me, and I telegraphed to Captain J. C. Carter, commanding officer of the steamer Michigan, that night, and I enclose a copy marked "1," and his reply marked "2."

On Sunday evening, 18th instant, my informant again crossed the river and saw me. He reported that he had agreed to join the party, and had obtained all the information he could, but at the last moment he had failed them. He said that the party were to take passage on board the steamer "Philo Parsons," at Malden, and would get possession of her before reaching Sandusky; that certain officers and men of the steamer Michigan had been tampered with by a man named Cole, and that an officer of the steamer, named Eddy, could not be bought, and that the intention was to drug him and others.

My informant thought that the captain of the steamer Philo Parsons had also been bought, and if he received any hint on the subject he would give information, and he himself would be compromised.

I went down to the steamer Philo Parsons the next morning at 6 A. M. and saw her. She was too small to be of any danger if taken by the persons, and after mature consideration I came to the conclusion that it would be better to let the steamer go, and place Captain Carter on his guard in a way that it would make an impression on him, so that the whole party could be taken.

See my telegram marked "3," and his reply marked "4."

These plots are being constantly made here. We had the information about this one, and the question was whether it would not be better to let the steamer go and adopt measures to secure her capture, and make an example in this case.

On Tuesday last the Philo Parsons arrived at Sandwich in the possession of some eighteen men, who had taken passage in her at Malden the day before. It seems that after taking possession of her the piratical party seized and sunk a small steamer named the Island Queen, both occurrences taking place in the waters of the State of Ohio. They then proceeded to within four miles of Sandusky, and not probably seeing signals that had been agreed upon, or receiving any assistance that was probably expected from Sandusky, returned to Detroit river and proceeded to Sandwich, C. W., where they plundered the steamer and cut her pipes to sink her and abandoned her. The steamer was, however, recovered by her owners in a damaged condition, half full of water, and brought to this side of the river.

It seems that my telegrams to Capt. Carter led to the arrest of Cole, who made some disclosures that caused the arrest of other parties in Sandusky, the particulars of which will be doubtless communicated to the commanding officer there.

It was unfortunate that Capt. Carter did rot proceed to meet the Philo Parsons, as the whole party could have been captured; but there have been so many rumors and reports here of rebel plots that it is hard to discriminate between those having some reality and those purely fabrications. In this case had I placed soldiers on board, whom I could not spare at this time, or defend in any way the departure of the steamer, suspicions of the conspirators would have been aroused, and the matter deferred to a time when we would have had no intimation of it. As the case now stands, the rebel agent in Canada, residing in Sandwich, Colonel Jacob Thompson, has organized an expedition in Canada to seize American steamers. The steamers Philo Parsons and Island Queen were seized, and the latter sunk in American waters; the Philo Parsons plundered while lying in British waters, off the town of Sandwich, an attempt made to sink her, and the persons

employed in these acts now residing in Canada under the protection of the British Government.

The United States attorney has addressed a communication to our consul at Windsor to call upon the authorities to arrest the persons committing these outrages, in anticipation of such a demand being made for their de livery, and affidavits will be sent by him to the Secretary of State, and I had an interview this morning both with him and Senator Howard, and everything is being adopted to place the matter in proper legal shape before the Government and the British authorities.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

B. H. HILL, Lieut. Col. U. S. Artillery, Commanding District, Michigan. OFFICE MILITARY COMMANDER, DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN, DETROIT, September 22, 1864.

Brigadier-General JAMES B. FRY,

Provost Marshal-General, Washington, D. C.:

GENERAL:-I have the honor to transmit herewith a copy of a report, with accompanying papers, made to the Assistant Adjutant-General of the Northern Department, in relation to the proposed attempt to capture the U. S. steamer Michigan and the late piratical acts of the rebel refugees in Canada. The information I communicated to Captain Carter, commanding U. S. steamer Michigan, doubtless led to the arrest of Cole and others and exploded the plot.

The person who gave me the information writes me this morning from Windsor, and states that he has seen several of the parties connected in the raid, and among others Dr. Smith, who told him all connected with the affair. He learns that the person who was to have met them at Kelly Island failed to be there.

This party was to have given the latest information and instructions. The steamer Philo Parsons went within two miles of the steamer Michigan, and it was seen with their night glasses that the Michigan had changed her position to one that commanded the whole island. My informant also writes me that he thinks Col. Jacob Thompson and the entire party engaged in seizing the Philo Parsons have left Windsor.

The person who gave me the information states that he has been some years in the rebel army; that he has been wounded three times, but that owing to injustice done him by Mr. Benjamin, Acting Secretary of War, in not advancing him, he had left the South, and now entertains the most bitter hostility to the Southern cause. He gave me what he stated as his real name, and informed me that he had been a prominent politician in Arkansas and Kentucky, and had twice run for Congress.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

B. H. HILL,

Lieut. Col. U. S. A., A. A. P. M. General.

