The Montreal Link

[L Verge]

I hope that Mr. Sheehy does not mind that Ed Steers sent me an early draft of the article that will (in my opinion) add fuel to the fire in reference to the inordinate amount of folks from a wide variety of interests - North and South - that just happened to be in Montreal at the same time over the course of late-1864 to early-1865. Everything may not be tied up in a big, red bow, but there are certainly some damning coincidences. If we could only prove all of these ties, I suspect that we would find that this was not our country's finest hour -- and it certainly had lots of distinguished and guilty leaders on both sides of the War Between the States.

P.S. It did my heart good to see the mention of Ferdinand and Benjamin Wood of New York politics and journalism. In addition to Judah Benjamin, they are some that I would like to see near the head of the Lincoln conspiracy. I wonder how some folks would react to proof that the conspiracy was a joint effort between the North and South (and that is just me speculating)?

[Steve]

Barry, I ordered a copy of your book. Hopefully, some of what you found can fill in some details of what happened in Montreal in regards to the CSS. Sometimes when reading accounts of the Confederates in Montreal it becomes a rabbit hole where good histories go off the rails with writers taking questionable/lying sources (looking at you "Conover"/Dunham, Merritt, etc.) to either implicate the Confederate leadership or to implicate Gen. Holt in a conspiracy to frame the conspirators/Davis; depending on the authors predilection. Hopefully, what you found will shed some more light on the subject.

[Barry Sheehy]

Richard Montgomery is one of at least three double agents in Montreal, the other two were Godfrey Joseph Hyams and Sanford Conover (Charles Dunham),and there were probably more. On the other hand, it's clear the CSS had a lot of powerful friends in the north beyond just copperheads. The names at SLH prove that. This was a classic Civil War with divided loyalties.

Did the Government have some advance warning on what was being cooked up in Montreal? The answer is yes but did anyone connect the dots? There was clearly pockets of information about Booth's plot inside the War Department, just look at how fast authorities closed in on the Surratt House. But what was obvious after the event may not have been entirely clear before the event. Remember, in addition to Booth's plot there were three or four other schemes afoot to kidnap or kill the President. Lincoln's cavalier attitude toward his own personal safety didn't help.

If there was advance knowledge that was fumbled, there would have been a CYA scramble in the aftermath of the assassination. One thing that appears clear to me is that no one besides Joseph Holt (not a favorite of mine) had any stomach for exploring what happened in Montreal in 1864/65. And Holt's curiosity blew up in his face. This reticence to discuss Montreal extended to both Federal and Confederate actors. No one who was there ( and there were a crowd) wanted Montreal discussed. I should add that a good many of the Union players in Montreal were there to make money buying cotton and selling contraband to the Confederacy. This was nothing to be proud of in the post war era when Lincoln was being deified. The sad truth was that much of the Union war effort had been corrupted by 1864/65 and Montreal was a venue for this corruption.

My focus is on those who had other reasons other than cotton and illicit trading for being in Montreal. For example, we know Lafayette Baker was indeed buying and selling cotton, His cotton trading partner Roswell Goodell was with him in Montreal but did the chief of the National detective Police (NDP) have any official "police" reason for being in Canada? He wrote only one report from Montreal that I can find and its primary focus was ironically illicit cotton trading. What else was he and Walter Pollack (NDP) up to in Montreal? What were copperheads and Lincoln haters Ferdinand and Benjamin Wood doing in Montreal in intimate contact with the CSS? I could list many other names and ask the same question.

Remember that a RICO case consists largely of linking names and places to an identified crime or criminal. If that was all that was required to get an indictment, then there would plenty of indictments to be handed out in this case.

