Buffalo and Western New York History

Buffalo and Western New York History

Rebels from Canada ‘To Invade the United States and Destroy the City of Buffalo!’

This article first appeared in the Civil War Digest

November 12, 1863 (Thursday)

Jacob Cox has this under control.

Since the start of the war, the Federal government caste a leery eye toward the porous Canadian border. State secrets could very well travel overland through Pennsylvania and New York, and pass through the all-too-willing hands of custom agents who may or may not have Secessionist leanings. In 1861, there was a great purge, and all Federal agents were now “proven” to be loyal, but that was more wishful thinking than anything. Still, as the war progressed, a number of Confederates found refuge in the provinces of Canada.

The more that gathered to the north, the more brazen their machinations became, until in this early November, an extensive plot to free captured Confederate soldiers was formulated.

Johnson’s Island was a prisoner of war camp in Lake Erie near Sandusky, Ohio. (Today it can be seen from atop the roller coaster or the Ferris wheel at the Cedar Point theme park.) It held roughly 2,500 soldiers, including Generals James Archer and Isaac Trimble, both captured at Gettysburg. In fact, it’s fairly possible that the plot started with Archer – or at least, one particular plot. Shortly after arriving, Archer wrote to Richmond suggesting that he and the rest of the prisoners be busted out of jail. But this plot was not to be, and even before the end of the war, became the stuff of “what-if” legends.

Still, there was something to it. Part of the plan involved the capture of the USS Michigan, which patrolled Lake Erie. Capturing a ship would give the Confederates the chance to blow apart the Erie Canal or bombard any number of the cities along the lake shore. But to capture such a ship, the Rebels would need ships of their own. And this is where their plot began to unravel.

News reached Canadian authorities that Southerners were trying to buy two vessels with a large sum of Confederate money. Just what they were going to do with the ships was any body’s guess (though the options of Johnson’s Island and/or capturing the Michigan were certainly on the table). Getting their information as much in order as they could, Canadian officials contacted Col. B.H. Hall, acting Assistant Provost Marshal General of Detroit. In well over his head, on November 9th, Col. Hall tossed the hot potato to General Jacob Cox, now overseeing the District of Ohio.

Johnson’s Island was ripe for the picking.

Hall told Cox that he was “positively informed that within forty-eight hours two armed steamers would attack Johnson’s Island and release the prisoners held there.” Cox immediately called the plot “improbable,” but followed through by sending a detachment of 500 newly-raised infantrymen and a battery to the island.

The next evening (the 11th), word reached Washington via Lord Richard Lyons, British diplomat to the United States, who heard it himself from Canadian officials. By this time, the plot had evolved. In writing to the governors of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and New York, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton explained:

“There is reason to believe that a plot is on foot by persons hostile to the United States, who have found an asylum in Canada, to invade the United States and destroy the city of Buffalo; that they propose to take possession of some of the steamboats on Lake Erie, to surprise Johnson’s Island, and set free the prisoners of war confined there, and to proceed with them to attack Buffalo.”

To General Cox, Stanton gave permission to use “all the means at your command to guard against and repel any hostile attack by their aiders and abettors from Canada.” He warned him to watch the steamboats, and mentioned that Ogdensburg, New York might have something to do with this. He ordered him to go personally to Sandusky and, if needed, to call upon Ohio’s Governor Todd for additional forces.

Mayor Chandler: Could I be any more nervous?

Secretary Stanton spread the news far and wide, contacting not only the state governors, but the mayors of Detroit, Chicago and Buffalo. He also dispatched General William Brooks from the Department of the Monongahela to speed to Erie, Pennsylvania “with any military force you may have at your command.” He had but six or seven companies.

On this date, General Cox hurried about his move to Sandusky, attempting to pull as many militia troops as he could away from their homes. From Columbus, Ohio, he tried to wrangle more troops who were guards in the city’s prisoner of war camp, but was turned back as there was some kind of plot brewing by the Rebels to overthrow their own Federal hosts. Finally, by midnight, Cox reached Sandusky, where he found out that the Rebels involved in the plot had not yet left Canada.

The USS Michigan after it was renamed the USS Wolverine, since the Michigan’s State’s name was in high demand.

All through this day, Secretary Stanton was in communication with the mayors of Detroit, Cleveland, Toledo, Buffalo, Erie, Oswego, and Chicago, trying to throw together some sort of resistance.

“Not a single gun larger than a 32-pounder on the lakes, and only four of them,” wrote Zachariah Chandler of Detroit in an understandable panic. “They are at Erie, without powder. Send heavy guns from Pittsburgh instantly.” Chandler sent this message at least twice.

F.C. Sherman, Chicago’s mayor, took a cooler tone. “Our resources, such as they are, entirely at your disposal, if necessary,” he wrote to Stanton. “Send officers with capacity for organization. We have men enough.”

But William Fargo, Buffalo’s mayor, was not only taking the matter seriously, he had a plan of his own. “It is suggested to send discreet men to the frontier Canadian towns to watch movements,” went his suggestion. “Would you advise this?” Stanton deferred him to Cox, who was, by now, sleeping.

Over the course of the next few days, General Cox, along with the crew of the USS Michigan threw up hasty earthworks to protect Johnson’s Island from any Rebel invasion. This believed Cox is what foiled the plan. The Confederates caught wind that their hand was tipped to the Federals and they called off the plot.

