Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1902-09-28
JOHHSOA'S ISLAND.
nnRILLIsG STORY a VISIT THERE
Fo RECALLS.
THOMPSON CONSPIRACY. ("
Eke Desperate Exploit of Major c..
II. CoIc-The Capture OF the Philo
Pnrsons-Execution of BealI-otI:c-
Confederate Matter of Interest.

The following. date Johnson's Island
appears IN the Cincinnati Commercial
Gazette:
More than thirty years have passed
since the earth was tossed into the last
Confederate grave on Johnson's Island.
Thirty years have cooled the hot blood Of
the South and iemporized the temper Of
:he North. The bayonets of the civil war
are rusting now: the saber's edge is
turned, and the heavy cannon that thun-
dered DER the battlefield is nodded into
implements of peace. Thirty years have
blotted out the evil memories of the past
and brought forth the dawn of the new
morn and the new South. The stars and
bars are amalgamated with the stars and
stripes. But as the events Of those thrill
ing times are slowly but surely fading
from view some little incident now ard
then recalls with a viTidness that
smacSs of yesterday, a great epoch in the
war, forming the riret that connects the
chains Of history.
An old gray-haired man with his aged
wife leaning on his arm, wandered
through the Confederate cemetery. on
Johnson's Island, during the recent en-
campment of the Ohio G.. A. r.. at San
dusky. The couple passed before ench
stone and scanned t,2o with
apparent interest. l4a sa@ tss
narrow avenues ha,weer The g-aNes been
traversed The old man rested wcariiy
,yDou mic walking SticI;
Not here" said he not here.
The words had barely passed his lips
when his wife. falling on her knees, cried
out ''0h, father! father!''
The old man FASTENED to her, side. She
was supporting herself by marble slab,
which bore this inscription:
LIEUTENANT COMPANY G,
john c. HOLT,
Sixty-first Tennessee Infantry.
For thirty years the father and
mother. who live near Nashville. Tenn,
have sought their son They found him
during a reunion of the North and South,
in the graveyard of a northern prison.
John Holt died in 1865, and was one Of
the three thousand or more officers who
looked for liberty through one of the
most stupendous plots of the war OF the
rebe!Iion-an uprising in The North. The
finding of his grave by his parents the
other day brings back to mind the great
conspiracy TO iiberate 10000 Confeaeratr
prisoners in the North size the northern
frontier and put a period 10 the struggle
in the South by one grand STROKE Of arms
sanauslzy was The theatre Of these tragic
events an. Johnson's island was TO be
the first point of attack. AS one
looks over The peaceful little island
to-day as lies in the pretty lana-lock-
ed bay three miles from Sandusky, ne
can scarcely realize that it was once pco-
plcd with troops, that the mower OF the
Southern armies was imprisoned tEcre'
behind a strong stockade, and that it was
tho scene of one Of the most sensational
events of the late war. Yet the block
house, the powder magazines, the OH
GERS quarters, the old church ana the ut
lie cemetery are still there, and the eartl-
en- enbani,ncnts Of the two forts are ior-
chile reminders that heavy ordnance were
one planted there, commanding sweep
OF the entire island.
while the people of the North We're
reggiag IN 1aacied security, John holt
and his companions were watching ana
waiting patiently for the signal ina I
would inform them of the capture u
The r0an-of-war Michigan, the thfo"lis
open OF the prison gates at camp Dous
las near Chicago, where SOW SohieuS-
rates We're confined; at Camp chase ne -,
columbus. O., where there were s.VVo
more. and at Camp Norton Indianapolis
with about 4,coO. The 800 officers or, on
Johnson's island were to command this this
army of newly liberated Confederate sol
diers and sweep the North across us
entire breadth. carrying havoc ana PAM
throughout its course, and possibly tu ,I.;1
ing the tide III favor OF the Soutn. ie
time was ripe for such slSahliS soii-
sniracy II was in 1864, when the Demo
crats of the North were preparing TO de-
clare in national convention that The war