*

The force in the State during the time of these threatened raids on which reliance was placed to defend its borders against any hostile demonstration consisted of six companies of the 2d regiment veteran reserve corps, three companies of State troops, the "Scott Guard," "Detroit Light Guard," and "Lyon Guard," with a section of light artillery, fully equipped and supplied with suitable ammunition; and in addition there were five hundred stand of arms in the State Armory at Detroit, with complete equipments, and abundance of ammunition at all times in readiness for distribution to citi

zens, with whom there was an understanding and an arrangement to assist in repelling any attack that might be made upon the city or along the river in the vicinity. There was also a small force guarding the arsenal at Dearborn, in which was stored about thirty-five thousand stand of arms. To guard against any attack or landing being made by steamers or vessels from the Canadian side with a hostile intention, several armed steam tugs were employed by the Government in patrolling the river at various points.

THE MICHIGAN CONTINGENT.

The Michigan "Contingent" in the war was largely made up of men who enlisted for three years, and were mainly from the more respectable and industrious of the community. Leaving the peaceful avocations of civil life, these men were disciplined into soldiers and converted into heroes, sometimes even during the operations and emergencies of a single campaign. Patient and obedient under the most rigid discipline, persistent and enduring on the long and tedious march, cheerful and untiring in the trenches, apt in experiment, and most ingenious in construction, they added to all these qualifications and merits true courage in the field, while almost every important action has illustrated their heroism, and almost every battle-field is consecrated with their blood. Their services were eagerly sought for by all the best generals-whether to construct a defence, lead a "forlorn hope," or charge a battery.

The armies of no other nation, even after many years of the training which war brings with it, have evinced so marvellous a developement of soldierly qualities as characterized the American troops during their comparatively short term of service. The annals of the times will rear an imperishable monument to the patriotism of all the States which in the nation's peril gave their sons in the conflict, and the honor of one will be among the precious possessions of the others; but it will be for Michigan to cherish with peculiar pride and tenderness the remembrance and the fame of the gallant band of patriots who, in the fiercest struggles of modern warfare, and among comrades of equal worth and bravery, while preserving the national life and integrity, have reflected undying lustre upon her own escutcheon.

Scarcely had the rebel gauntlet been tossed in defiance, scarcely had the echo of the first rebel gun passed away, scarcely had the electric messenger done its momentous errand-proclaiming the fact of civil war, and that the flag of America had been insulted and struck from its proud perch on Sumter's walls, ere the men of Michigan were in arms, eager and ready to defend and maintain the National Union, and protect its flag, to uphold the honor of their State, and save their glorious birth-right of freemen. They vowed to God and their native land, and pledged their arms and their lives, that the beloved flag of their country should again wave triumphantly on the walls of Sumter, and over every State and inch of ground in the Union, and that the Republic should be saved and forever preserved.

The call of Abraham Lincoln received a ready and substantial response from the people of Michigan. With remarkable dispatch her gallant regiments armed, clothed, equipped, and fully appointed, left the State to meet the enemies of American liberty.

Michigan troops, prompt and prominent at the outset of the rebellion, were also in at its death. They were among those who, under Wilcox, first crossed the Long Bridge into Virginia, and participated in the capture of

Alexandria. They were in the command of the brave and lamented Richardson, who first opened fire upon the rebels at Blackburn's Ford, on July 18, 1861, in the vicinity of Bull Run.

They were with General McClellan in West Virginia, in the first year of the war, and were in South Carolina and Georgia in 1862, and during that year served with the Army of the Potomac on the Peninsula and in Maryland, with General Banks in the Shenandoah Valley, in Virginia under General Burnside, in Louisiana under General Butler, and in Missouri with General Pope and Colonel Mulligan.

In 1863 they bore a conspicuous and gallant part in the ever memorable campaigns under General Hooker, in Virginia, and General Meade, in Pennsylvania, at the defence of Knoxville by General Burnside, at the capture of Vicksburg by General Grant, and on the celebrated Kilpatrick raid against Richmond. They were also engaged in the campaign of General Rosecrans against Chattanooga, and were actively employed in the field at various points in Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky, and Louisiana, under other generals.

