the Confederacy.

Vallandigham soon discovered that the owner of Clifton House had become annoyed by the number of men tramping through his establishment and tired of the negative attention that his famous guest was bringing to his business. The Copperhead leader was asked to leave. On August 24, Vallandigham and his family moved to a two-room suite at Hirons House in Windsor. On the day of their arrival, the Detroit River teemed with politicians, newspapermen and admirers plying its waters to meet with the famous candidate-in-exile.

Secretary of State Seward’s spies reported on Vallandigham’s words and actions, and Lincoln and the Republican political establishment did all they could to frustrate his electoral bid. Money was forwarded to Ohio and other states with credible Copperhead candidates. Anti-Copperhead, pro-Republican rallies were organized, with the largest taking place at Madison Square Garden. Lincoln approved fifteen-day furloughs for soldiers wanting to return home to vote.

Lincoln spent much of October 13, 1863 pacing the floor, awaiting word on the mid-term election results. Finally, news arrived that Republican John Brough had defeated Vallandigham in Ohio by more than one hundred thousand votes. Lincoln was ecstatic and rushed off a telegram exclaiming, “Glory to God in the highest. Ohio has saved the Nation.”
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Copperhead candidates lost in every state but New Jersey. Vallandigham and the Copperheads were defeated but not beaten—they would be back. Meanwhile, Jefferson Davis had a Canadian trick up his sleeve.

For Jefferson Davis, the Johnson’s Island and
Chesapeake
incidents, along with Vallandigham and his Copperhead movement, offered sparks
of opportunity amid the dark desperation of the spring of 1864. They led him to wonder if the Confederate presence in Canada and Canadian sympathies for the South could be used to establish a “second front” that could operate from Canadian cities and hurt the North—irritate it, distract it, and cost it time, energy and money.
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Perhaps agents could continue attempts that had already been made to gather Confederate soldiers who had escaped Northern prisons and were living in Canadian and Maritime cities, and bring them back to active duty. Confederate agents in Canada could encourage support from secret societies and Copperheads to make Lincoln a one-term president. They could help coordinate efforts to create a separate northwest republic that could negotiate an end to the war, with the Confederacy and slavery intact. They might even instigate a Union invasion of Canada, which could lead to an American-British war with all the benefits that happy event would accrue to the South.

Davis consulted broadly and earned cabinet and congressional support for the secret second front. The Confederate Congress approved five million dollars. If the Canada Plan were to work, a special man would need to lead it. Davis and Secretary of War James Sedden and Secretary of State Judah Benjamin agreed that Jacob Thompson fit the bill perfectly.
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Jacob Thompson was born in Leaside, North Carolina, on May 15, 1810. He was a smart, witty, ambitious and ruggedly handsome man who had graduated from the University of North Carolina, taught at the university for two years, and then earned a law degree. His brother was a doctor who moved west to exploit the excitement and opportunities of the opening frontier. Thompson joined his brother in Mississippi and established a thriving law practice. At twenty-eight, he married sixteen-year-old Catherine Jones, whose father was a wealthy plantation owner. With his savings and Catherine’s huge dowry, they built a large estate near Oxford, about seventy miles south of Memphis. It soon grew to three estates that together earned them a substantial annual income.

Thompson was always interested in politics and was elected to the House of Representatives in 1835 and then re-elected four times. In 1856 Thompson volunteered to put his ambitions for the Senate aside to allow
fellow Mississippian Jefferson Davis to run. The two became friends as he helped Davis win his seat. In 1857, Thompson was plucked from private life to serve as President James Buchanan’s secretary of the interior. While working in Washington, he came to know Lincoln, Stanton, Seward and many of the others with whom he would later struggle. With Lincoln’s election in November 1860, Thompson became increasingly outspoken in his support of Southern causes, and two months later he resigned.

