Wilmington to Canada:

Blockade Runners & Secret Agents

by Bernhard Thuersam

Cape Fear Historical Institute

Blockade Runner Robert E. Lee

Overview:

The port of Wilmington during the War Between the States was a

vital link that provided arms, munitions and foodstuffs for

the fledgling Confederacy.

During North Carolina’s second bid for independence, Wilmington became the main loading point for government cotton exports and

the importation of supplies, despite the Northern blockade, until its fall on January 16, 1865. To illustrate the importance of Wilmington to the Southern war effort and the immense volume of commercial traffic of its port by 1864, Secretary of War Judah P. Benjamin estimated that the annualized 1863 exports from the city were $21 million, almost five times the total foreign commerce of the entire State of North Carolina just five years earlier.”

This vital link was important and long-lasting enough for General U.S. Grant III, President of the US Civil War Centennial Commission in 1961, to remark “(if it) is correct…that between October 26, 1864 and January 1865 it was still possible for 8,632,000 lbs of meat, 1,507,000 lbs of lead, 1,933,000 lbs of saltpeter, 546,000 pairs of shoes, 316,000 blankets, half a million pounds of coffee, 69,000 rifles, and 43 cannon to run the blockade into the port of Wilmington alone, while cotton sufficient to pay for these purchases was exported, it is evident that the blockade runners made an important contribution to the Confederate effort to carry on.”

An Effective Southern Response to the Blockade:
The ability of the runners to thwart the blockade can be best summed up with Northern Admiral David Porter complaining to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Wells in December 1864 that “the new class of blockade runners is very fast, and (they) sometimes come in and play around our vessels; they are built entirely for speed.” This is how, by the last quarter of 1864, 23 out of 26 ships had successfully run the strong blockade from Wilmington.
It should be mentioned too that the success of the blockade runners was underscored by the Southern sympathies of England and its colonies surrounding the United States. The English upper classes “saw in the South a genteel, romantic way of life threatened by industrial vandals,” and a resentment of the increasing economic power of the US which the North symbolized---“an arrogant and encroaching people.” Britain’s governor of the Bahamas, Charles John Bayley, was decidedly pro-South and Bermuda’s governor H. St. George Ord, “…was officially neutral but privately predisposed toward Southern activities.”

Canadian View of The War Between the States:
In Canada’s view, the United States was seen as a dangerously aggressive neighbor which would eventually attack Canada when strong enough, and Colonel Garnet Wolseley of the British army in Canada argued that Britain should grant the Confederacy diplomatic status. He recommended that the division of the United States into two separate republics would “immediately strengthen the position of Britain’s Canadian colonies.” Many Canadians thought that if the South wanted to go its separate way because of a different culture, that “surely this was no different than the desire of the Thirteen Colonies who had declared independence from Britain in 1776. Seen in that light, the disintegration of the union was merely a continuation of events begun some eighty-odd years earlier.” This understanding of the war was underscored by Canadian newspapers referring to the great conflict as the “American Revolution.” The Canadian anxiety was increased when several American newspapers called for the annexation of Canada in December 1864; and Hastings Doyle, commander of British troops in the Atlantic, relating a conversation with Northern Generals Grant and Meade when it was intimated that Canada would be attacked after Mexico was dispensed with.

In February 1865, Canadian Cabinet Minister D’arcy McGee was referring to the expansionist United States when he said: “They coveted Florida and seized it; they coveted Louisiana and purchased it…they picked a quarrel with Mexico which ended by their getting California…The acquisition of Canada was the first ambition of (America)…Is it likely to be stopped now, when she counts her guns afloat by thousands and her troops by the hundreds of thousands?” Thus, Canada was sympathetic to the South and hoped for two smaller, and less threatening, neighbors who might leave British North America alone.

Entry to Canada:
The port of Halifax, Nova Scotia was a familiar destination for Confederate agents traveling to Canada, and most would sail on a runner to Bermuda, then take passage on the British mail ships that ran every two weeks to Halifax. Bermuda was about 675 miles and a good 72 hours of sailing time from Wilmington. Some runs from Wilmington would bypass Bermuda---

in August 1864, the Old Dominion and the City of Petersburg delivered 2,000 bales of cotton to Halifax after a five-day sail up the coast and past blockaders. Another runner, the Helen went to Halifax twice in late 1864.
Escaped Confederate soldiers were also passengers on blockade runners, seven of whom booked passage on the runner Armstrong in St. George’s Bermuda bound for Wilmington in November 1864, after having escaped

a Yankee prison and made their way to Halifax, Nova Scotia,

then to Bermuda.