In 1864-5 they were with General Grant on his great march against Richmond, and bravely participated in most of the hard fought battles of that eventful campaign. They were also with General Sherman on his remarkable march from Chattanooga to the sea, and were prominently engaged in most of his memorable and successful battles, and with General Sheridan in his matchless encounters with the enemy in the valley of the Shenandoah, where, in command of Custer, their sabres flashed in every battle. They took part in the gallant defence of Nashville by General Thomas, and were with Generals Stoneman and Wilson on their raids into North Carolina and Georgia. They were also at the capture of Mobile, and served in Texas and Utah Territory during a part of 1865-6. Michigan was well represented in the Union armies at the surrender of Lee and Johnston, and a Michigan regiment captured the President of the so-called Confederacy-Jefferson Davis-in his inglorious flight to escape deserved punishment for his infamous treason and rebellion.

Michigan troops, in all the campaigns and battles in which they participated, were most reliable, conspicuously brave and gallant. In every position in which they were placed they were true, self-sacrificing, patient under hardship, murmuring not, meeting death by exposure, starvation, and cruel treatment in rebel prisons, and many more by rebel bullets in sanguinary strife.

From the beginning of the war until its end, the motto of Michigan soldiers was, fight on until every rebel shall be conquered and made to yield obedience, or if needs be utterly destroyed. That motto they most successfully maintained; meeting the enemy on his last field, they, in common with their comrades of the Union army, compelled him to lay down his rebellious arms, to beg not only for quarter but for peace, and submit unconditionally to the terms of their dictation. Having accomplished that, they returned to their homes the preservers of their nation, receiving the plaudits and gratitude of their fellow countrymen, and of every friend of freedom and humanity throughout the civilized world.

To have included in this volume the entire campaigns of these regiments, would have been a most desirable and pleasant labor, but would have engrossed its whole space, and therefore has been abandoned, leaving a subject rich in record of faithful and gallant service and brave deeds for future publication, and giving only a few of the leading achievements of each.

It would also have been very satisfactory to have referred to the special

services and achievements of the many companies and men of Michigan, that were connected with regiments of other States, but not having any data from which to sketch them, the matter has been reluctantly deferred. Undoubtedly, they maintain the reputation of Michigan troops, which was always pre-eminently high.

REGIMENT OF ENGINEERS AND MECHANICS.

The celebrated regiment of Michigan engineers and mechanics was raised and organized under the supervision of Colonel William P. Innes, of Grand Rapids, and went to the field in Kentucky December 17th, 1861, in command of that officer. It is but justice to this regiment to state a fact generally conceded by the whole Western army that a more useful regiment, or one performing more valuable service, was not found in that great army, as during its entire service, ending with the surrender of Lee and Johnston, including the great Sherman campaign, scarcely a bridge was built or a road opened for the use of the Western army that was not either wholly accomplished or aided by this regiment. While it was at all times ready and expeditious in the performance of the legitimate duties of an engineer regiment it never failed as a gallant fighting force when opportunity offered. First meeting the enemy at Mill Springs, in Kentucky, January 19th, 1862, then in Mississippi at Farmington May 9th, at Corinth the 10th, and at Perryville, Kentucky, same year, where its reputation as a fighting regiment was fully established; but at Lavergne, Tennessee, January 1st, 1863, it was most signally distinguished, and its gallant conduct in that battle gives it a most enviable page in the history of the war.

While General Rosecrans was fighting the important battle of Stone river, the regiment, then in command of Col. Innes, on the 31st December, 1862, was specially ordered by the commanding general to take a position in the rear of his army at Lavergne, on the main road from Nashville to Murfreesboro, to protect the baggage trains. On the next morning, for greater safety, Colonel Innes formed his wagon train in the form of a half circle and made some hastily-constructed breast works of logs and such loose material as could be found at hand. This precaution seems to have been taken none too soon, as at 2 P. M. the command was attacked by an overwhelming rebel force of from three to four thousand cavalry, with one section of light artillery, the whole commanded by the rebel Major-General Wheeler. Their object, as afterwards ascertained, was to burn and plunder the heavily-laden trains passing on the pike between Nashville and Rosecrans' army. Col. Innes and his small but gallant regiment, numbering not over 315, fought this superior force until dark, when it was withdrawn with heavy loss, having vainly endeavored to compel a surrender. During this five hours' engagement the enemy made seven separate and distinct charges, sometimes forcing their horses on to the very breastworks, which were as often most gallantly repelled; at the same time their artillery was kept constantly in play, with considerable effect, damaging the wagons, killing some thirty or forty horses and mules attached to wagons both inside and outside the circle. Three times Gen. Wheeler sent a flag of truce to Colonel Innes demanding a surrender, and claiming an increase of his force, to which the colonel replied in a most characteristic manner "that he could not see it;" so long as his ammunition held out he could not see the force of his argu

ment.

A correspondent at the time says: "The scene was at times thrilling beyond description. The rebel horde, exasperated at the successful resistance