Thomas Hines Thomas Henry Hines ( October 8 , 1838 – January 23 , 1898 ) was a Confederate cavalryman who was known for his spying activities during the last two years of the American Civil War . A native of Butler County , Kentucky , he initially worked as a grammar instructor , mainly at the Masonic University of La Grange , Kentucky . During the first year of the war , he served as a field officer , initiating several raids . He was an important assistant to John Hunt Morgan , doing a preparatory raid ( Hines ' Raid ) in advance of Morgan ' s Raid through the states of Indiana and Ohio , and after being captured with Morgan , organized their escape from the Ohio Penitentiary . He was later involved in espionage and tried to stir up insurrections against the Federal government in selected Northern locales . On several occasions during the war , Hines was forced to make narrow , seemingly impossible , escapes . At one point , he concealed himself in a mattress that was being used at the time ; on another occasion , he was confused for the actor and assassin John Wilkes Booth , a dangerous case of mistaken identity that forced him to flee Detroit in April 1865 by holding a ferry captain at gunpoint . Union agents viewed Hines as the man they most needed to apprehend , but apart from the time he served at the Ohio Penitentiary in late 1863 , he was never captured . After the war , once it was safe for him to return to his native Kentucky , he settled down with much of his family in Bowling Green . He started practicing law , which led him to serve on the Kentucky Court of Appeals , eventually becoming its Chief Justice . Later , he practiced law in Frankfort , Kentucky , until his death in 1898 , keeping many of the secrets of Confederate espionage from public knowledge . Early life . Hines was born in Butler County , Kentucky , on October 8 , 1838 , to Judge Warren W . and Sarah Carson Hines and was raised in Warren County , Kentucky . While his education was largely informal , he spent some time in common schools . He was tall , and weighed a mere . With his slender build , Hines was described as rather benign in appearance , and a friend observed that he had a voice resembling that of a " refined woman " . He was said to have a fondness not only for women , but also music and horses . He became an adjunct professor at the Masonic University , a school established by the Grand Lodge of Kentucky Freemasons for teaching the orphans of Kentucky Masons in La Grange in 1859 . He was the principal of its grammar school , but with the advent of the war , he joined the Confederate Army in September 1861 . Civil War . Early war experiences . Hines joined the Confederate army , as did at least eleven of his cousins . Hines initially led " Buckner ' s Guides " , which were attached to Albert Sidney Johnston ' s command , as his fellow guides recognized his " coolness and leadership " . In November 1861 , he was given a lieutenant ' s commission . On December 31 , 1861 , he led a successful mission to Borah ' s Ferry , Kentucky , to attack a Union outpost there . The Guides were disbanded in January 1862 after the Confederate government of Kentucky fled Bowling Green , as Hines did not want to fight anywhere except in Kentucky . He traveled to Richmond , Virginia , and missed the Battle of Shiloh as a result . In April , he decided to join Brig . Gen . John Hunt Morgan , and he re - enlisted in the army as a private in the 9th Kentucky Cavalry in May 1862 . Morgan recognized Hines ' talents and commissioned him as a captain on June 10 , 1862 . Afterward , Hines spent most of his time engaged in secret missions in his beloved Kentucky . Dressed in civilian clothes , he usually operated alone to avoid drawing attention to himself , not wanting to be executed as a spy . On many of his forays in Kentucky , Hines made special trips to see loved ones . Often it was to visit Nancy Sproule , his childhood sweetheart and future bride , in Brown ' s Lock , near Bowling Green . On other occasions he visited his parents in Lexington , Kentucky . In both places , Union spies attempted to capture Hines , but he always escaped , even after his father had been captured and his mother was sick in bed . 1863 . In June 1863 , Hines led an invasion into Indiana with 25 Confederates posing as a Union unit in pursuit of deserters . Their goal was to see if the local Copperheads would support the invasion of John Hunt Morgan planned for July 1863 . Traveling through Kentucky for eight days to obtain supplies for their mission , they crossed the Ohio River to enter Indiana , near the village of Derby , on June 18 , 1863 . Hines visited the local Copperhead leader , Dr . William A . Bowles , in French Lick , and learned that there would be no formal support for Morgan ' s Raid . On his way back to Kentucky , Hines and his men were discovered in Valeene , Indiana , leading to a small skirmish near Leavenworth , Indiana , on Little Blue Island . Hines had to abandon his men as he swam across the Ohio River under gunfire . After wandering around Kentucky for a week , Hines rejoined General Morgan at Brandenburg , Kentucky . Colonel Basil W . Duke made a disparaging comment in his memoirs about how Hines appeared on the Brandenburg riverfront , saying Hines was " apparently the most listless inoffensive youth that was ever imposed upon " ; despite being Morgan ' s second - in - command , Colonel Duke was usually not told of all the espionage Hines was carrying out , causing some to believe that Hines and Duke did not like each other , which was not the case . It was due to Hines that the riverboats " Alice Dean " and the " John T . McCombs " were captured for the purpose of transporting Morgan ' s 2000 + men force across the Ohio River . It was