Among other commodities leaving and entering the port on Wilmington were government officials of the Southern Confederacy, as well as secret agents and banished Northern peace advocates. Among the latter was Ohio Congressman Clement Vallandigham, who was exiled to the Confederacy for criticizing Lincoln and his pro-war administration, sent to President Jefferson Davis in Richmond, then to General William Whiting

in Wilmington to be put aboard the blockade runner Cornubia in June 1863, destined for Bermuda. From there, Vallandigham continued on to Canada, ending up at the Clifton House Hotel in Niagara Falls and running as a peace candidate for Ohio governor in 1863. The Clifton House was

a popular hotel situated on the edge of the Niagara gorge at the foot of present day Clifton Hill Road, now the site of a botanical garden. It began operation in the 1830’s under Harmanus Crysler, and was one of the

most popular tourist hotels in Canada with many famous visitors. According to the Lundy's Lane Historical Society, antebellum boarders included:

"Jenny Lind, the Swedish Nightingale (who) stayed there for three months in 1851 and sang often from its balconies. Charles Dickens and his wife visited the area for 10 days in the spring of 1841" and probably stayed at the Clifton House. "In September 1860. the

Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) visited for five days...(and) his retinue stayed in "the little cottages which fill the bountiful gardens

at the Clifton Hotel. The Prince visited the Clifton House during his stay and is reported to have watched Blondin perfom his rope-walking stunts from its colonnades."

The building burned on June 26, 1898, rebuilt in 1906, then ravaged by

fire once again in 1933.

Privateers, Secret Agents and Liberating Southern Prisoners:
The Confederate privateer Tallahassee left Wilmington on August 7, 1864, slipping past the blockaders for a devastating raid on Northern merchant shipping. Heading northward, the Tallahassee’s Captain John Taylor Wood contemplated a raid into the port of New York after capturing the Sarah A. Boyce near Sandy Hook. “Panic swept the North” as no Northern warships were available to defend the harbor. Deciding against the raid, Wood took the Tallahassee up the northern coast, capturing and destroying any enemy merchantmen that crossed his path. On August 18th, the Tallahassee made port at Halifax for coal and repairs, then proceeded southward, entering Wilmington on the night of August 25th----her toll on Northern shipping for that voyage was 33 merchantmen, of which 26 were burned, two were released and five bonded. The Tallahassee would become a blockade runner and renamed the Chameleon, later captained by John Wilkinson.

Captain John Wilkinson

An early plan to have the Northern homefront feel the effects of war occurred in mid-1863. Southern commandos led by Robert D. Minor and endorsed by Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory, were planning to capture Northern ships on the Great Lakes and turn their guns on Toledo, Cleveland and Buffalo in retaliation for the destruction and burning of Southern cities. Minor and his 15 Confederate Marines departed Wilmington on the blockade runner Robert E. Lee under the command of veteran Captain John Wilkinson on October 7, 1863. They arrived in Halifax on the 16th where Wilkinson turned the Robert E. Lee over to another captain, but quickly found that the plan had been discovered and announced in Northern newspapers. The plan was abandoned and the party returned South.

At the urging of President Davis, the Confederate Congress passed a Secret Service Act in 1864 to provide $1 million for “clandestine operations,” most of it planned for use in Canada. Davis dispatched commissioners, agents and funds to Canada for an effort to aid Southern prisoners in their escape from Northern prisons, and take advantage of the political unrest and Midwesterners (and New York) opposition to the war. In April 1864, Davis sent Clement C. Clay of Alabama, James Holcomb of Virginia, Captain William Cleary of Kentucky and Jacob Thompson of Mississippi to Canada for this purpose, leaving Richmond on May 3rd for Wilmington, and departing on the blockade runner Thistle for Canada on May 6th. These were very distinguished Americans aboard the Thistle, Thompson being President Buchanan’s Secretary of the Interior, and Clay serving two terms as a United States Senator from Alabama in the late 1860’s. The runner Thistle was escorted by the ironclad CSS Raleigh, which turned south to engage blockading ships whilst the Thistle ran north for a spell, then eastward to Bermuda. It was only through the extraordinary efforts of Captain John Pembroke Jones, commanding the Raleigh, in keeping the blockaders distracted that the mission was not captured off Wilmington.

