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Chapter 6: The Key Connection
- The University Press of Kentucky
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The Key Connection Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows. The Tempest, 2.2 In mid-October Booth visited with his mother at Edurin7shouse in New York City.The relationship between the two brothers had become seriouslystrained over their political differences. In her memoir Asia quoted Wilkes, "If it were not for mother I would not enter Edwin's house, but she urill leave there if we cannot be welcomed, and I do not want her to be unhappy for me."' Asia told of "stormy words" between the two brothers. Theywere "the last unhnd ones that ever passed between them."' On October 16 he bid his mother goodbve and headed north to the Canadian province of Quebec. Two days later he registered at St. Lawrence Hall in ~Montreal, where he checked into room 150. St. Lawrence Hall had become the gathering place for Confederate agents in Montreal. Ostensibly Booth went to Canada to make arrangements to ship his theatrical wardrobe through the blockade to a Confederate port, but the length of his stay and his contacts while in Montreal suggest ~nuch more. Booth was in Montreal a total of ten days, from October 18 through October 27. During that time he was seen in the presence of two men who were well-known Confederate agents based in Canada, George N. Sanders and Patrick C. Martin. Sanders was a Kentuckian who harbored a fanatical devotion for the Confederacy and an equally fanatical hatred for Lincoln. He had a history of associating with European revolutionaries. LT%ile in Europe awaiting his confirmation as United States consul in London, he advocated the assassination of Napoleon I11 (Louis Napoleon).' If true to form, Sanders undoubtedly urged Booth to go forward with a plot to assassinate Lincoln. Booth's other contact in Montreal was Patrick Charles Martin. At least one reliable witness at the conspiracy trial testified to seeing Booth and Martin together in the fall of 1864.4Martin was a native New Yorker who had only recently been a liquor dealer in Baltimore. His career was not limited to liquor, however. Prior to the war he had extensive service at sea, where he had captained avariety of vessels. Following the outbreak of hostilities, ll/lar- 72 Blood on the Moo?z tin successfullyran the Union blockade on numerous occasions. His success soon made him a target of Federal authorities, and he escaped to Canada to avoid falling into Union hands. Once in Canada, Martin settled into more clandestine activities. He became one of the Confederacy's principal agents in Montreal, which became known as "Little Richmond." A fellow Baltimorean, George P. Kane, who formerly served as police marshal for that city, had joined LMartinin Montreal. In November of 1863 Martin and Kane had been involved in organizing a force of armed men to free Confederate prisoners being held at Johnson's Island, a Union prison camp located in Lake Erie just off of Sandusky, Ohio.' The prison held 2,600 Confederate soldiers. The bulk of these prisoners were officers who organized themselves and the other inmates into a cohesive group. One of the ranlung Confederate officers in prison, Brigadier General James A. Archer, was able to smuggle a letter to Secretary of War James Seddon. Archer's letter was reminiscent of Union general August Willich's report to Lincoln in Mav 1863, in which he claimed the prison and city of Richmond were lightlidefended and susceptible to attack.Archer wrote Seddon thatJohnson's Island was weakly guarded and that talung over the prison camp would be relatively easy. Once in control of the camp, however, the prisoners would need some means to get off of the island. Archer asked for Seddon's help.hIt was soon forthcoming. Martin and Kane had devised a plan. It called for a force of armed Confederates to overpower the crew of the USS lZlichiga7z that was the only U.S. warship stationed on the Great Lakes near the prison camp. Once it was captured, the Confederates planned to turn the IJfichigayz's guns on the prison. Thus threatened, the prison guards would have no choice but to free the prisoners. Once freed, the prisoners would be carried off of the island and transported to Canada by boats commandeered on Lake Erie. From Canada they would make their way back to the Confederacy and Lee's army. Kane and Martin met an advanced contingent of two dozen men in Montreal. They expected upwards of two hundred more to join...