OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Tidbits of Ohio -- Part 5 ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES(tm) NOTICE Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm All documents placed in the USGenWeb Archives remain the property of the contributors, who retain publication rights in accordance with US Copyright Laws and Regulations. In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, these documents may be used by anyone for their personal research. They may be used by non-commercial entities so long as all notices and submitter information is included. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit. Any other use, including copying files to other sites, requires permission from the contributors PRIOR to uploading to the other sites. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgenwebarchives.org ************************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 February 1, 2005 ************************************************************************** Historical Collections of Ohio And They Went West S.L. Kelly diaries Series of Articles by Darlene E. Kelley Tid Bits - part 5. ************************************************************************** Lake Erie Conspiracy Without a doubt the most notable event involving the Johnson Island Confederate Prison history was the infamous " Lake Erie Conspiracy." In August 1864, Charles H. Cole, a captain in the Confederate Army and later a lieutenant in the Navy, checked into a Sandusky hotel, posing as an oil company employee from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He was soon joined by John Yeats Beall, also in the Confederate Navy. Together they planned and organized a mass prisoner escape from Johnson's Island. Cole remained in Sandusky to coordinate the event while Beall traveled to Windsor to locate men, secure arms, and set the operation in motion. The escape plan was put into action on the morning of September 19, 1864. A portion of the conspirators, led by Beall, boarded the small steamer " Philo Parsons " at Detroit, Michigan as it prepared for its regular journey to Sandusky via the Lake Erie Islands. Several more of Beall's men boarded the steamer, after Beall persuaded the steamer's captain to make an unscheduled stop at Amherstburg, on the Canadian side of the Detroit River. Altogether, Beall had managed to slip 30 men on board the little sidewheeler. From Amherstburg the ship made its regular stops at North, South, and Middle Bass Islands, and also at Kelley's Island. Just after leaving Kelley's Island the conspirators overpowered the crew and took control of the " Philo Parsons." As per the plan, the steamer remained on course for Sandusky Bay until. at 5:00 P.M., the conspirators observed the U.S. Gunboat " Michigan," 14 guns, anchored near Johnson's Island. The stratagem now called for the " Michigan " to be boarded and captured, and the prisoners on the island to be released. Here is where the plot went awry. Beall was informed that there was insuffient fuel to carry out the plan, so he decided to return to Middle Bass Island to take on more wood to feed the burners. Approaching Middle Bass, the conspirators encountered another vessel. the small steamer " Island Queen." The " Island Queen " was seized and her stunned passengers and crew were put ashore on Middle Bass Island. After filling the " Philo Parson's " wood bunkers, Beall and his cohorts again set out for Sandusky, towing the " Island Queen " astern. About half way to Kelley's Island, Beall opened the " Island Queen's " sea valve and sent the captured vessel adrift. The " Island Queen " eventually settled to the bottom near Chicanolee Reef, just south of Pelee Island. As the " Philo Parsons " steamed towards the entrance to Sandusky Bay. the escape plan was once again aborted. The reasons are still unknown; perhaps some additional information that Beall was hoping to receive did not arrive, or possibly a signal that he was expecting from Sandusky was never sent, or the crew and passengers that he set ashore at Middle Bass, got a message through. Whatever the case, the conspirators became suspicious and abandoned the attempt. As it turned out Beall made a wise decision. A few days earlier a Confederate deserter had informed the military commander at Detroit about the plot, and this officer notified Johnson's Island and the " Michigan's " captain. The eventual outcome, had Beall actually sailed into Sandusky Bay, can only be a matter for speclation, but with the " Michigan's" crew ready and waiting and the Island's defenses placed on alert, Beall's plot would have little likelihood of success. After turning back, Beall set a course for Canada, where the conspirators scattered after making landfall at Sandwich on September 20. Charles H. Cole, his bags packed for a trip to Toronto, was arrested the same day in Sandusky. Tried and convicted for conspiracy, Cole spent a little over a year in prison before being released on February 10, 1866. John Yeats Beall was captured near Niagara Falls, New York on December 16,1864 after a failed attempt to derail a train near Buffalo. Tried for piracy and spying, he was convicted and sentenced to hang. Beall was executed at Governor's Island, New York on March 24, 1865. The Civil War ended on April 9, 1865, and the government ordered that Johnson's Island be abandoned on June 8, 1865. