St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1896-03-06

| the cn1eI promoter OF tne Lake Erie raid
of September, 1864, hut technically the
offense for which he died was that of
being a spy.
The judge advocate who condemned
Beall described him as one whom vio-
lent passions had shorn Of his native
element of manliness and led him to
commit deeds which to have suspected
him capable of at an earlier stage of
his career would have been a calumny
and crime" He might have added
that one would not expect to find united
in any one man the power to conceive,
to direct and execute plots so daring as
those in which Beall engaged. His lake
raid only wanted success to place it be-
side Cushing's enterprise in sinking the
Albemarle. And the failure did not rest
upon Beall. Like Cushing, Beall plan
ned his raid and took all the RESPONSE
bility upon his own shoulders.
For some time before he appeared on
the border stage Beall had led the dar-
ing life of swamp angel" on the
lower Potomac river His work had
been the destruction of Union commerce.
In some foray of the kind he was
wounded and received a commission as
acting master in the Confederate navy.
He learned in 1864 that the Confeder-
ate authorities were scheming to obtain
foothold upon the border and were op-
Grating in that direction through ennis
saries in Canada. There were several
failures in this direction, and after the
notable one of the proposed emeute of
the Sons Of Liberty during the Dem
ocratic convention in Chicago, Beall's
daring plan was taken up by the Rich
mond government and its agents in Can.
ada.
Beall reached the lakes at Sandusky,
O., and the details were arranged for
cooperation on shore and in loyal terri
tory. The notorious Jacob Thompson,
the Confederate emissary in Canada, had
prepared the way by study of the lake
defenses This work had been intrusted
chiefly to Captain Cole, one of the Nor
gan raiders who had escaped and found
safe hiding on the border. Cole and
Beall met at Sandusky. Success in the
daring raid was to rest finally upon
Cole, but the part of the enterprise call
ing for the highest quality of nerve was
that assumed by Beall.
Coles share of the enterprise was
that of the secret villain. He was liber-
ally supplied with money and instruct
ed to bride anybody who could serve his
purpose or who stood in the way and
was purchasable. In that manner he
was expected to secure an uprising of
the prisoners at the war prisons on
Johnson's island, in Lake Erie, and at
Camp Chase, Chicago. One of the de-
lenses of Lake Erie. and the grim guard
ian, on the water side, Of Johnson's is
land prison, was the United States gun
boat Michigan. The Michigan lay off
the island within cannon and signal
range. Coles money was to silence the
guns Of the Michigan at the moment
for Beall to strike his blow. This part
Of the plan was dramatic, but not at all
difficult as things were then. By means
of a banquet, graced by pretty women,
to the ships officers and feast for the
crew, the fighting force of the Michigan
was to be placed in the condition of
Samson-shorn of its strength. Mean
while Beall was to be out in the lake
with fighting force we'll in hand and
act upon signal to be sent up from the
island, saying that everything was fixed
for the armed descent of the raiders.
Beall, like Cole, was still in the Con-
federate service and under orders from
the Richmond authorities. Both were
in disguise and were therefore spies.
Beall proceeded to Canada and muster
ed force of fighting men to aid in the
capture Of the Michigan. He secured
the aid Of another naval officer, Bennett
g. Burley, and these two carried out
one Of the most daring enterprises of
the war. As before stated, Cushing's
raid outshone it because it succeeded.
Andrews railroad raid into Georgia
was another of the same class and was
also failure.
Wonderful ingenuity was called for at
every stage of the undertaking, and the
ingenuity was backed by the most as
founding GOODNESS of nerve. The first
step was to secure vessel as base
and ship-ofwar. Burley took passage
on lake steamer plying between San
dusky and Detroit. This was the Philo
Parsons, an American ship. She did not
stop regularly at Sandwich, Canada,
but Burley prevailed upon her master
to slow up on her down trip and take
aboard three friends of his, who, he
said, were waiting there for him. One
of the trio was Boall At Maiden, Can.
ada, 20 passengers got aboard, and l6 |
of them were accomplices of the raider
chief.
1t was not alone re-enforcements of
men that were added to the expedition
at Maiden, but of arms and equipments.
The raiders intended to seize vessel
and to fight for it if necessary. Two Of
the recruits at Maiden carried between
them trunk containing revolvers and
hatchets, Everything went on as usual