Hines ' reports that encouraged Morgan to be rough with anyone posing as a Confederate sympathizer in Indiana , as Morgan had been relying on support from sympathizers in Indiana to be successful on his raid . Hines stayed with Morgan until the end of the Raid , and was with John Hunt Morgan during their imprisonment , first at Johnson ' s Island , and later at the Ohio Penitentiary just outside downtown Columbus , Ohio , where , despite the rules of war dictating that prisoners of war should go to military prison , they were put in with common criminals . Escape . Hines discovered a way to escape from the Ohio Penitentiary . He had been reading the novel " Les Misérables " and was said to be inspired by Jean Valjean and Valjean ' s escapes through the passages underneath Paris , France . Hines noticed how dry the lower prison cells felt and how they were lacking in mold , even through sunlight never shined there . This caused him to believe that escape by tunneling down was possible . After discovering an air chamber underneath them , which he had deduced , Hines begun the tunneling effort . The tunnel was only eighteen inches wide , which was just large enough for him to enter the four foot by four foot air chamber that was surrounded by heavy masonry . As Hines and the six others who accompanied Hines and John Hunt Morgan worked on the tunnel , a thin crust of dirt was used to hide the tunneling from the prison officials . They tunneled for six weeks , with the tunnel ' s exit coming between the inner and the outer prison walls , near a coal pile . On the day of escape , November 26 , 1863 , Morgan switched cells with his brother , Colonel Richard Morgan . The day was chosen as a new Union military commander was coming to Columbus , and Morgan knew that the prison cells would be inspected at that time . Together , after the daily midnight inspection , Hines , John Hunt Morgan and five captains under Morgan ' s command used the tunnel to escape . Aided by the fact that the prison sentries sought shelter from the raging storm occurring at the time , the Confederate officers climbed the wall effortlessly , using metal hooks to effect their escape . Hines had even left a note for the warden . It read : " Warden N . Merion , the Faithful , the Vigilant " as follows : " Castle Merion , Cell No . 20 . November 27 , 1863 . Commencement , November 4 , 1863 . Conclusion , November 20 , 1863 . Hours for labor per day , three . Tools , two small knives . " La patience est amere , mais son fruit est doux . " By order of my six honorable confederates . " Those left behind were strip searched and moved to different cells in the Ohio State Penitentiary . Two of the officers who escaped with Hines and Morgan , Captain Ralph Sheldon and Captain Samuel Taylor , were captured four days later in Louisville , Kentucky , but the other three ( Captain Jacob Bennett , Captain L . D . Hockersmith , and Captain Augustus Magee ) made good their escape to Canada and the South . Hines led John Hunt Morgan back to Confederate lines . First , they arrived at the train station in downtown Columbus , where they bought tickets to Cincinnati , Ohio . The duo jumped off the train before it entered the Cincinnati train station . They continued to evade capture in Cincinnati , staying for one night at the Ben Johnson House in Bardstown , Kentucky . In Tennessee , Hines diverted the Union troops ' attention away from John Hunt Morgan , and was himself recaptured and sentenced to death by hanging . He escaped that night by telling stories to the soldier in charge of him and subdued him when given the chance . A few days later he again escaped Union soldiers who intended to hang him . Northwest Conspiracy . Hines went to the Confederate capital of Richmond , Virginia , after his escape in January 1864 . He convinced Confederate President Jefferson Davis of a plan to instill mass panic in the Northern states , by means of freeing prisoners and causing arson in larger Northern cities . Impressed by Hines ' plan , Davis agreed to back him . Davis urged Hines to tell Secretary of State Judah P . Benjamin and Secretary of War James Seddon his plan . Both men agreed to the plan , and encouraged Hines to proceed , with the only hesitation by Davis , Benjamin and Sheldon being the effect on public opinion on such a plan , including what Great Britain and France would think of Hines ' actions . Hines thought it would be easier to enter the North from Canada and traveled there during the winter . Hines led the Northwest Conspiracy from Canada in the fall of 1864 . Colonel Benjamin Anderson was involved in the plot , along with other Confederate soldiers . It was hoped that Hines and his men would be able to free the Confederate prisoners held at Camp Douglas in Chicago , Illinois . Hines led sixty men from Toronto , Ontario , on August 25 , 1864 . They arrived during the Democratic Party National Convention held in Chicago that year . The Copperheads had told Hines to wait until that time , as they said that 50 , 000 Copperheads would be there for the event . However , encountering Copperhead hesitation to assist Hines and his force , and with Federal authorities apparently knowledgeable of the plot , Hines and his men were forced to flee Chicago on August 30 , 1864 . Many of the men thought Anderson may have been a double agent , forcing him to leave the group . A second attempt to free the Camp Douglas Confederate prisoners occurred during the United States Presidential Election of 1864 , but that plan was also foiled . In the same year he tried to free Confederate prisoners of war by recruiting former members of Morgan ' s Raiders who had escaped to Canada , including John Hunt Morgan ' s telegrapher George " Lightning " Ellsworth , who was a native