Once in Canada, the commissioners went to work, with Holcombe in particular establishing “a network of agents in Montreal, Toronto, and Windsor (across from Detroit),” to channel escaped Southerners toward Halifax, and thence to Wilmington. This excerpt from a letter to the Secretary of State from Holcombe reveals his plan::

Clifton House, Niagara Falls, Canada West, August 11, 1864

To: Honorable Judah P. Benjamin, Secretary of State, CSA:

Sir---Since my last dispatch I have visited all the points in Canada

at which it was probable any escaped (Southern) prisoners could be found. I have circulated as widely as possible the information that

all who desired to return to the discharge of their duty could

obtain transportation to their respective commands within

the Confederacy. For this purpose I have made arrangements

with reliable gentlemen at Windsor, Niagara, Toronto and Montreal

to forward such, as from time to time may require this assistance,

as far as Halifax, from which point they will be sent to Messrs. Weir

& Company to Bermuda. The system thus organized will provide

for the return of any ordinary average of escaped prisoners.

With the highest respect, etc.,

James P. Holcombe

Clement Clay posted himself at St. Catherines, a small town not far from Niagara Falls on Lake Ontario. From here he conducted his efforts to effect negotiations for peace and “making overtures…to important men in the North.” As Adam Mayers states in his “Dixie and the Dominion,” “there were at least three parallel operations being run in Canada,…Thompson focused on an uprising in the Northwest (and) Holcombe and Clay wanted to return escaped prisoners to the South and mount an anti-war campaign by influential men in the North.”

The Lake Erie Raid:
In 1864, the agents in Canada were planning the escape of Southern soldiers imprisoned at Johnson’s Island on Lake Erie near Sandusky, Ohio. The plan was to overpower the crew of the USS Michigan, the lone US warship on the Great Lakes which guarded the prison and release the nearly 3000 prisoners to create a small, but formidable army deep in enemy territory. Among the Confederate agents in Canada was Lt. Bennett Young of Kentucky, who would later lead the attack on St. Albans, Vermont and burn several buildings on October 19, 1864. Young was a cavalryman with John Hunt Morgan, captured in July 1863 and imprisoned at Camp Douglas near Chicago. Young escaped from prison and made his way back to the Confederacy via the St. Lawrence River to Halifax, then to Bermuda, and then to Wilmington aboard a blockade runner.
Confederate Secretary of War James Seddon had sanctioned Young’s plan of action in Canada, and ordered him return to Canada and scout the towns along the American border, feeling free to sack and burn those most exposed. Seddon continued, “It is but right that the people of New England and Vermont especially, some of whose officers and troops have been foremost in these excesses (in the South), should have brought home to them some of the horrors of such warfare.”

Jacob Thompson and his agents were busy rounding up escaped Confederate prisoners in the North and found the Niagara region a convenient headquarters. The old Suspension Bridge at Niagara Falls

was a well-traveled entry into New York for reconnaissance missions,

and agents were aided by Southern-sympathizers in Fredonia, and Dunkirk, New York. Agents met in the Genesee Hotel in Buffalo to

plan the John’s Island operation and also used nearby Port Colborne

in Ontario as a staging area.

It is important to note that New York had those sympathetic to the Southern cause of independence who might assist the Confederates. As

an example of this, on April of 1861 Democratic leader and

New York Assemblyman Francis Kernan stated that:

"I am opposed to, and I trust the National Government will not attempt to carry an aggressive war into the Southern States. Such

a war will neither preserve or restore the Union....If, we cannot

adjust our differences now by concessions which will make us

one people, is it not better to separate peaceably?"

Unfortunately for the South, the Johnson’s Island liberation plans went awry with the Confederate agents betrayed by one of their small group, Northern authorities were alerted, and additional Northern troops were sent to the prison as a precaution. A further difficulty facing the Confederate agents was Lincoln’s infiltration of Democratic political groups who longed for peace. An immediate result of the failed Fort Erie Raid and the ease with which the agents had used the Niagara region as a base, was a regiment of Northern troops being sent to Buffalo to effectively patrol the border.