Regarding the question what would happen if evidence were forthcoming that elements within the Government, including Democrats and Republicans, were to some degree aware that efforts were afoot to get Lincoln off the stage via kidnapping or other means, what would happen? I suspect the answer is very little. As the old newspaper adage holds " When reality clashes with the myth, print the myth."
Barry

[Steve]

While looking at the Internet Archive site, I came across this pamphlet published in 1865 by Confederates in Canada after the assassination trial was over trying to rebut the testimony of "Conover"/Dunham, Merritt, and Montgomery. It might be worth a look if you're interested in the topic:

https://archive.org/stream/cihm_89111#page/n5/mode/2up

[Barry Sheehy]

(06-22-2018 07:50 PM)Steve Wrote:  While looking at the Internet Archive site, I came across this pamphlet published in 1865 by Confederates in Canada after the assassination trial was over trying to rebut the testimony of "Conover"/Dunham, Merritt, and Montgomery. It might be worth a look if you're interested in the topic:

https://archive.org/stream/cihm_89111#page/n5/mode/2up

Yes I am very much interested. I have seen some of the newspaper rebuttals but not a "pamphlet". Please send coordinates so I can have a look. Thanks for the tip.
Someone asked for something I left out of the book. Here is one:
Thomas Jones was the senior Signal Officer in southern Maryland and someone who supported Booth on his flight to Virginia. Someone registering as T. Jones and Coln (Col) Jones turns up at SLH May 2nd 1864 arriving from the US (Baltimore I believe). The hotel registration book margin notes indicates that "Pollack", presumably Walter Pollack of the NDP, had an interest or association with Jones. This is in the book. What I left out of the book is that a Thomas Jones has his photo taken at Notman's Studio in 1864 dressed in US fashion with a cigar in his mouth. The photo exudes a man of action. Have a look at the photo at McCord Museum's web site and you'll see what I mean. This guy is in your face. Now compare the photo to the one on the cover of Thomas Jones book published decades later (1893) J. Wilkes Booth: An Account of His Sojourn in Southern Maryland After the ...By Thomas A. Jones. Look at the two photos and tell me this isn't the same man 25 years later? The resemblance is uncanny. By the way, there was no Thomas Jones found in the Montreal City Directory, so the Jones in the Notman Collection is a visitor. This gives us a hotel registration and a photo putting Jones in Montreal in 1864. I left the photo out of the book because it was one controversy too many but I believe the photo is very likely the real thing. Have a look let me know what you think? B.

[SSlater]

Hey Steve - thanks for finding that pamphlet and then sharing it. I have a copy of the whole trial. but it doesn't have what you gave us here.

[RJNorton]

(06-22-2018 08:50 PM)Barry Sheehy Wrote:  What I left out of the book is that a Thomas Jones has his photo taken at Notman's Studio in 1864 dressed in US fashion with a cigar in his mouth.

Here is a link to the image Barry mentioned:

http://collections.musee-mccord.qc.ca/en...=I-11464.1

[Gene C]

Interesting, but with the number of years between photographs, I do not see enough to reach the same opinion, but I can't rule it out either. There are some facial similarities.

[L Verge]

I am having a hard time saying that this is definitely "our" Thomas A. Jones. Note that it is identified as Thomas H. Jones, which might have been a way of faking the name, but why just the middle initial?

My biggest concern, however, is comparing it with the three known photos of Jones (one of which I can't find right away, but was taken outdoors in later years). Again, the passage of time can alter one's looks, but this gent is just too much of a dandy for my liking. Jones was an outdoors man, pretty much a dirt farmer in real life, he was not well-off financially, and I just don't see him able to "clean up" this nicely. And then, there is that haircut, which to me is very unusual for the times...

Would Jones have been high enough on the food chain to be sent to Montreal by the Confederacy?

[Susan Higginbotham]

Steve, I picked up your book yesterday. Looks fascinating!

Your book mentions a photograph of Benjamin F. Ficklin being in the McCord Collection. Do you have a copy of it? I'd love to see it.

[Barry Sheehy]

[quote='L Verge' pid='71729' dateline='1529769950']
I am having a hard time saying that this is definitely "our" Thomas A. Jones. Note that it is identified as Thomas H. Jones, which might have been a way of faking the name, but why just the middle initial?

