Conspiracy in Canada

[John Stanton]

I made a quick run-through of the material I have on Patrick Martin, and found I didn't have much. This is ubderstandable when we realize his "military careear"was over in two years. Up to 1860 he was a normal citizen. In 1861 he was a blockade runner - for personal profit. In mid 1861 two other Marylanders - George Hollis and Richard Thomas, (That was not "John Boy" Walton) worked up a plan to capture The "Nicholas". That was a steamer that ran between Baltimore and Washington, and then to use it to capture the USS Pawnee. That was a powerful Union gunboat that prowled the Cheaspeake. Hollis was a Captain in the Confederate Navy. Thomas dropped out of West Point in 1850 and becme a Mercinary, and roamed the world. For what ever reason -Thomas called himself Thomas Zarvona.
On June 28, 1861, Zarvona boarded the "Nicholas", along with about 20 men recruited in Ballamer (That's how they say the name of their home town). That motley crew did take over the "Nicholas". It's Pirates, they be!. Our boy Patrick was in Ballamer then and was suspected of being part of this scheme. (IMO, he most likely was guilty). At any rate, he didn't wait to see if he would get a fair trial, so by 1862 he was in Canada. In 1863 he was working on dirty-tricks, with George P. Kane - formed Ballamer Police Chief, who was in Canada for the same reason Martin was there. One of their plans was to release the prisoners on Johnson Island. They recruited John Yates Beale to head that escapade and you know what happened to him. In 1864 Martin died in a shipwreck, that also got John W. Booth's theater clothes all wet. In several of the books that I reviewed, that covered the activities in Canada, in the era, for example "Headley's" book, Martin is not mentioned once. Headley knew how to spell his name, because he does mention Col. Robert martin. I conclude that Patrick didn't do much that helped the South. He was a first class AGITATOR. Just maybe, he convinced the South that dirty-tricks was a good idea. So, they sent Jacob Thompson up there to expand on the idea. Martin was a lot like Kensey Johns Stuart- he was everywhere, he did everything, but he flunked out completely. (Except, Kensey Johns was the Pastor at St. Paul's, in King George around 1860, so he can't be all bad.)