The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-09-16
NEW LIGHT ON WARTIME PLOT
,0ooKLYN MAN WHO FOUNDED
~ "SONS OF LIBERTY"

rant I0nAuCuNeA
ChaDter or the COnfedcraOyS History
Plot 20 Burn New York Only ono %
W,uv COnspIracies Hatched Up North.
Through the publication In The SUN Of
s.a,arber 0 Of an article from the Army and
VA Journal, which gave John W. Head
80 .torv OF the plot that was laid In 1884
artain OF the secret service men Of the
CC,0tsderacy to burn New York, there has
Kan brought to light a new chapter OF the
hidden history Of the civil war.
A certain Captain Longtime was mon
,ionsd in the article as being connected with
Wv conspiracy to set New York aflre, and
- toiLpre OF the scheme wa attributed by
49, yyriter OF the article to this Captain
tnnomire" and his associate, the late James
WcNaster. one time editor Of the Free
mans journal
srN a communication signed BY E.. Longue-
mare. who lives at 84l7 Glenwood road,
, BROOKLYN, taking issue with the Army
Nory Journals article, E. Longuemarc and
the Captain Longmire' Of the Army and
Ncry Journals story are the same. z.
IonS,emare was a spy in the service OF the
Confederacy during the civil war. What
:. has known about some OF the under
Ground history Of that struggle he has hith-
sr,o kept secret, he says, because the papers
oroa in his possession by which he could
uro,a the truth of his statements he burned
b.sore the close Of the war in order to escape
prosecution by the Federal Government.
Yesterday Mr.. Longuemare told a re-
nor,er of The Sun some Of the facts about
~. oonspiracy that existed In some OF the
. Eor+bern States to raise an army among
Southern sympathizers there and strike a
hlow at the backs Of the Northern armies
in the field. This is the story MIR. Tongue
mare told:
For forty years I have watched history
~ the civil war in the process Of being
uritten. and / have noted some OF the in
accuracies and some OF the omissions that
have characterized the accounts that have
been written. 1 nave said nothing, because
some OF the facts know concerning the
conduct Of men high in the estimation Of
, the historians l cannot verify by docu-
nentary evidence. AL my papers were
burned in st. GATHERINGS, Canada, to pre-
vent their falling into the hands OF the
Federal officers. But l know that my name
snpears in the secret war archives in Wash
ington, coupled with those OF more than
one man to whom statues have been erected
since t e war. My story can be verified
by these secret archives.
Il was born in st. Louis, and l lived there
when the civil war began. My first ex-
perience was with the force raised by Gen.
DIN. Frost in 81. Louis to join the Confederate
forces. While we were in camp at Camp
Jackson we we're surrounded by the regi-
ment secretly raised by Gen. Frank Blair
among the Germans OF the city and cap
tured, as you know. I escaped before I
had been long in prison and made my way
at once to Richmond.
AT the time Gen. Frost raised his st.
Louis regiment l was aware Of the existence
Of the secret society which called itself
the Knights Of the Golden Circle. This
society. as history tells, was founded about
1855, and had for its object the spread Of
slavery and later the advancement Of the
cause Of the South. II had many lodges in
the middle Western States, wen at the time
g, Of the outbreak Of the Rebellion.
Being intimately acquainted with the
york Of this order, / laid before Jefferson
Davis the project to draw from this society
into a new and closer organization q band
Of Southern sympathizers which should
rise throughout the middle West and strike
At the Federal armies in the South. The
project met with favor, and l was dele gated
by the Confederate Government to organize
such society.
Il went first to St. Louis, where I met
certain men more or less prominent in the
efairs Of the city and believed to be stanch
Unionists. One Of these men was Charles
Hunt, the son-in-law Of James H. Lucas,
credited with being the wealthiest man in
St. Louis at that time. We organized the
first lodge OF the Sons Of Liberty.
The order was a secret one, the oaths
were very stringent and the direct object
Of the society was not revealed TO initiates
until after they had been for some time
members. That object was a military
one. Our aim was TO do all the hurt we
could 10 the Federal cause secretly and
eventually TO rise openly and make a flank
movement on the armies operating in
tennessee and Kentucky.
The society spread rapidly. Every
where | went | found men who were secretly
in sy mpathy with the Southern cause and
who had already gathered a nucleus about
them for the establishment of lodges. In
Illinois a man by the name of Dodd oil
Paris, Edgar county. was made State com
msnder. In Indiana Judge Milliken and
Col. Bowles were the secret leaders. Clement
l. ~Nailandigham was re commander in
Ohio and james A. McMasters occupied
alat place in New York.
BY the beginning Of 1882 had positive
assurances that from Indiana, Illinois
Missouri and Ohio we could depend upor
5000 men. And what is more. there wa
aGsneral in the Union forces operating II
Tennessee who had reported to one Of oul
State leaders that his division could b,
eIended upon. This last statement may
sound somewhat wild, but l have reason
TO believe that this same General was sus
rected by the people at Washington and
that his name is down on the secret archives
ofthe war linked with mine.
When l had travelled all over the terri
tory and had assured myself that what ha,
been promised could be relied upon / sen
& messenger to jefferson Davis with tn
report. Upon the strength Of that repOr
Gems. Forrest and Morgan were ordere,
to cooperate with the Son Of Liberty risinI
In the Middle States and everything wa
prepared for the time when with thes
two armies coming up through Kentuck.
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