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dc.contributor.authorCameron, Chantal
dc.date.accessioned2023-01-17T18:05:21Z
dc.date.available2023-01-17T18:05:21Z
dc.date.issued2023-01-17
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10464/17203
dc.descriptionThe USS Michigan was an iron-hulled warship that was launched in 1843 in Lake Erie. During the Civil War the Michigan was used by Union officials to patrol the Great Lakes and address any civil unrest in port cities. A Confederate naval lieutenant planned to purchase a small steamer in Canada and travel to Erie, PA, accompanied by Confederate soldiers, and take control of the Michigan. However, Confederate President Jefferson Davis refused to support the plan and it was abandoned. During the American Civil War, Johnson’s Island in Lake Erie, near Sandusky, Ohio, was used by Union officials as a prisoner of war camp for Confederate officers. The camp opened in 1862 and imprisoned over 9000 men during the course of the war. At times the prisoner population far exceeded the prison’s capacity. Very few escaped from Johnson’s Island, although around 200 men are buried in the prison’s cemetery. Andrew H. Caughey (1827-1916) was born in Pennsylvania. He was a Presbyterian minister, teacher, lawyer, and newspaper editor. Caughey wrote The Occassional Writings of Isaac Moorhead; with a sketch of his life. David B. McCreary (1826-1906) was born in Pennsylvania. He worked as a teacher and lawyer before enlisting in 1861. The following year he received a commission as a captain in the 145th Pennsylvania Infantry and received a series of promotions, achieving the rank of brevet brigadier general in 1865. After the war he returned to Erie and served in the state legislature in 1866, 1867, and 1870. He served as state senator from 1889 to 1896.en_US
dc.description.abstractA letter by Andrew C[aughey] to Lieut. Col. D.B. McCreary, 145th Regt., Army of the Potomac, Washington, D.C. The letter is dated at Erie, PA, November 25-26, 1863 and contains 18 pages. The envelope the letter was mailed in is included. The letter was written during the American Civil War and mentions plans of a rebel attack from Canada. On page 5 Caughey writes “you have doubtless been told by some of your other correspondents of our great military preparations against a rebel attack by way of Canada and the Lake [Erie]. For about a fortnight our ‘streets re-echoed to the tread of armed men’, and our citizens took up the shovel and the pick-ax, and they did dig a ditch, and did throw up an embankment towards the North, even by way of the Block House bank, as thou goest to the Light House. And many people did work thus, both the young and the old and the middle-aged—the priests and chief men of the city, as well as the laboring man and the colored person. But the fortifications are finished, the soldiers are gone and we are at peace”. Caughey continues on page 6 “There was no doubt a plot concocted in Canada, originating at Richmond, to seize vessels on Lake Erie and then make a descent on Johnson’s Island and release the Rebels there confined; but the plot never took very formidable proportions, and perhaps would have amounted to nothing had the rebel force even attacked Johnson’s Island. But the alarm has had at least one good effect—it has given the Government an opportunity to put the Lake cities in a state of defence, so that they may be able to resist if not a Rebel, a British and Canadian attack, which will doubtless sometime be made”.en_US
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.relation.ispartofseries;RG 815
dc.rightsCC0 1.0 Universal*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/*
dc.subjectAndrew Caugheyen_US
dc.subjectDavid McCrearyen_US
dc.subjectUSS Michiganen_US
dc.subjectJohnson's Islanden_US
dc.subjectUnited States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865en_US
dc.titleLetter by Andrew C[aughey] to D.B. McCreary, November 25-26, 1863en_US
dc.typeOtheren_US
refterms.dateFOA2023-01-17T18:05:22Z


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