Practically no business was done during the next 24 hours. Many stores were closed. The entire stock of crepe and black goods of every description was sold out and used for decorations. Never was there such a passionate revulsion of public feeling, for at the time the crime was generally misunderstood. President Lincoln was the victim of a small band of fanatics who did not represent the sentiment of the people of the South at all. In fact, while they deplored the result of the war and mourned their lost cause, the Southern people were glad it was all over, for they had long realized the hopelessness of their cause. But many people in the North believed the assassination to have been the culmination of a concerted plan which had come to pass through the agency of the same men as had led the secession movement and had organized the Confederate government. It took a long time to clear the atmosphere of this unfounded suspicion. In practically every city and village of the North funeral services were held. Detroit held mourning services of imposing proportions on April 25th. A huge catafalque was hauled through the main streets, led by bands playing solemn dirges and followed by a procession more than two miles long. All stores were closed. All the residences stood silent with closed blinds and drawn curtains. Practically the entire population of the city was gathered in the Campus Martius and adjoining thoroughfares. A stand had been erected and Hon. Jacob M. Howard delivered an impressive funeral oration. May 30th was observed as a day of fasting and prayer. B CHAPTER XCII "THE FIRE IN THE REAR" UT the Civil War was not entirely confined to the which opposed the war on principle. In certain instances the opposition in the North approached the border line of treason, and this conflict of opinion did much to discourage enlistment and to promote sentiment for an abandonment of the war. This element was content to see a divided nation. It did not regard a union of states as worth fighting to preserve. In rather remote association with this element was a propaganda of disloyalty and betrayal led by agents of the Confederate government. This organization had men of means and influence planted in cities of the Northern border: in Detroit, Sandusky, Toledo, Chicago, Indianapolis, Columbus, and other towns on the American side, and in Windsor, Montreal and other towns in Canada. One of these agents was Jacob M. Thompson, former Secretary of the Interior in Buchanan's Cabinet. A band of these Confederate agents from Montreal led a raid into Vermont and attacked the town of St. Albans. Another band operated about Buffalo from headquarters on the Canadian side. The Canadians kept the Americans informed as far as they were able, and Lord Lyons, British minister, once gave us warning of a very dangerous conspiracy which might have caused serious consequences in Detroit and several other places. Prisoners captured in the South were sent North and held in camps at Chicago, Indianapolis and Columbus. Another camp of rebel prisoners was on Johnson's Island, in Sandusky Bay. This camp was guarded by a small land force and by the U. S. armed steamer Michigan. The plot was a concerted movement for releasing these thousands of Southern prisoners in Northern prison camps, and arming them for attacks on Detroit, Columbus, Chicago and Indianapolis, thus creating a "fire in the rear" which would compel withdrawal of troops from the. Southern front and thus relieve Lee's hard-pressed army. Meetings held in Detroit for recruiting troops were frequently disturbed by these hostile elements. The 24th Michigan Infantry was recruited chiefly from the young men of Detroit and Wayne County. It had in its ranks the flower of the young men of the city who were not already in the service. Later it was one of four regiments of the "Iron Brigade," which was a part of the small force which opposed Lee's army on the first day at Gettysburg. Its record was brilliant throughout the war. It was recruited for the most part at a public meeting on the Campus Martius on the afternoon of July 15, 1862. An address was made from a small stand before the City Hall by Col. Henry A. Morrow, and the last public speech of Gen. Cass was made that day. Sheriff Mark Flanigan, giant in build and one of the most popular men of the town; Mayor Wm. C. Duncan, Capt. Eber B. Ward, and James F. Joy also spoke. These patriotic addresses were constantly interrupted by hoots and jeers. Already it was evident that conscription must soon be resorted to because volunteers were not as numerous as they had been under the inducement of liberal bounties. It was suggested that a committee be appointed to draft resolutions. Voices in the crowd shouted: "Hear that! We told you there would be a draft." A disorderly mob immediately charged the grandstand to attack Mayor Duncan and Capt. Eber Ward, who had been most active in raising troops. The mob also rushed at the aged Gen. Cass, who was very feeble, and surrounded his carriage, threatening violence. Sheriff Flanigan was a valiant double-fisted man and he met the rush, knocking the disturbers right and left. With a few assistants he covered the retreat of the public officials to the Russell House. At the door of the hotel there was a lively fist fight which lasted for some time. On July 22nd the regiment was raised and soon it was off for the front. This was the most violent opposition shown at a recruiting meeting, but such disturbances were frequent in Detroit. The 24th Michigan Infantry lost 318 men by death in the service. Lieut. Col. Mark Flanigan lost a leg at Gettysburg. Later he was given a brevet as Brigadier General of Volunteers for meritorious service. The intensity of the feeling in Michigan with regard to the war might be illustrated by many newspaper editorials and extracts from speeches on the stump and in the halls of the legislature. One very bitter Democrat of the time was Edward G. Morton, editor and publisher of the Monroe Monitor. Mr. Morton was a Vermont Yankee who came to Monroe in 1844. He was mayor of Monroe in 1851 and a member of the legislature in 1849, '50, '53, '63, and '65; also a promoter of the insane asylum at Kalamazoo and the school for the deaf and dumb at Flint. In one of his war editorials he attributed the cause of the war to "the damnable sectionalism of the North" and charged that "the abolitionists in their greed of office were determined to prolong the strife as long as possible, destroy the country and raise hell itself." He pronounced John Brown a horse-thief, cutthroat and murderer; denounced the emancipation proclamation, and asserted that the Republican Party of Michigan was as much in rebellion as the State of South Carolina, except that it was not in arms. SHERIFF MARK FLANIGAN Judge Pratt of Calhoun County characterized President Lincoln as "the damnable abolitionist who administers the Government." "The people," he said, "ought to rise up and hurl him from his chair and in the eyes of God and men they would be justified." Wilbur F. Storey, who edited the Free Press in |