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The Great North-Western Conspiracy in All Its Startling Details by I. Windslow Ayer
page 81 of 164 (49%)

CHAP. XII.


SECOND ATTEMPT--HINES IN COMMAND AGAIN--COPPERHEADS AGAIN TO BE THE MAIN
FORCES TO BE RELIED UPON--REBEL GENERALS TO TAKE COMMAND OF THE RELEASED
PRISONERS AND THE INSURRECTIONARY FORCES--THE DAY OF THE PRESIDENTIAL
ELECTION APPOINTED AS THE ONE MOST PROPER FOR THE UPRISING--THE CAPTURE OF
SOME OF THE REBEL LEADERS AND THEIR SYMPATHIZING FRIENDS.

At the time the rebel officers and soldiers left Chicago, after the
Convention, none of them had any idea of ever coming back again, except
Capt. Hines and a few of the leaders who consulted with him. He was shrewd
enough to see that any effort at that time would be fruitless, and
determined, so far as possible, to have all the Copperheads who would
assist him in any second affair of the kind, drilled and organized, and
men able to render effective assistance. It was for this purpose that he,
with his comrades, went to Southern Illinois and Indiana with cavalry and
infantry tactics and all the appliances for instructing others in military
matters. The conspirators having failed at Chicago during the convention
to make their starting point, having failed to make the great bonfire,
which was to be the signal for thousands of others not quite so large, to
burn up brightly from almost every hill-top in Ohio, Missouri, Kentucky,
Indiana and Illinois, it was necessary for their leaders to meet again,
and determine upon a new programme. It appears that they did meet again,
and again the starting-point of the whole conspiracy was the release of
the rebel prisoners of war at Chicago, and from facts brought to light by
the evidence before the great military commission held in Cincinnati,
Ohio, the plan of operations was nearly the same as that of the first. The
prisoners being released at Chicago, those at Johnston's Island, Camp
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