The Confederate Lake Erie Plot
Logan Barrett, Director of History & Collections
Exploring the stories of the Civil War navies broadens the scope of the war to unexpected waters. These stories include the Caribbean experiences of Confederate blockade runners in places such as Haiti and Cuba, the Battle of Cherbourg which pitted the USS Kearsarge against the CSS Alabama and ended with the Confederate vessel sinking in the English Channel off the coast of France, and the CSS Shenandoah’s raids of whaling ships in the Bering Sea and Artic Ocean. A less remembered story is the Confederate attempt to capture the USS Michigan and wreak havoc on the Great Lakes region.
Commissioned in 1843, the USS Michigan was the United States Navy’s first iron-hulled ship, and the vessel held a commanding presence as she patrolled the Great Lakes. As the only naval gunship on the lakes, the Michigan was built to defend the region during a period of political tension in Canada which saw escalation of military operations along the border. By the Civil War, the ship’s primary duty was stopping pirates from disrupting the region’s timber industry.
In April 1862, Johnson’s Island on Lake Erie near Sandusky, Ohio, opened as a prisoner of war camp holding captured Confederates. Originally intended to hold Confederate officers, the camp soon held enlisted men as well as partisan fighters, informants, and saboteurs. During the war, 15,000 men spent time imprisoned within the walls of the camp. Though the camp had one of the lowest casualty rates of any wartime military prison, disease and harsh weather still took its toll. Confederate prisoners made several attempts to escape. Confederates outside the prison also conspired to free the prisoners.
USS Michigan
The first Confederate plot involving the Great Lakes was planned in 1863. Lieutenant William Henry Murdaugh of the Confederate States Navy proposed a clandestine operation in which he would lead a small group of Confederate naval officers into Canada to hire a Canadian crew of Confederate sympathizers who would then man a steamer purchased by the Confederate government. Murdaugh then planned to use that steamer to board the Michigan in Erie, Pennsylvania, so that the Michigan could serve as a Confederate flagship in an invasion of the Great Lakes region. The Michigan, featuring an armament of 14 guns including several Parrott Rifles, could control the lakes, free the prisoners at Johnson’s Island, and support Canadian-based Confederate operations. Jefferson Davis, no stranger to hearing outlandish schemes from energetic officers, declined to support Murdaugh’s plot.
Johnson’s Island Prisoner of War Camp drawn by prisoner G. W. Melvin, Lieutenant in the 9th Louisiana
Davis was much more responsive to a Great Lakes conspiracy by 1864 and a plot was hatched. In the United States, rumors swirled of Canada serving as a launch point for Confederate invasion. United States Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles ordered Michigan commander John C. Carter to remain vigilant and to keep the ship, “prepared for active service as soon as the ice will permit.” Captain Charles H. Cole, a Confederate agent working around Lake Erie who had been imprisoned on Johnson’s Island, began introducing himself to officers of the Michigan when the ship was stationed near Sandusky. He hoped to gain their confidence so he could infiltrate the ship as part of an operation to steal the Great Lake’s only gunboat and use the vessel to liberate Johnson’s Island. Meanwhile, a group of Confederates led by John Yates Beall would serve as the muscle of the plot.
On September 19, 1864, Beall in command of a couple dozen Confederates, armed with navy revolvers and hatchets, captured the side-wheel commercial steamer Philo Parsons near Kelleys Island, Ohio. Beall’s men next used the Philo Parsons to attack and capture Iron Queen, another commercial steamer that they scuttled. Aboard the Philo Parsons, the Confederate crew headed to Johnson’s Island where they were to await a signal sent from Cole on shore that it was time to capture the Michigan. The signal never came—United States naval officials sniffed out Cole’s ulterior motives for befriending the Michigan’s officers and sent a telegram to Johnson’s Island informing the officers he was spy. Cole was arrested without sending the signal. When the signal from Cole did not arrive by midnight, Beall’s men refused to continue. Reluctantly, Beall abandoned the plan and took the Philo Parsons to Canada where the steamer was scuttled, and the crew escaped.
​
The September 1864 Confederate operation proved a failure and ended further attempts to capture the Michigan. After the Lake Erie Plot, the leaders of the conspiracy experienced diverging fortunes. While Cole remained imprisoned for most of the remainer of the war, Abraham Lincoln granted a presidential pardon for Cole which prevented his execution. After the war, Cole moved to Texas and became a rancher. Not captured on Lake Erie, Beall continued to plan covert operations for the Confederate Government. On December 16, 1864, Beall attempted a plot to derail a passenger train carrying Confederate prisoners, but was discovered and arrested in Niagara, New York. Following a conviction, Lincoln refused to grant a pardon to Beall, reasoning he was a more violent individual than Cole. Beall was executed on February 24, 1865.
​
The USS Michigan continued to patrol the Great Lakes for the United States Navy. The ship was renamed the USS Wolverine and served until 1912 when it was turned over to the Pennsylvania Naval Militia and used as a training vessel until 1923.