HDQRS. U. S. FORCES, JOHNSON'S ISLAND AND SANDUSKY,
Johnson's Island, Ohio, October 1, 1864.

Major General E. A. HITCHCOCK, Washington, D. C.:

GENERAL: I have the honor to submit herewith correct copies of the documentary evidence relating to the piratical raid which recently occurred on this lake. These papers comprise all that have come to my knowledge.

Before the 19th instant [ultimo] I had no knowledge whatever that any such enterprise was on foot. That the rebels in Canada would make a demonstration upon this post if they could see a reasonable prospect of success was to be presumed, and with their facilities for getting information there was no reason to doubt that they were fully informed of the condition of the post. For these reasons I made it my duty to be ready for any emergency, day or night, adapting my orders to the different changes of the garrison so that every part of its force would take its proper position as soon as any alarm should be given. I acted fully upon the hypothesis that the way to prevent any attempt at rescue was to be ready to put it down effectually and at once should it occur. With this view, though for much of the time a portion of my command has been at Sandusky, I have never slept off from the island but once since I took the command, except when I had brief leaves of absence from Major-General Heintzelman.

I think it was about 2 o'clock on the afternoon of the 19 the ultimo when Captain Carter, commanding U. S. S. Michigan, came to my office and submitted two telegrams which he had received from Lieutenant Colonel B. H. Hill, U. S. Army, dated at Detroit the 17th and 19th instant [ultimo]. (See Exhibits Nos. 9* and 10. +) He proposed to at once arrest Cole. I concurred in the proposition and he departed for his ship. Between 3 and 4 o'clock p. m. he reported to me that he had Cole in custody and invited me on board. I went immediately and participated for a few moments in an examination of Cole. He represented that there was to be a land expedition to come into Sandusky that evening on the different railroads; that there had been some talk among the conspirators to charter a propeller and get up ostensibly a mere boat ride, the men to be attended a part of the way from Detroit River by lewd women to keep up appearances; stated that the "thirty shares" mentioned in the telegram of Norris to him (see Numbers 8+) meant thirty men, and that that number would come into Sandusky on the different trains to arrive that evening. It must have been at that time about half-past 4 p. m. The first train would be due at Sandusky at 5. 30 p. m. I immediately returned to this island; reached the dock just as the ferry-boat did, returning from Sandusky; ordered it to be ready to return at once, then hastened to my quarters; called the first five commissioned officers I met, and quickly returned to the boat with twenty-five picked enlisted men, armed with revolvers. Ten others that I ordered aboard were in some manner delayed and I moved off without them. On the way over I was hailed by a boat from the Michigan and a note handed to me signed by Cole, saying that Rosenthal, Merrick, Williams, Strain, Brown, and Doctor Stanley, citizens of Sandusky, were connected with the conspiracy. A request from Captain Carter was indorsed that the provost-marshal, ninth district, would cause their immediate arrest. We failed to reach the first train until after many of the passengers had left it, but they were all intercepted. One of the passengers reported that about sixty men had jumped off from the train several

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* See Series I, Vol. XXXIX, Part II, pp. 399.

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+ See p. 842.

+ Omitted.