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The Green Bag
house, suddenly drew his revolver, and demanded possession of the boat as a Confederate officer. Recognizing the force of this argument, the mate sur rendered the wheel. The crew and pas sengers were overpowered, driven into the cabin, and the old trunk, which proved to be a small arsenal, opened, hatchets and revolvers distributed among the conspirators, and the course of the boat continued toward Sandusky, near which lay Johnson's Island. But at this point the success of the expedition cul minated. Failing to meet a messenger who was to have been sent to meet them at Kelley's Island, on the route of the steamer, or to receive an ex pected signal, all the conspirators but three mutinied, refused to go farther, and returned at top speed to Amherstberg, where the boat was scuttled and abandoned and the conspirators dis persed. Another steamer was captured and scuttled on the Lake. All of the men were arrested, taken before a Jus tice of the Peace and discharged, although the officers were sufficiently alert to seize certain property which had been landed and detain it for customs dues. It was fortunate the steamer turned about when she did. The officers of the Michigan had been apprised that the raid would be made that day. The Michigan, a man-of-war of fifteen guns, lay off the island, cleared for action, her guns shotted, her anchor hove short, and every preparation made to receive the expected guests. The messenger who was sent to Kelley's Island to join the conspirators had already been ar rested and put in custody. There was an available force of nine hundred men at the Island to put down any insurrec tion. That twenty men, armed only with revolvers and hatchets, should have been able to capture the Michigan and
release the prisoners was simply pre posterous. A single broadside from the Michigan would probably have sunk the steamer. The conception was grand, but the end was inglorious. Of course, the raid created great ex citement in the border states. General John A. Dix, already a familiar figure in the war, was sent to Detroit, an investigation made, affidavits procured, warrants sworn out in Windsor, opposite Detroit, for the arrest of the parties, and detectives sent to Toronto to assist the local authorities. Nothing further was heard of the conspirators until November 19th, when a telegram was received from Toronto, announcing the arrest of Burleigh, the second in com mand of the raiders, with the request for the immediate despatch of an official prosecutor and witnesses. I was acting as Assistant to the United States District Attorney at the time, and at once bestirred myself to obtain the necessary testimony, but much to my chagrin learned that the crew of the Parsons had all left the city, and that a single passenger, a young lady belonging to a well-known Detroit family, was the only witness available. I found her quite willing to go with me for the sake of a lark, and we took the train the next morning. We had scarcely crossed the St. Clair River at Port Huron, when I somehow felt that we were entering a hostile country. Indeed, as I soon found out, the Ohio and the Potomac rivers did not more distinctly separate the loyal from the disloyal states, than did the Detroit and the St. Clair rivers divide the Unionist sentiments of the Northern states from the Southern sympathizing inhabitants of the Ca nadian province. As our relations with our Canadian neighbors had been per fectly friendly and mutually profitable
