The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1956-02-16
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| found town on the island and laid
out town lots, which were hard to
SELL The customs house of the port
was located on it but nevertheless
the enterprise failed and the idea
was abandoned, the island still un-
inhabited.
In the Civil War year of 1861 the
island was leased by the United
States government as concentration
camp for Rebel prisoners. Buildings
were put up and in April, 1862, the
first Confederate prisoners were
brought there. Most of them "were
officers and were gentlemen" Com
pany A, Hoffman Battalion, was put
in charge of the prison island, later
being increased to a full regiment,
the 128th Ohio Volunteer Infantry.
On Johnson's Island the number
of prisoners constantly varied,
little more than 5000 being the
greatest number there at any one
time. By the close of the war how
ever, more than $4,000 rebels had
been confined on the island at some
time or other. The prison was be-
lieved to be one of the most secure
in the North.
In September, 1864, there was a
conspiracy to release the nearly 2,400
prisoners then on the island, arm
them, burn Sandusky, Cleveland and
the other defenseless lake cities,
steal horses and ride through Ohio,
raiding the Yankee country all the
way down to the rebel army in
Virginia. Learning of the plan the
northern government stationed the
steamer Michigan before Johnson's
Island the only Federal war vassel
on Lake Erie.
With the coming of the Michigan
the rebel plot thickened. That boat
was to be captured and used in TAX
ing the rebel prisoners of war off
the island. John Yeates Beall,
wealthy Virginia graduate of Vir-
ginia University, and Jacob Thomp-
son, a Confederate agent whom the
Yankees called "a fiend," were the
prime figures in the conspiracy. Had
he been on the other side, Thomp-
son would have been ga hero"
Beall was termed "the Pirate of
Lake Erie"
September 10, 1864, the steamer
Phile Parsons, plying between De-
troit, Sandusky and the Islands, was
boarded by four men at Sandusky, on
on the canadian shore, and by 20
more at Maiden. The latter had an
old trunk with them. After leaving
Kelly's Island four men with revolv-
ers captured the steamers clerk and
out of the old trunk came guns with
which the whole party armed them
selves. Beall was at their head. The
captured boat was turned and headed
back to Middle Bass Island.
There the Island Queen, another
Island steamer, came alongside and
was boarded Her captain, G. w. Orr,
was taken with about 20 passengers,
Lashed together, the two boats
started on but soon the Island Queen
was scuttled and the Philo Parsons
went on alone.
A wealthy Confederate officer
known only now as "Cole" had lured
the Michigan's officers off their
boat with wine supper but suspect
ing something, they refused to
drink and so remained sober. Cole
was arrested and thus, with no
signal coming from the Michigan for
its own attack, the Parsons cruised
around until realizing that the plot
had failed, the conspirators scuttled
that boat too and escaped on the
Canadian shore.
Beall soon was captured, charged
with being spy in both Ohio and
New York and with attempting to
wreck an express train between
Dunkirk and Buffalo. He confessed
much about the charges and on
February "a, 1865, was hanged on
Governors Island. The others were
released at the end of the war.
Being wealthy and mostly officers,
the prisoners on Johnson's Island were
we'll supplied with money and lived