My biggest concern, however, is comparing it with the three known photos of Jones (one of which I can't find right away, but was taken outdoors in later years). Again, the passage of time can alter one's looks, but this gent is just too much of a dandy for my liking. Jones was an outdoors man, pr

Thomas Jones & Sarah Slater[/u]

Thanks everyone for your comments. You highlighted all the reasons I left this out of the book but I was fascinated by the photograph. What the facts confirm is that a Thomas Jones/T. Jones/ Col (Coln) Jones is in Montreal and, in the case of the latter, registered at SLH. We also know (Walter) Pollack of the NDP had an interest In Jones while he was in Montreal. I wanted to get another set of eyeballs on this Notman photo to see what others thought. I am convinced there are still a good many discoveries to be made in the Notman Collection, SLH Arrival and Departure Books, and Barnett’s Registers.
I believe Jones was somewhat more than just a dirt farmer. He owned a 500-acre farm on the Potomac and his writings and observations show a keen wit. He described his circumstances as comfortable. When asked to become a key member of the Confederate Signal Corps in Maryland (an extension of the CSS), he drove a hard bargain. In his negotiations with Major Norris, head of the Confederate Signal Corps and someone not to be trifled with, he insisted that he control operations on both sides of the River. Norris agreed to Jones’ terms.
Here’s something else I left out of the book that deserves more attention. After hiding out in St Liboire and Quebec City, John Surratt returned to Montreal in August 1864. He was given a room behind the Bishop’s Palace. The Catholic Church clearly played an important role in hiding and supporting Surratt in Canada and later in Europe. This is an aspect of the story crying out for further research.
While in Montreal and supposedly in hiding, Surratt was out and about pretty frequently. He attended a performance by Charles Kean of Richard II, accompanied by a “Miss Young,” an attractive young woman originally from New York. This hardly sounds like the kind of furtive behavior one would expect from someone with a $100,000 reward on his head. Montreal was at the time still full of American detectives and informers. How did Surratt go unnoticed? Had the government lost interest in him? We know that was certainly the case when he arrived in Liverpool and was spotted. The Secretaries of State and War told the US Consul to take no steps to arrest Surratt and then cancelled the reward for his capture. All very curious.
Confederate Secret Service chief in Canada, General Edwin Lee, wrote about a “Miss Young” being in Montreal and involved with Surratt in August. He described her as an attractive and accomplished woman. The name “Young” is an alias in the diary, just like Surratt was referred to under the alias “Charley Armstrong.” Who was this Miss Young? Recall that Surratt appeared to be involved with Sarah Slater in the months leading up to the Lincoln assassination. She registers with him on 18 April at St. Lawrence Hall (SLH) following his escape from the US.
We now know Slater had family in New York and went there after the war. What is the relationship between Sarah Slater and Miss Young? I wonder what James O. Hall would think of all this? We know that Edwin Lee warned “Miss Young” not to get too involved with Surratt presumably because he was about to leave for Europe, perhaps forever. It has also been suggested Lee did not approve of Surratt’s relationship with Slater. Coincidence? Not having enough solid answers. I left this out of City of Secrets.” Would welcome your comments and thoughts?

[Barry Sheehy]

(06-24-2018 10:47 AM)Susan Higginbotham Wrote:  Steve, I picked up your book yesterday. Looks fascinating!

Your book mentions a photograph of Benjamin F. Ficklin being in the McCord Collection. Do you have a copy of it? I'd love to see it.

Susan, Sorry for the delay but I am working on a new paper on Booth in Montreal and busy with business. I am not as retired as I would like to be. The photograph in the Notman collection is of Ficklin's partner and friend Finney, who was involved in the CSS in Canada. He was in Montreal to take part in the raid to free prisoners on Johnson Island; a mission that was eventually aborted. Ficklin does I believe turn up at St Lawrence Hall and admitted during his post assassination interrogation that he had been in Canada dealing with Beverley Tucker regarding cotton on behalf of Brown Brothers of NYC and London.
B

[Susan Higginbotham]

Thanks! Ficklin is a fascinating man. Pity he met his match in a fishbone.

