Confederate Operations in te Great Lakes.
There was a large prison camp for Confederate officers on Johnson's Island in Sanduskey Bay on Ohio's western Lake Erie coast. Confederate officials developed a conspiracy to break them out and form a Confederate Army and attack Ohio's North Coast.
One plan caled for the sieizure of the passenger steamers Philo Parsons and Island Queen to take over the camp. The other, more difficult one, was to seize the USS Michigan, which would, in effect, give the Confederacy control of the whole of the Great Lakes.
From mounting a single 18-pdr. cannon before the war, the Michigan's armament had been increased to one 30-pdr. Parrott rifle, five 20-pdr Parrott rifles, six 24-pdr. smoothbores and two 12-pdr. boat howitzers.
One of the USS Michigan's major jobs during the war was to protect that prison camp.
The plans, however, were discovered in advance and foiled.
During the course of the war, some 10,000 Confederate prisoners were held at Johnson's Island and relatively few escaped. After the war, the buildings and supplies either were salvaged or sold off and the island reverted to private ownership.
Around the turn of last century, there was an attempt to turn the island into a pleasure resort to compete with pre-amusement park Cedar Point, but that failed. The only evidence of the camp are several historical signs and a well-maintained Confederate cemetery where 200 are buried.
The rest of the island is in private hands, but you can access the cemetery via a causeway for $2.
That Would Have Been Interesting Had the Confederates Succeeded in Seizing the Michigan. --Old B-R'er
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