The Story of Johnson’s Island- Part 6 - Lorrie Halblaub

Places on the Peninsula

The lack of escapees on Johnson’s Island frustrated the Confederates. So, an elaborate plot to free all the prisoners on Johnson’s Island was hatched by a man named Charles Cole. 

Cole posed as a business man and wormed his way into Sandusky society, but was secretly on the side of the South. Patrolling the waters around Johnson’s Island was the ship U.S.S. Michigan, the first iron warship in the world. It was claimed to being the fastest too.   He befriended the crew of the Michigan and invited them to a dinner aboard ship. He planned to drug their drinks.  Then the ship would be boarded by a group of Confederates sneaking in from Canada and free the prisoners of Johnson’s Island. Then the Michigan would be in Confederate hands, free to attack ports on Lake Erie, thus opening a new front for the Union to send troops to battle.  

The conspirators chose John Yates Beall, former navy officer, spy, and guerilla warrior turned privateer, to command the group that would seize the Michigan. On September 19, 1864, a passenger ferry, the steamer Philo Parsons, set sail at 8 am from Detroit with passengers who were travelling to various Lake Erie islands and Sandusky. They were unaware there were Confederates on board. 

The steamer stopped at Sandwich Island in Canada and picked up more of the conspirators posing as passengers and continued on their route.   A few minutes out from Kelleys Island, Beall and his confederates captured the Philo Parsons at gunpoint, armed from their trunk filled with guns and axes.  Within 30 minutes the ship’s crew was forced under guard to continue sailing the ship. They landed on Kelleys Island but were forced back to Middle Bass for more wood. There, another passenger ferry, the steamer, Island Queen sailed in with passengers.  The Confederates commandeered it too, leaving the passengers of both ships on Middle Bass. They sailed, towing the Island Queen and grounded her on Gull Island. The Philo Parsons then steamed toward Johnson’s Island to complete their mission.  

Beall decided to wait by the lighthouse until dark, watching for the signal flare that the crew of the Michigan were incapacitated. Little did he know that two days before, their plot had been discovered by a Union spy. Johnson’s Island soldiers were put on alert. The port of Sandusky was shut down and guards were posted at the railway station watching for more accomplices. Aboard the Michigan, the Union sailors were at their battle stations and Charles Cole was placed under arrest.  

Meanwhile Beale and the men aboard the Philo Parsons worried as more time passed and there was no signal.  Finally, his men took a vote. Two wanted to attack the Michigan without the signal and 17 did not, so they turned back to Detroit. They abandoned the Philo Parsons at the dock on Sandwich Island and sunk her.

The plot had failed spectacularly.  Charles Cole was imprisoned on Johnson’s Island until the end of the war. John Yates Beal was hanged in February, 1865.  Johnson’s Island Prison Camp held its record of less than 10 escapees.