of Canada . On his last day in Chicago , Hines had to avoid discovery by Union soldiers inspecting the home he was hiding in by crawling into in a mattress upon which the homeowner ' s wife lay ill with delirium . The Union soldiers inspected the house he was in , and even checked to see if Hines was the one lying on the bed , but did not discover Hines in the mattress . The soldiers established a guard by the door of the house . As it rained the next day , visitors were encouraged to visit the sick woman . The soldiers never looked at the faces under the umbrellas , and as a result , Hines sneaked out of the house and left Chicago . Late war . In October 1864 , Hines again went to Cincinnati , after crossing covertly through Indiana , where Union troops had again sought him . This time , with the help of friends whose home he hid in , Hines concealed himself in an old closet obscured by mortar and red bricks , where he avoided detection by the Union troops who inspected the house . Hines learned there that his beloved Nancy Sproule was in an Ohio convent . He decided to " spirit " her from it , and on November 10 , 1864 , at St . Mary ' s Catholic Church in Covington , Kentucky , they were married , despite her father ' s wishes that they wait until the war was over , due to Hines ' wartime activities . They spent a week ' s honeymoon in Kentucky , after which Hines returned to his clandestine activities in Canada . Two days after Lincoln ' s assassination , on April 16 , 1865 , Hines was in Detroit , Michigan , when he was mistaken for John Wilkes Booth , who was then the subject of a massive manhunt . After finding himself in a fight , Hines jumped several fences and made his way to Detroit ' s wharf . He waited for a ferryboat to empty its passengers and then forced the captain at gunpoint to take him across the Detroit River to Canada . On arrival , Hines apologized to the captain and gave him five dollars . Hines ' exploit led to the mistaken rumor that Booth had escaped into Canada . Post - war . After his escape from Detroit , Hines went to Toronto where several other former Confederates lived . Not expecting to return to the United States , he sent for his wife Nancy . While in Toronto he studied law with General John C . Breckinridge , a former Vice President of the United States . Once U . S . President Andrew Johnson declared a pardon for most former Confederates , Hines went back to Detroit on July 20 , 1865 , to sign a loyalty oath to the United States . However , knowing that Union officials in Kentucky would consider him an exception to the pardon , he remained in Canada until May 1866 . After sending his wife to Kentucky , where their first child was born , Hines began living in Memphis , Tennessee , passing the bar exam on June 12 , 1866 , with high honors . During his stay in Memphis he also edited the " Daily Appeal " . Hines moved to Bowling Green , Kentucky , in 1867 , where many of his family lived , and practiced law there . Basil W . Duke appointed Hines a colonel in the Soldiers of the Red Cross . Hines later became the County Judge for Warren County , Kentucky . Hines was elected to the Kentucky Court of Appeals in 1878 and served there until 1886 . From 1884 to 1886 , he served as Chief Justice . He was said to be " exceptionally free from all judicial bias " . Hines was a witness to the assassination of fellow judge John Milton Elliott on March 26 , 1879 , while the two were leaving the Kentucky State House , by Colonel Thomas Buford , a judge from Henry County , Kentucky . Buford , enraged by Elliott ' s failure to rule in favor of his late sister in a property dispute , shot Elliott with a double - barreled shotgun filled with twelve gauge buckshot after Hines had turned and walked away from Elliott . Hines inspected the body as Buford surrendered to a deputy sheriff who had come to investigate the turmoil . After his time on the Kentucky Court of Appeals , Hines returned to practicing law in Frankfort , Kentucky . In 1886 , Hines began writing a series of four articles discussing the Northwest Conspiracy for Basil W . Duke ' s " Southern Bivouac " magazine . The magazine was dedicated to the memory of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy , but was less adversarial than similar Southern magazines , gaining a larger Northern readership than similar journals . The first of the articles was printed in the December 1886 issue . However , after consulting with former Confederate president Jefferson Davis at Davis ' home in Mississippi , Hines did not name anybody on the Northern side who assisted in the conspiracy . After writing the first article , Hines was attacked for not being more forthcoming regarding all the participants from both newspapers reviewers ( particularly from the " Louisville Times ) " and Southern readers , which discouraged Hines from publishing any more accounts of the Northwest Conspiracy . Hines died in 1898 in Frankfort , and was buried in Fairview Cemetery in Bowling Green , Kentucky , in the Hines series of plots . Also among the Hines family plots is the grave site of Duncan Hines , a second cousin twice removed . Misinformation . Historical markers concerning Hines ' exploits have occasionally included mistaken information . The historical marker placed by the Indiana Civil War Centennial Commission in 1963 in the vicinity of Derby , Perry County , Indiana , to memorialize Hines ' entry into Indiana states that Hines invaded Indiana in 1862 , although he actually did so in 1863 . In addition , a marker by the Confederate Monument of Bowling Green in Bowling Green ' s Fairview Cemetery says that Hines died before he could go to the dedication ceremony in 1876 , when in reality he died in 1898 and is buried a few hundred feet away .