“The leaders in it were commonly reported to have been some of [John Hunt] Morgan’s men who made their way to Canada when he was captured,” wrote Cox in his memoirs. “By the aid of Confederate agents they had procured the means to organize a considerable band of adventurers, and had chartered two steamboats which were to meet them at the mouth of the DetroitRiver. [...] The raiders had assembled, and the boats were ready, when, on the 14th of November, they learned that their plans were exposed and the chance to succeed was lost. The less eager ones were quick to abandon the enterprise, and the bolder spirits found themselves reduced to a handful. So they scattered, threatening to try it again at some more convenient time.”1

1. Sources: Official Records, Series 3, Vol. 3, p1008, 1012, 1014-1015, 1019, 1023, 1024; Military Reminiscences of the Civil War, vol. 2 by Jacob Cox; Civil War Years: Canada and the United States by Robin W. Winks.

The Confederate Plot to Bombard Buffalo

By Richard C. Brown

Who would ever believe that Buffalo might have felt the force of enemy shells during the Civil War? And yet it could have happened during the autumn of 1864.

At that time, moral in the Union was very low, largely because of war weariness and because of the heavy casualties suffered by the Army of the Potomac as it moved once more on Richmond. On the other hand the confederate States of America were much closer to defeat than most Northerners realized. Southern leaders knew that only a miracle could save them.

They sought this miracle by creating diversions along the border between Canada and the United States. It was possible, they believed, to lower Northern moral further with these diversions and cause the war weary Union to sue for peace. One of the most ambitious of these plots was hatched in Toronto, with John Yates Beall as the principal agent. Beall had commanded a Confederate privateer in Chesapeake Bay. He had been captured but had escaped from a Northern prison camp and had made his way to Canada. Capt. Charles Cole, a former confederatecavalryman who had also escaped from a prisoner of war camp, assisted Beall in the first phase of the plot.

The plan involved capturing the Union gunboat “Michigan” and releasing the confederate prisoners on Johnson’s Island in SanduskyBay, near the Ohio shoreline of Lake Erie. Captain Cole went to Sandusky, posing as a banker from Philadelphia. In Sandusky, he made friends with Capt Carter, commander of the “Michigan.” After gaining the confidence of Carter and his officers, the friendly Philadelphia banker proposed that he entertain them at dinner on board the “Michigan.” The plan was to serve them drugged champagne to render them helpless when Beall and about 20 raiders attacked. The raiders were to get to SanduskyBay by taking over a Canadian passenger ship on Lake Erie.

The plan failed when United States Secret Service men learned the true identity of the friendly Philadelphia banker. They seized him as he made final preparations for the dinner on board the “Michigan.” The gunboat’s captain and crew were alerted so they were ready for the anticipated attack by Beall’s raiders.

From the standpoint of the raiders things seemed to be going well. They took over a Canadian passenger ship, discharged the passengers and crew at a Canadian port and made their way to SanduskyBay, which they reached at about 11p.mm. On the night of September 18, 1864. But Beall became suspicious when the pre-arranged signal from Capt. Cole failed to come. So he and his companions sailed back to the Canadian shore where they abandoned and burned the shop they had commandeered.

After that, American secret agents went to Toronto to keep an eye on the Confederates there. They soon learned that John Yates Beall was continuing to plot. In some way, ha had raised enough money to buy the “Georgiana,” a large lake steamer, which he planned to arm and use to raid Buffalo and other lake ports. Since the “Michigan” was the only gunboat on the lakes at this time, Beall’s plan was not as far fetched as it might sound. (Remember that after the war of 1812, the treaty ending that war called for both the U.S. and Canada to each have no more than a single war ship on the great lakes at any given time)

This plan also fell through, however, because the American government persuaded Canadian officials to curb Confederate activities in Toronto. The Canadians posted a guard over the “Georgiana” and refused to permit Beall to bring on board the naval guns and small arms he had purchased.

The plots to seize the “Michigan” and to arm the “ Georgiana” caused great excitement in Buffalo. When news of these plots reached the city, the Board of Trade chartered the tug “Sara E. Bryant.” She was hastily armed with guns from the federal arsenal on Oak Street and put on patrol outside Buffalo harbor. The “Sarah E. Bryant” would have been no match for the “Michigan” and perhaps not even for an armed “Georgiana.” Still, she was better than nothing and her presence on patrol made the people of Buffalo feel better.

Frustrated in his plans for a water-borne attack, Beall decided to strike against Western New York by land. In December he and three other raiders separately crossed the border. They met in Dunkirk and traveled to Buffalo Together, where they registered under assumed names at the Genesee House, on the corner of Main and Genesee St.. However, they were unable to do any damage in the closely guarded city so they moved a few miles west and attempted to derail trains on the Lake Shore Railroad.

None of these attempts was successful. Nevertheless, railroad officials reported them to militia officers and to police. After a final unsuccessful attempt on the night of December 15, Beall ordered his raiders back to Toronto.

Beall never made it. He and a companion fell asleep on a bench in the Niagara Falls depot while waiting for a train to Toronto. They were arrested by an observant policeman and Beall was later tried by a court martial in FortLafayette in New York City. He was charged and convicted of violating the laws of war and of acting as a spy. On February 24, 1865, John Yates Beal was hanged. Thus ended the career of a man whose plots had caused great excitement in the Buffalo and Niagara region during the closing months of the Civil War.

Confederate spy – John Yates Beall

Genesee House on the northwest corner of Main and Genesee Streets in Buffalo that John Yates Beall and three other saboteurs made their headquarters while they attempted to bring the devastation of the Civil War to the QueenCity.

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