The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1883-05-31
THE CANADIAN CONSPIRACY,
A Scheme that Promised Independence {.
the South.

l
A scheme that Promised Independence to
| the South.
by the Rer w. B. Carson, Of Appieton, S. c.
McGowan's Brigade left three hundred
wounded in the field hospital at Gettvs.
burg. They begged me to stay with them.
and did. After six weeks / was aent To-
Fort McHenry. Having remained there
six or eight weeks, followed The eysrn-
pie OF David, Il like to follow great men)
who "leaped over a WALL" and went 20
Montreal, Canada.
some friends there told US, another
chaplain and myself, that they were at.
ting out vessel to send some suppliea 70
Bermuda for the Confederates and would
give us passage If we would wait ten
days or 30. The night before we expect.
ed to sail, the gentiema at whose house
! VIC were stopping, refugee, told lis some
gentlemen we had met at his house were
sent by the Confederate Government 10
release our officers, $500 in number. who
were in prison on Johnson's Island.
They wanted hundred, but had scarcely
half the number, although the country
Was swaImiBg with escaped prisoners.
They bad reluctantly sent him to see if
we would go.
We spent the night in consideration
and prayer, and at sunrise next morning
started back on trip which we all knew
meant success or death. To go back,
instead of homewsrd, was one of the
hardest trials of my life.
THE PLAN OF RESCUE.
a Canadisn was TO represent himself
SIS hiring hands TO work on a canal. We
were to take an American steamer as
employed by him. The supplies for
Bermuda" were on board this steamer,
marked castings" When we'll out on
the American side of Lake Erie we would
seize the crew and put them into the
hold. Next morning, just at dawn, we
would run up beside q very powerful
gunboat, the only war vessel in the lake,
lying beside the leland. board il. 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 aB 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.
proposed.
THE PLOT LEAKS OUT.
On the very owe of our departure the
mail arrived laden with the discioanre
of our enterprise. Perhaps dozen pa.
pers claimed the 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 iust fifty.six who
had taken their lives In their hands"
None of the papers were entitled to apy
credit. Our Canadian "employer" had
betrayed us to the United States Consul
and got $4,000 for his treason. None
but 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 soon as we learned that We were
| betrayed we started for home. A spy
followed US to Quebec. He might have
spared himself the trouble, as ffty.s
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 BE-
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 people could
scarcely be restrained from making war
on Canada, even after our failure. Had
we succeeded, even a strong man could
not have restrained them, and Mr. Lin
coin, who had announced in his peculiar
English, That he Intended to run sis
machine as he found it, unless his mas.
ters, The american People, should deter.
mine otherwise" was not the man to on.
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. 1t 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, the Con-
federate States would now be nation.
Seldom bas 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 once gravely believed that we were
going to cross the Lake on the Ice. Back
in Dixie, read these repeated alarms
with considerable interest.
| have never seen even O tolerable &C.
curate account Of this expedition, except
one published in the Religious Herald,
just after the war, which suppose very
few of your readers saw. This is given
as contribution to the truth of history.