Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1890-06-27

Une OIenSe IOr WHICH lie Sulieicu was oh"o
of acting as a spy. The judge advocate of ]
the court which condemned him de-
scribed him as one whom violent pas
sions had shorn of his native elements of
manliness, and led him to commit deeds |
which to have even suspected him capable
at an earlier stage in his career would
have been calumny and a crime"
Beall was young Virginian and had
been wounded early in the conflict. AS
master in the Confederate navy he for
some time led a daring life as Swamp
Angel" on the lower Potomac, destroying
Union commerce on Chesapeake bay and
contiguous waters. While engaged in this
work he planned a lake raid, but failed
to get his government to sanction the
project until 1864, when the north
western Confederacy movement, of which
Jacob Thompson was the head, made it fit
in with the necessities of the Canadian
conspirators. Thompson and his gang
wanted foothold on Union soil near the
northern border. One of their cherished
plans was an uprising of the notorious
Sons of Liberty at Chicago, during the
Democratic national convention in Au-
gust, 1864. This was a tiascO, and Thomp-
son turned his attention seriously to the
lakes. About this time Beall arrived at
Sandusky. o. with authority to proceed
on his raiding enterprise. Thompson had
prepared the way for him by careful in
vestigation of the lake defenses, through
an emissary located at Sandusky-Capt.
Charles H. Cole, formerly of Morgan's
raiders. Cole was supplied with means to
entertain and bride such Union officials
as might be of service to the Confed-
eracy, and he finally concluded that
the control of the lakes could be
h.. 81 tl,n ,1,,,nt
Michigan, the sole defender of the waters
and the liberation of the Confederate pris-
oners AT Camp Douglass, Chicago, and at
Johnson's Island, in Sandusky bay.
Thompson gave Cole authority to capture
the Michigan, and appointed Beall to aid
him. 1t was arranged between Cole and
Beall that the former would remain at San
dusky and cooperate by bribing some of
the men on the Michigan, and by prepar-
| ing the prisoners on Johnson's Island for
an outbreak. The Michigan lay of the
| island. The date was fixed for the night
of Sept. 10, and Beall went to Canada to
organize force, hazarding everything, as
| will be seen, on the success of his confeder-
ate who at the decisive moment, when
Beall's attacking party should arrive off
| Sandusky, was to make rocket signals
from Johnson's Island that the expected
aid was n certainty.
Beall secured the services of Acting Mas
ter Bennett G.. Barley, of the Confederate
navy, Southern refugee in Canada, he
having escaped from Union captivity at
/ Fort Delaware a short time before, and
eighteen Confederate soldiers of similar
history. The party took passage on the
/ PhilO Parsons lake steamer running be-
tween Detroit and Sandusky. Consdera-
bic ingenuity was displayed in embarking
this force without causing suspicion. Bur
ley went on board at Detroit and secured
passage for himself and three friends, who
were to join him at Sandwich, Canada.
Sandwich was not stopping place, but the
vessel was slowed up alongside the dock
and Burleys friends, Beall among them,
sprang on board. At Maiden. Canada. in
a crowd of over twenty passengers, there
We're sixteen more of the party, two of
them carrying an old trunk tied with a
rope. Everything went on as usual during
the day until / o'clock in the afternoon
when the boat was four miles from the
Ohio shore
The captain had gone ashore at land
ing near Detroit, leaving the boat in
charge of the clerk, Ashley Ashley was
standing in front of the Office on the main
deck, and without a moments warning
was confronted by three men with drawn
revolvers, who threatened to shoot him if
he offered resistance simultaneously
Burnley, followed by a number of men, ap-
preached from the forward part of the
boat, leveed a revolver at Ashley and said;
Get into that cabin Qadies' cabin or you
are a dead man" Ashley complied, and
two men with revolvers took their stations
at the door as guards Then the old trunk,
which lay on the deck in plain view, was
opened and Burley's men armed them
selves from its contents with revolvers and
hatchets. Burley commanded the lower
deck. Meanwhile Beall, who had been in
conversation with the mate at the wheel,
drew revolver on that officer and said:
81 take possession of this boat in the name
of the Confederate States"