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Symmes Purchase John Cleves Symmes, born on July 21, 1742, grew up in New York, the son of a minister. Prior to the American Revolution, he served as a school teacher. In 1770, he moved to the colony of New Jersey, taking part in both New Jersey's political and military contributions to the Revolution. John Symmes held a number of important political positions both during and after the Revolutionary War, including justice on the New Jersey Supreme Court, member of the State's Constitutional Convention, and deligate to Congress. While serving in Congress in the 1780's, he became interested in western expansion into the Ohio Country. So he created a company with several of his friends to buy land in the Northwest Territory between the Great Miami and the Little Miami Rivers. Symmes and his associates requested one million acres of land from Congress, but in the end they were only allowed to purchase about 330,000 acres. President George Washington approved the land patent in 1794. Symmes and his partners paid approximately 67 cents per acre. They were required to follow the same basic requirements as the Ohio Company of Associates; land had to be set aside for a school, for religion, and for the government's use. In addition, a large piece of land was to be put aside for a University, although Symmes ignored this requirement. This Symmes Purchase was also known as the Miami Purchase. Although the population in the region grew rapidly, Symmes and his associates also faced some controversy. The investors chose not to follow the government's survey system, resulting in confusion over property boundaries and land ownership. As in the case of the town of Dayton, not all of the land sold was actually part of the land grant authorized by Congress. In 1788, Symmes became a judge within the Northwest Territory. As judge, he often disagreed with the policies of the territorial governor, Arthur St.Clair. He and the other territorial judges, Samuel Holden Parsons and James Varnum, felt that St.Clair overextended his power as governor. In particular, they disagreed with the governor about what laws should be adopted for the newly organized creation of Maxwell's Code, the series of laws put into effect in the Northwest Territory in 1795. The judge also sided with the other members of the Democratic Republican Party against St. Clair on the issue of Ohio statehood. On a personal level, Symmes was difficult to get along with and was often sued in court. Some of the people who ued him had ben forced to pay for their land twice when they discovered that he had sod them land that was not part of the Symmes Purchase. When he died on February 26, 1814, Symmes left almost nothing in his estate because of the impact of his ongoing legal difficulties. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Camp Chase Camp Chase , named after the Secretary and former Ohio Governor, Salmon P. Chase, was a training camp for Union volunteers. It housed a few political and military prisoners from Kentucky and western Virginia. Built on the western outskirts of Columbus, Ohio, the camp received its first large influx of captured Confederates from western campaigns, including enlisted men, officers, and a few of the latter's black servants. At first, on oath of honor, the Confederate officers were permitted to wander through Columbus, register in hotels, and receive gifts of money and food; a few attended sessions of the state senate. The public paid for Camp tours, and Chase became a tourist attraction. Complaints over such lax discipline and the camp's state administration provoked investigation, and the situation changed. Food supplies of poor quality resulted in the commissary officer's dismissal from service. After an influx of captured officers from Island No 10, officers' privileges were cut, then officers were transferred to the Johnson's Island prison on lake Erie. Then the camp's state volunteers and the camp Commander were found to have " scant acquaintance " with military practice and were transferred, the camp passing into Federal government control. Under this new administration, rules tightened, visitors prohibited, and mail censored. Prisoners were allowed limited amounts of money to suppliment supplies with purchases from approved vendors and sutlers, the latter further restricted when they were discovered to be smuggling liquor to the inmates. As the war wore on, conditions became worse. Shoddy barracks, low muddy ground, open latrines, aboveground open cisterns, and a brief smallpox outbreak excited the U.S. Sanitary Commission agents who were already demanding reform. Original facilities for about 4,000 men were jammed with close to 7,000. Since parole strictures prohibited service against the Confederacy, many Federals had surrendered believing they would be paroled and sent home. Some parolees, assigned to guard duty at Federal prison camps, were bitter, and rumors increased of maltreatment of prisoners at Camp Chase and elsewhere. Before the end of hostilities, Union parolee guards were transfered to service in the Indian Wars, some sewage modifications were made, and prisoners were put to work improving barracks and facilities. Prisoner laborers also built larger, stronger fences for their own confinement, a questionable assignment under international law governing prisoners of war. Barracks rebuilt for 7,000 soon again overflowed and there crowding and health condtions were never resolved. It is said that as many as 10,000 prisoners were reputedly confined there by the time of the Confederate surrender. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ continued in part 6.