On his return to the South from Halifax in late September 1864, Confederate Commissioner Holcomb ran the blockade into Wilmington aboard the Condor which went aground on the burning hulk of the runner Night Hawk from Bermuda, destroyed earlier that night at the entrance to New Inlet Bar. While Holcomb made it ashore, his companion and famous Confederate spy Rose O’Neal Greenhow was lost when the lifeboat capsized. She was carrying $2,000 in gold and sank with her money recently acquired from the sale of her book, “My Imprisonment and the First Year of Abolition Rule at Washington,” published in England. Once safely ashore, Holcomb continued his journey to Richmond to report to President Davis on the South’s espionage efforts in Canada.

Peace Conference at Niagara Falls:
While the escape attempt at Johnson Island was planned, others sought peace between North and South. President Jefferson Davis authorized George N. Sanders of Kentucky and commissioner Clement Clay to conduct a peace conference with Northern authorities in July 1864, with Lincoln sending his Chief of Staff, John Hay in his behalf. New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley endorsed the peace talks and wrote Lincoln “our bleeding, bankrupt, almost dying country longs for peace, shudders at the prospect of fresh conscription, of future wholesale devastation and new rivers of blood.” The negotiations took place at the famous Clifton House Hotel and came to naught as Hay pressed Lincoln’s demand for no political independence of the South, and the abandonment of slavery by federal edict. Davis would accept no terms other than independence, and saw Southern secession as no different than the secession of 13 colonies from England 88 years earlier.

Thompson’s Desperate Last Plan:
With the failures of Confederate attacks at Camp Douglas and Johnson’s Island, Commissioner Jacob Thompson sensed the tightening of Canadian security measures against Confederate agents as the US government pressured Canada. But Thompson had one more plan to put forward in the last days of the Confederacy---and it involved Lee’s army breaking out of its defensive position at Richmond and Petersburg, and moving north. Lee would threaten Washington first, move westward to capture Pittsburgh and Wheeling to establish a base, then send units to free the 100,000 prisoners held in various Northern prisons. Lt. John Headley, one of the agents in Canada, wrote after the war that the plan seems bizarre in hindsight, but at the time it had valid appeal. He wrote that “the South was exhausted…and that nothing could be lost and everything could be gained.” He surmised that though the South would be at the mercy of the enemy, the Northern people and property would be equally in the power of the Confederates, who would be unopposed marching westward. With the South’s armies collapsing and Lee against any plan that would perpetuate the slaughter, the plan came to naught.

The War Ends For Captain Maffitt:
In mid-January 1865, legendary Wilmington blockade runner Captain John Newland Maffitt was in command of the Owl, and had just slipped into the Cape Fear River when local patriots informed him of the fall of Fort Fisher. A swarm of Northern blockaders then descended upon the Owl with “inexperienced enemy seamen firing wildly and in all directions,” and according to Maffitt, “this was attended with unfortunate results to the Federals.” Maffitt then sailed to Nassau for repairs, and ran the blockade into Galveston, Texas in early May. In search of Maffitt was Lt. John Pembroke Jones who had sufficient Confederate funds to purchase two steamers to ferry supplies to the beleaguered Lee in Virginia. But after learning of Lee’s capitulation in April, Maffitt set sail for Halifax to coal, and leaving Lt. Jones there, went on to exile in Liverpool, arriving on July 14, 1865.

Southern Exiles at Niagara on the Lake:
After Lee’s surrender in Virginia and Johnston’s in North Carolina, many high Confederate officials were arrested by the Radical Republicans and some fled the country to watch the postwar period unfold from afar. Many went to Mexico and Brazil to become “Confederados,” some like Judah P. Benjamin (who spent some childhood years in Wilmington) went to England, and some to Canada. The latter were found in Montreal and Toronto, and later Niagara on the Lake which was situated at the mouth of the Niagara River, and directly across the Niagara River from Fort Niagara. The small town, originally named Newark, saw much activity during the War of 1812 when nearby Fort George was captured by American forces under General George McClure. On December 10, 1813, McClure’s men set fire to the town before abandoning the fort to advancing British forces, destroying eighty homes and “about 400 women and children were rendered homeless.” As Newark had been the early capital of Upper Canada and to every loyal Canadian it symbolized the early struggles of the province and the names of Simcoe and Brock---its destruction (and the burning of York’s (Toronto) public buildings earlier) infuriated the British and led to the retaliation burning of Washington, DC in August 1814.

