Vast and Fiendish Plot

[Gene C]

In "Confederate Operations in Canada and New York" by John Headley (an active participant in the undercover activities), he writes, "It had been agreed that our fires would be started in the hotels, so as to do the greatest damage in the business district on Broadway. The eight members of our party had each taken a room at three or four motels." They agreed to meet the next day, but two failed to show up. "The bottles of Greek fire having been wrapped in paper were put in our coat pockets. Each man took ten bottles."

From what I've read, I don't know why the fires didn't spread more rapidly. Headley also seemed to think the Yankees knew about the attack ahead of time, The stuff caught fire quick enough, but the gov't authorities were prepared to deal with that. These guys were definately not independent terrorist, but working directley under Canadian Confederate leadership.

I don't know much about this subject or John Headley. Is he a reliable witness?
Purchased this book about 3 years ago, it wasn't quite as interesting as I thought it should be (lots of copies of corespondence, military orders and such). Parts of it were very interesting, other parts quite dry. It is a Time/Life book (Collectors Library of the Civil War) about 450 pages.