The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1883-05-31
THE CANADIAN C0NsPIgACy.
Scheme that Promised independence to
the South.

| AAAN STAAtADhAN IErACGo
a Scheme that Promised independence to
| the South.
Blythe Rer. W. B. Carson, Of Appleton, S. c.
McGowan's Brigade left three hundred
wounded in the field hospital at Gettya.
burg: They begged me TO stay with them,
and did. After six weeks was sent to
Fort McHenry. Having remained there
ak or eight weeks, I followed the exam.
pie OF David, Il like to follow great men)
who "leaped over WALL" and went to
Montreal, Canada. "
Some friends there told ns. another
chaplain and myself, that they were fit-
ting out vessel to aend some supplies To
Bermuda for the Confederates and would
give us passage if we would wait ten
days or 80. The night before we cxpect.
ed TO sail, the gentleman at whose house
we were stopping, refugee, told US come
gentlemen we had met at his house were
sent by the Confederate Government to
release our officers, $500 in number, who
| were In prison on Johnsop's Island.
They wanted hundred. but had scarcelv
hall the number, although the couptry
was swarming with ESCAPED priaoners
They had reluctantly sent him to see if
We would 60.
We spent the night in consideration
and prayer. and at sunrise neg. morning
started back Oh trip which we all knew
meant SUCCESS oF death. To 70 back,
instead of homeward was one of the
hardest trials of my life.
THE PLAN OF RESCUE.
A Canadian was to represent himself
as hiring hands to work on q canal. We
were faka on r,o.s,,.
employed by him. The "supplies for
Bermuda" were on board this steamer
marked Castings" When well out on
the American side of Lake Erie we would
seize the crew and put them into the
mold. Next morning, just ut dawn, we
would run up beside a very powerful
gunboat, the only war vessel in the lake
lying beside the Island, board it, allow
no one to leave his berth, and hoist the
Confederate flag, when the prisoners
would disarm the guard and take posses.
sion of the Island. We would then take
such vessels AZ we needed to carry our
men to Canada, burn the rest and leave.
one OF our men, on whose judgment we
could rely. had just visited the Island
and the gunboat. He said dozen reso.
lutte men could have accomplished all we
proposed.
THE PLOT LEAKS OUT.
On the very eve of our departure the
mail arrived laden with the djsclosure
of our enterprise. Perhaps dozen pa.
pers claimed tho credit OF the discovery.
One declared there were sixty thousand
men engaged. Another that the whole
thing was hoax. Others filled up the
GAP. between the sixty thousand and
nothing, but none of them approximated
the truth. There were just fifty y.six who
had taken their lives in their hands"
None of the papers were entitled to any
credit. Our Canadian "employer" had
betrayed US to the United States Consul
and got $4,000 for bis treason. None
out those who felt It can realize the sad.
ness with which we saw the defeat of this
admirably planned scheme, when we
thought success and all its consequences
almost secured.
As sann az we learned that We were
betrayed we started for home. a spy
followed US to Quebec. He might have
spared himself the Trouble, as fifty.six
men would have scarcely make an open
attack on the United States. Some
young men were restrained from killing
him with great difficulty by the older
ones.
HOW THE CONFEDERACY FAILED TO RE.
COME A NATION.
The release Of $500 officers, equivalent
to $4,000 privates in exchange, was an
important object. This, however, was
but the beginning. The Peopi5 could
scarcely be restrained from making war
on Canada, even after our failure. Had
we succeeded, even strong man could
not have reatrained them, and Mr.. Lin
coin, who had announced in his peculiar
Englihh, that he intended to run the
machine as he found it, unlcas his mas.
ters, the american People, should deter.
mine otherwise" was not the man to op.
pose the popular will. Then England
would have been obliged to help her
colony. France was only waiting for the
concurrence of England to recognize and
help US. If we sustained the conflict
four years, with the world against US, the
issue would have been neither doubtful
nor distant with the help of such allies.
Had that expedition succeeded, tho Con.
federate States would now be nation.
Seldom has such an issue hung on the
success or failure Of fifty sig men.
THE GHOST OF THE ENTERPRISE
| haunted the North all the winter. It
was c:se gravely believed that we were
going TO cross the Lake on the Ice. Back
in iIxie, l read these repeated alarms
WITH considerable interest.
hSve never seen even tOlerable &C.
curate rccount of this expedition, except
one published in the Religious Herald,
just after the war, which I suppose very
few of your readers saw. This is given
as contribution to the truth of history.