St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-11-26
THE NORTHWEST CONSPIRACY
1t Involved Only Confederate Prison
ers and Southern Friends.
And No Northern Democrats Were
Engaged in the Enterprise,
Special to the Globe.

Star will print the following tomorrow
from Washington: Ever since the appear
ance of the sensational dispatch from Louis
vile asserting that the forthcoming publ
cation of the papers of the late Jacot
Thompson would disclose the existence in
1864. of a great conspiracy in the West anC
Northwest to liberate the Confed
crate soldiers then confined in
Northern military prisons, anG
that it would be shown thai
many prominent Democrats were implicated
by these disclosures. your correspondent
has been quietly but industrioISly inter
viewing the eX-cOnfederates now located
here whose position and association on the
confederate side were such as to justify
the belief that they would possess any
knowledge On the subject. The general
impression among these gentlemen is that
there can be no real ground for the
expectation that these papers will reveal
the existence of any conspiracy" what
ever. much less that any citizen of the
Northern states, who might have been dis
satisfied with Mr.. LincOln's administra.
tiOp, whether Democrat or Republican,
could possibly be inculpated by anything
the papers referred to might contain, but
some of them who have taken more or
less active interest in political matters
since the war closed, maintain the
idea is absurd-inherently improbable
that the announcement of such relations
was merely an ingenious and opportune
scheme to weaken the Democratic party in
the West, particularly in Indiana. put forth
as it was just upon the eve of an important
general election.
MEN WHO KNOW THE FACTS.
Besides those VINO deal with the subject
in such general terms as | have indicated
above. there are some who possess special
and personal knOwlede of plan to libprate
the Southern prisoners, execution of which
was inaugurated in the fall of 1864, and
who insist. so far at least as they
were informed. it was never eX-
pected that the proposed enterprise would
or could receive any assistance except from
| the prisoners thenSelves. and such CO.
| operating expeditions as might be organized
! by the Confederate agents in Canada.
Among this latter class may be numbered
Maj. William Pelham, lately colonel of
John L. Morgan's regiment Fifty first
| Alabama cavalry of Wheeler's corps. and
Wheeler. When Mai. Pelham was asked
q
conspiracy, or if assistance in carrying it out
was expected from any Northern men, he
promptly and emphatically characterized
the statement as pure fabrication. utterly
void of any foundation in fact. Being
asked if he made the denial from positive
personal knowledge, he replied. Certainly
d0," and then proceeded to explain how
he gained such personal knowledge, and
WhV he was so positive.
I'm June, 1863" said the major, "at what
came to be known among us subsequently as
THE SHELBYvILLL RACES,
/ was taken prisoner and carried to Johnson's
island, in Lake Erie, just opposite Sandusky,
where 1 was detained until the end of Feb
ruary 1865. During this period. upon the
suggestion and under the leadership
of Gems. Trimble and Archer,
of Mar land; Beal, of Arkansas; Miles,
of Mississippi; Penn, of Louisiana:
and other prominent officers, the prisoners
formed among them an association styled,
1.-The Brotherhood of the Southern Cross"
The alleged object of this association was
merely to implant and foster sentiments of
fraternity and inoi Vidua devotion to the eau %
of Southern independence. 1t speedily be-
came known, however, that this was
nothing more than plausible pre-
text invented to begile the prison
authorities, should their suspicious or appre-
tensions be aroused by the prisoners meet
ing together in unusual numbers. The real
purpose was to bring the $500 prisoners on
the island, scattered through the different
blocks in the inclOsure, into a thorough
and effectively organi. e body, capable of
acting together vigorously and successfully
upon the first intimidation of movement
from the outside to secure their release.
The daily papers from nearly all the large
cities in the North were constantly receive
inside the prison, and had, of course ill.,
,,al, fha Of
c. G. Clay and George Saunders in Canada
and the suspected object of their presence
there, which was, as we understood and be-
lieved, to concert measures to liberate the
large number of Southerners scattered
throughout the North.
THE ORIGINAL IDEA
of the proprietors of the Southern Cross
movement was that the prisoners, though
under the constant surveillance of the guard.
should be so organized as to be prepared at q
moments notice TO cooperate with any at
tempt to effect their release which
might be made from the outside
We were therefore, formed into companies
regiments and two brigades with the necessary
officers of our own selection. To those who
were taken into the cOunSels of the leaders,
it was explained that at given signal we
were to form under our commanders just as
if in the presence of the enemy, and obey
orders as when moving into or engaged in
action. 1t was assumed that with a diversion
from the outside, determined
rush against the wooden walls with
the benches. etc., taken from the
mess halls would be successful in battering
them down despite any resistance of the
guard, distracted as they would be by an at
tack from another quarter. II was expected
that we should lose some men, but the calcu-
lation was that this loss would be insignif-
cant, and the Canadian contingent having
previously seized the revenue cutter Michi-
gan by strategem, the released prisoners
could be placed on her and sweep the levees.
and with the lapse of time the idea OF
RELEASING THE PRIoNERs
at Johnson's island was carefully elaborated
until it contemplated the liberation of all the
prisoners at Emira, Chicago, Rock Island
Alton, St. Louis and Columbus. The substance
of this plan was made known to the Confed-
crate agents in Canada, Messrs. Thompson
and Clay. by means of carefully worded ad-
vertisement in the personal columns
of the New York Herald and News
and we were communicated with through the
same medium, the proprietors Of these papers
little dreaming of the purposes for which
their columns were being used. The znowl-
edge of the plan for our release gradually
spread through the prison, but during all the
preparations and throughout all the numer-
GUS and protracted discussion to which such
a project naturally gave rise, there was never
the slightest intimation that we were to re-
ceive any assistance Whatever from the
North On the coatrary, il was distinctly un-
derstood and repeatedly stated in the most
explcit and upmistakable terms that we
could only hone for outside aid from the ex-
pedition which might be organized in Canada.
For everything else we must depend on our
selves.