In 1863, Thompson was elected to the Mississippi legislature. He also served as a colonel in the Confederate Army, fought at Shiloh as one of General Beauregard’s dispatch riders and then served as inspector general for General Pemberton. In the summer of 1863, a Union regiment at Vicksburg was working just above the mouth of the Yazoo River when it was interrupted by a boatload of Confederates that floated into them beneath a white flag. Thompson was recognized and taken to a Union ship, and General Grant was summoned. Grant briefly interviewed Thompson, quite correctly concluded that he was a spy, but also that nothing of value had been learned. Grant ordered him and the others released.
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Thompson had maintained a regular and warm correspondence with Jefferson Davis, offering unsolicited advice on a number of matters. In late March 1864, Davis asked Thompson to meet him in Richmond. With Secretary of State Benjamin in attendance, Davis outlined the mission and its overall goals, but made it clear that specific tactics would be up to Thompson himself. Davis told him that University of Virginia law professor James Holcombe had been sent to Halifax in February to test the viability of the Canada Plan and to see if arrangements could be made to help Confederates wishing to return south. Upon his arrival, Holcombe had informed Monck of what he was up to, and affirmed that he would be careful to observe British neutrality.
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He got word to Confederates in the Maritimes, Toronto and Montreal, and arranged for several to get home before he returned to Richmond with the advice that Davis’s idea for the establishment of a larger Confederate presence in Canada was a good one.

Davis arranged for Thompson to have one million dollars in cash to use at his discretion. In an intentionally vague letter dated April 27, Davis
wrote to him: “Confiding special trust in your zeal, discretion and patriotism, I hereby direct you to proceed at once to Canada; there to carry out the instruction you have received from me verbally, in such manner as shall seem most likely to conduce the furtherance of the interests of the Confederate States of America which have been entrusted to you.”
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With the understanding that Thompson would lead the mission, Davis appointed Holcombe and former Alabama senator Clement Clay as co-commissioners. Holcombe left first; Thompson and Clay departed on May 3. The two ran the Union blockade from Wilmington to Bermuda and then boarded a British ship for Halifax. Thompson and Clay stopped at the city’s Saverly House, where Southern sympathizers congregated with Confederate soldiers who had either deserted or escaped from Northern prisons. There were similarly well-known spots around the Maritimes, including Hesslein’s in Saint John and Fredericton’s Barker House. Young Southern patriots mixed openly with adventurers, opportunists, prostitutes and spies.

Spies had been a part of the conflict between the North and South from the day Fort Sumter’s cannon had announced the war’s arrival. Many were efficient and provided information that altered polices and battles, while others were bumblers who were easily fooled, offered information that could be gleaned from newspapers, or simply got in the way. Many were women. All were amateurs, for no professional intelligence agencies existed in North America. As the war progressed, more spies openly walked the streets of Richmond and Washington and, as demonstrated by the exploits of Sarah Emma Edmonds, passed through enemy lines with relative ease. Spies also plied their trade with varying degrees of success in London, Paris and Canadian cities and towns.

As early as June 1861, Lyons and the Duke of Newcastle had been firm with Governor General Head and Seward in stating that the use of “secret agents” in Canada was intolerable. Newcastle told Head that he should never meet with such people and that he should do all he could to find them and get rid of them.
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As the George Ashmun case revealed, Seward ignored the warning. That American spying continued was made
evident on November 14, 1861, when Lyons wrote to recently appointed governor general Monck, warning that “a perfectly reliable source” had informed him that three parties were in Canada making drawings of fortifications and naval defences. The spies had visited Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City, and Monck was to find and deport them and all other spies he could find.
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However, Monck was as flummoxed as Head in his attempts to shut down the clandestine American activities.

