The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1865-08-10
NO.2s!

OF l,ZUO men-Canadian refugees, and
, bushwhackers from Southern Illinois and
) Missouri-was to attack Camp Douglas
on Tuesday night, the Sth of November
llberate and arm the prisoners, and sack
Chicago. This was to be the signal for a
general uprising through the West, and
for simultaneous advance by Hood up-
on Nashville, Buckner upon Louisville,
and Price upon st. Louis. Vallandig-
ham was to head the movement in Ohio ;,
Bowles in Indiana, and Walsh in Illinois.
The forces were to rendezvous at 'Cincin-
natl and Dayton in Ohio, New Albany
indianapolis in Indiana, and Rock Island.
Chicago and Springfield in Illinois and
those gathered at the last named place,
after seizing the arsenal, were to march
to aid Price in taking St. Souls. Pro-
minent Union citizens and officers were
to be seized and sent South, and the more
obnoxious of them were to be assassin
ated. All places taken were to be sacked
and destroyed, and band of a hundred
desperate men was organized to burn the
larger Northern cities not included in the
| field of operations. Two hundred Con-
| tederate officers, who were to direct the
| military movements, had been in Canada,
but were then stationed throughout the
West, at the various points to be attacked,
waiting the outbreak at Chicago.-Cap-
tain Hines, who had won the confidence
of Thompson by his successful manage
ment of the escape of John Morgan, had
control of the initial movement against
Camp Douglas But Colonel Grenfell, as
sisted by Colonel Marmaduke and doz-
en- other Rebel officers, was to manage
the military part of the operations All of
these officers were at that moment in Chi
cago, waiting the arrival of the men, who
were to come in small squads, over differ
ent roads, during the following three
| days. The Rebel officer had known of
the polt for months, but its atrocious de-
tails had come to his knowledge only
within fortnight. They apprised him;
and though he was betraying his friends,
and the South which he loved, the hu-
mauity in him would not let him rest till
| he had washed his hands of the horrible
crime.
The Commandant listened with ner-
vous interest to the whole of this recital
but when the Southern officer made the
last remark, he almost groaned out,
"Why did you not come before ?"
IL could not. | gave Thompson my
opinion of this, and have watched. I
think they have tracked me here. NV
life on your streets wouldn't be worth a
bad half dollar"
"True but what must be dOne?"
"Arrest the 'Butternuts' as they come
into Chicago"
''That [ can do but the leaders are
here with five thousadd Illini to back
them. l must take them. Do you know
them?"
ayes but do not know where they are
! quartercd."
At two o'clock the Commandant show
ed the Rebel officer to his bed, went back
himself, and paced the floor until sunrise.
In the morning his plan was formed. 1t
was desperate plan but desperate cir
cumstances require desperate expedieuts.
In the prison was 4 young Texan who
had served on Bragg's staff and under
Morgan in Kentucky, and was, therefore,
acquainted with Hines, Greenfell, and the
other rebel officers. lie fully believed in
the theory or State Rights, that is, that
part is greater than the whole, but was
an honest man, whose word when given
could be trusted. One glance at his open,
resolute face showed that he feared moth
ing; that he had, zoo, that rare courage
that delights in danger, and courts hero
ic enterprise from love of peril. Early
in the war he had encountered Colonel
DeLand, former commandant of the post
on the battlefield and taken him prison.
er. A friendship then spranS up be-
tween the two which, when the tables
were turned, and the captOr became the
captive, was not forgotten. Colonel De-
Land made him his chief clerk in the
medical department, and gave him every
possible freedom. At that time it was
the custom to allow citizens free access
10 the camp; and among the many good
men and women who came to visit and
aid the prisoners was young woman, the
daughter of a well-knoTn resident of Chi
cago. She met the Texan, and a result
as natural as the Union of oxygen and
hydrogen followed,-but since Adam
courted Eve, who ever heard of wooipg
going on in prison alt Is not exact
ly the thing" said Colonel DeLand; chad
you not better pay your addresses at the
lady's house, like gentleman ?" A guard
accompanied the prisoner; but it was
shrewdly guessed that he stayed outside,
or paid court to the girls in the kitchen.
This was the state of things when the
present Commandant took charge of the
camp. He learned the facts, studied the
prisoners face, and remembered that he,
too, once went a cOurting. As he walk
ed his room that Friday night, he be-
thought him Of the Texan. Did he love
his State better than he did his af6anced
wife i? The Commandant would test him.
"But / shall betray my friends Can
/ do that in honor ?" asked the Texan.
"Did yov ask that question when you
betrayed your country?" answered the
Commandant.