The war’s end brought General John C. Breckenridge and his family to Toronto first, and then Niagara on the Lake in May 1866. Breckenridge served as vice president of the United States under James Buchanan 1856-1860, was a candidate for president in 1860 on the Southern Democratic ticket, (received nearly 850,000 votes) and a Major General in the Confederate service.
He and his family rented a small home on Front Street overlooking Lake Ontario for twelve dollars a month. Immediately opposite the home on the New York bank of the river was Fort Niagara. Breckenridge gazed at the fort often, “with its flag flying to refresh our patriotism.” To him it seemed both a symbol of the Founder’s republic he tried to save, as well as a taunt that threatened arrest should he cross the river.

One who frequently visited the exiled Southerners was Lt. Colonel George T. Denison, commander of the Canadian Governor-General’s Body Guard, another was General Breckenridge’s “beloved old adjutant,” J. Stoddard Johnston of New Orleans. Johnston was the nephew of General Albert Sidney Johnston, and also served as an aid to Generals Bragg and Buckner. General George Pickett was also in Canada, though perhaps living in Toronto. Soon to join the ex-vice president at Niagara on the Lake were Confederate commissioner to England James M. Mason, General’s Jubal Early, John McCausland, Richard Taylor (son of General Zachary Taylor), John Bell Hood, Henry Heth, William Preston; and a host of

lesser officers and their families. They often commiserated in the shade at Mason’s home, “discussing military matters and the practice of the

soldiers art under the modern conditions inaugurated” by the

War Between the States.

President Jefferson Davis arrived in Toronto aboard the steamer Champion on May 30th, 1867, met by several thousand well-wishers at the foot of Yonge Street. He boarded the Rothesay Castle at 2PM for the journey across Lake Ontario to Niagara on the Lake. He was met there by the Town Council along with General Breckinridge and Mason.

Upon leaving the wharf, Davis looked across the river to Fort Niagara

with the Stars and Stripes floating over it.

He turned to his former commissioner and exclaimed:

“Look there Mason, there is the gridiron we have been fried on.”

Davis enjoyed supper at the Mason’s home on Gage Street, and a band later came to the house and played “Dixie” for the President. After coming to the porch to enjoy the music, he told the small crowd that “I thank you for the honor you have shown me. May peace and prosperity be forever the blessing of Canada, for she has been the asylum of many of my friends, as she is now an asylum for myself. I hope that Canada may forever remain a part of the British Empire and may God bless you all…”

Davis stayed in Niagara on the Lake, according to author Nicholas Rescher, “until his 59th birthday on June 3rd, when he returned to Montreal via Toronto and accompanied by Mason. After he had returned to Montreal, the Niagara Mail amply reciprocated Davis’ cordial sentiments (with) “It is a subject of pride to Canadians that they can offer the hospitality of the soil and the shelter of the British flag to so many worthy men who are proscribed and banished from their homes for no crime at all, viz. to assert the right of every people to choose their own form of government.”

“What A Brave Fight They Have Made”
A fitting tribute to the Southerners who fought for their independence in 1861 through 1865 came from Canadian leader John A. McDonald

during the Canadian Confederation debates. McDonald told an audience that “they could make a great nation, capable of defending itself, and

he reminded them of “the gallant defense that is being made by the Southern Republic---at this moment they have not much more than

four millions of men---not much exceeding our own numbers---

yet what a brave fight they have made.”

About the Author

Bernhard Thuersam is the Executive Director of the Cape Fear Historical Institute in Wilmington. A native of Niagara Falls, New York, he has been a devoted student of world history since 1958, and is a former Chairman of the Cape Fear Museum Board of Trustees. Contact him at bernhard1848@att.net)

Bibliography:
Rogues and Runners, C.L. Deichmann, Bermuda National Trust, 2003
Guns For Cotton, Thomas Boaz, Burd Street Press, 1996
Dixie and the Dominion, Adam Mayers, Dundurn Group, 2003
Gray Phantoms of the Cape Fear, Dawson Carr, Blair Publisher, 1998
Breckenridge: Statesman, Soldier, Symbol, W. C. Davis, LSU Press, 1974
Running the Blockade, Confederate Veteran Magazine, 9/ 1916
CSNavy Research Guide, Thomas T. Moebs, Moebs Publishing, 1991
Niagara on the Lake- Confederate Refuge, N. Rescher, NAP 2003 Secession Movement, Middle Atlantic States, W.C. Wright, AUP, 1973

Mission Statement:

Wilmington to Canada:

Blockade Runners & Secret Agents

Cape Fear Historical Institute