Part of the spy operation involved a rapid increase in the number of American consuls in Canada and the Maritimes and their expanding mandates. Until the war, consuls had primarily handled trade issues and assisted American citizens while promoting emigration to America. In January 1862, Seward responded to a letter from Congress admitting that consuls had been ordered also to ferret out Confederate activities and report on sympathy for and assistance to the South.
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Seward’s forthright admission of his government’s secret operations drew a predictable reaction. Monck had just approved new consular openings at Kingston and St. Catharines and held a list of requests for more at small border towns.
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Seward continued to request the establishment of even more consuls, arguing through Lyons that they were needed to stop smuggling. Lyons reported to London and Monck that he knew that Seward was not being truthful.
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New consuls were nonetheless opened.

It was in the midst of this intrigue, on May 30, 1864, that Thompson and his co-commissioner, Clay, arrived in Montreal. Thompson established headquarters at the St. Lawrence Hall—a large, ornate and well-appointed hotel that offered great service, tremendous meals and a discreet staff. It was so openly pro-Confederate that it bragged of having the only bar in the city that served mint juleps. Montreal’s Donegana Hotel was home to hundreds of other Confederates. Many nearby boarding houses also became acquainted with the warmth of Southern charm. Thompson opened a bank account at Montreal’s Bank of Ontario and left Clay there with $93,000 to organize operations. Clay had fallen ill on the trip north. His health and a sad yearning to be home with his wife
was already limiting his effectiveness, so Holcombe remained in Montreal to help him while Thompson moved on to Toronto.

Thompson took a suite of rooms at Toronto’s Queen’s Hotel. The Queen’s was the city’s most luxurious hotel, boasting an elevator, a large dining room offering fine wines and cuisine, running water in all of its well-appointed rooms, and from its Front Street location a stunning view of the harbourfront.
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By the spring of 1864, the Queen’s had become infamous as the centre of Confederate activity in Canada West. Thompson was welcomed by the hundred or so Confederates who had rooms at or near the grand hotel. He quickly learned to spot local officials and Union detectives and newly arrived Confederates, conspicuous with their leathery tans, worn clothes and distinctive accents.

Toronto’s George Denison was among the many Canadians whom Thompson came to know and rely upon. Denison came from a wealthy and influential family. He was well educated, a lawyer, a one-time city alderman, and founder of both the Canadian Rifle Association and the Queen’s Plate horse race. Denison was also a militia lieutenant colonel and commandant who used his inherited wealth and political power to advocate for increased support for the militia, with special attention on cavalry. His 1st Toronto Independent Troop of Cavalry became the governor general’s body guard.

Denison regularly visited Thompson at the Queen’s and often welcomed him and his compatriots to his large estate for dinners and quiet afternoons.
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Denison later wrote: “I was a strong friend of the Southern refugees who were exiled in our country, and I treated them with the hospitality due to unfortunate strangers driven from their homes.”
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Denison was concerned that Thompson and his people were beset by Union agents who hindered their efforts, and he did all he could to help. He was to help a great deal, and paid a handsome price for doing so.

Throughout his time in Canada, Thompson juggled a number of people, plans and plots. One of his first initiatives began with meetings in Montreal and Toronto about an idea to distract the North with the intention of influencing the upcoming presidential election. Thompson met with Clay, who in turn met with Copperheads William “Colorado” Jewett and George Sanders. Jewett was an influential Copperhead leader who had been travelling throughout the Midwest for over a year, stirring up support for the movement. He had come to Canada in the fall of 1863, delivering speeches in which he urged listeners to exert pressure on Britain to help negotiate an end to the war. He conducted a number of interviews with Canadian newspaper editors, to whom he regularly submitted open letters.
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Following the tour, he offered his services to Thompson.

George Sanders was the former editor of New York’s
Democratic Review
. He was a navy purchasing agent before the war and had been arranging arms purchases for the Confederacy since the first battle at Bull Run. Davis recalled him and then sent him to Toronto to help Thompson, with specific instructions to create support for the Copperhead peace movement. He had arrived on June 1, 1864. Sanders was witty, eccentric, and alternatively an infuriating and charming man, who became an instant hit on the Montreal cocktail circuit.
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