SEPTEMBER 19TH, 1864: Confederates under Acting Master John Yates Beall captured and burned steamers Philo Parsons and Island Queen, on Lake Erie. Captain Charles H. Cole, CSA, a Confederate secret agent in the Lake Erie region, conceived the plan and received assistance from Jacob Thompson, Southern agent in Canada, and the daring Beall.
The plan was for Cole to aid in the capture of the iron sidewheeler USS Michigan, which was then guarding the Confederate prisoners on Johnson's Island, near Sandusky, Ohio, by befriending her officers and attempting to bribe them.
Beall was to approach with a captured steamer from the mouth of Sanduskey Bay and board the Michigan, after which the prisoners would be released and the whole force would embark on a guerrilla expedition along the lake.
--Old B-Runner
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