[John Fazio]

Susan, Barry, Steve, Laurie, John, et al.:

Ficklin got around. He even fought in the Mexican War. During the Civil War he served as a Confederate purchasing agent in Europe, a blockade runner and an agent of the Confederate Secret Service. He was implicated in an earlier plot to assassinate Lincoln. It is known that he was absent from Washington from 1861 through April, 1865, but that he was in the capital on the fateful day of April 14. It is also known that while he was in Washington he had contact with George Atzerodt and that he stayed in the Kirkwood House on the 14th, the residence, at the time, of Vice President Johnson. Atzerodt, too, had a room at the Kirkwood. Ficklin was arrested on April 16 with a whistle upon his person, whistles being a means of communication apparently used by Confederates in the city (Secret Service Agents and Mosby men). He denied complicity and had to be released on June 16 because of lack of evidence despite the fact that Lafayette C. Baker and Major James O'Beirne were personally convinced of his complicity.

What is not commonly known is that he played a major role in trying to direct shipments of Montana gold to the Confederacy in 1863 and 1864 after gold was discovered in the Big Sky country in 1862, 1863 and 1864. Headquartered in Salt Lake City, the trans-shipment point for both the Confederacy and the Union, he received shipments from the gold fields from operatives such as the notorious Jack Slade, who then returned to Montana with wagons full of dry goods, which found a ready market in the mining communities. Very little of the Montana gold, however, found its way into Confederate coffers. Credit for this belongs to Sidney Edgerton and his nephew Wilbur Fisk Sanders, Lincoln's men in Montana, who resorted to vigilantism to assure that the gold went North, and this despite the Confederate sympathies of a majority of the inhabitants of the mining districts. The Vigilantes of Montana hanged some 21 men from January through October, 1864. without trial, before matters came under their control.

John

[Barry Sheehy]

(07-07-2018 09:31 PM)John Fazio Wrote:  Susan, Barry, Steve, Laurie, John, et al.:

Ficklin got around. He even fought in the Mexican War. During the Civil War he served as a Confederate purchasing agent in Europe, a blockade runner and an agent of the Confederate Secret Service. He was implicated in an earlier plot to assassinate Lincoln. It is known that he was absent from Washington from 1861 through April, 1865, but that he was in the capital on the fateful day of April 14. It is also known that while he was in Washington he had contact with George Atzerodt and that he stayed in the Kirkwood House on the 14th, the residence, at the time, of Vice President Johnson. Atzerodt, too, had a room at the Kirkwood. Ficklin was arrested on April 16 with a whistle upon his person, whistles being a means of communication apparently used by Confederates in the city (Secret Service Agents and Mosby men). He denied complicity and had to be released on June 16 because of lack of evidence despite the fact that Lafayette C. Baker and Major James O'Beirne were personally convinced of his complicity.


What is not commonly known is that he played a major role in trying to direct shipments of Montana gold to the Confederacy in 1863 and 1864 after gold was discovered in the Big Sky country in 1862, 1863 and 1864. Headquartered in Salt Lake City, the trans-shipment point for both the Confederacy and the Union, he received shipments from the gold fields from operatives such as the notorious Jack Slade, who then returned to Montana with wagons full of dry goods, which found a ready market in the mining communities. Very little of the Montana gold, however, found its way into Confederate coffers. Credit for this belongs to Sidney Edgerton and his nephew Wilbur Fisk Sanders, Lincoln's men in Montana, who resorted to vigilantism to assure that the gold went North, and this despite the Confederate sympathies of a majority of the inhabitants of the mining districts. The Vigilantes of Montana hanged some 21 men from January through October, 1864. without trial, before matters came under their control.

John

John,
I am learning so much as a member of this forum. I knew about Ficklin and Finney being in Canada and the former being involved in cotton trading for Brown Brothers (today's Brown Brother Harriman). What sources or info is available regarding Baker's view of Ficklin in Washington in April 1865 ? Also did not know about the Montana link, which is fascinating.

Baker is an enigmatic character I am struggling to figure out. He and his brother-in law Walter Pollack are all over Montreal from the Spring of 1864 through March of 1865. Baker was clearly involved in cotton trading which would have brought him into contact with the CSS in Canada but he and Pollack were also involved in some legitimate police work in Montreal. I am struggling with untangling these two conflicting agendas.
B