by Gregory Kopp
Georg was commissioned a Confederate Army officer by President Jefferson Davis because of his familiarity with the French Emperor. Davis was determined to seek recognition by the French Emperor of the Confederate States of America. But Emperor Napoleon III preferred to wait until the Confederate Army was victorious over the Union Army.
As President Davis's efforts to seek recognition with the French Emperor failed, Georg was appointed a Confederate spymaster instead. He performed many spying missions for Davis and the Confederate Army, including establishing a comprehensive spy ring surrounding Washington City.
But one fateful day, President Jefferson Davis ordered Georg, his most trusted spymaster to report to his office. Georg hurried to the Confederate “White House” three blocks away from the Virginia state capitol building, now the seat of the Confederate government. Georg found the Confederate President pacing in a circle around his office. He was muttering to himself and held a telegram in hand. Davis turned when Georg entered the room. Georg saluted and stood at attention.
Jefferson Davis began: “Lee plans to invade the North!” Davis crumpled the telegram in his hand and flung it on his desk. He continued pacing. Georg was startled at President Davis’s words.
Davis began again: “We need you to coordinate an uprising in New York City at the same time as Lee’s invasion. France has ignored us, so our sole hope is to force Great Britain to recognize us and make the Yankees sue for peace.”
Georg was puzzled. “How would stating a riot in New York City force Great Britain to enter the war?” He thought.
Jefferson Davis sat down at his desk. He wiped his brow with a handkerchief. His desk was overflowing with telegrams and other paperwork. Davis picked up a pen and drafted an order for Georg.
“I am ordering you and a small group of soldiers to secretly enter New York City and coordinate an uprising. This critical mission could save the Confederacy! And one more thing,” Davis emphasized.
Jefferson Davis added a second line to his orders. He handed the orders to Georg and waited for him to read them. Georg looked down at the paper handed to him by the Confederate President and smiled. He saluted and left the president’s office. Davis resumed reading the rest of the telegrams from Lee on his desk.
Georg recruited a trusted lieutenant he knew from New Orleans for the mission. A sergeant and two private soldiers were also assigned to him by the Confederate Army. The two soldiers were Confederate draftees from Alabama.
Georg neglected to tell the sergeant and Confederate privates the second more important part of their mission. President Davis ordered him to capture Great Britain’s gold bullion stored in the New York City Treasury Building and transport it back to Richmond!
Jefferson Davis told him starting an uprising in New York would give Georg and his men the cover they needed to break into the Treasury Building and steal the gold. The British gold would be used to help finance the Confederate government continue the war. But it would also cause a diplomatic rift between Great Britain and the United States. It would encourage Great Britain to broker peace between the Union and Confederacy to retrieve its gold reserves.
Georg confided this secret part of the mission only to his trusted lieutenant. He suggested withholding this from the non-commissioned soldiers until they reached New York City. Georg was afraid they would plan to steal all the gold bullion for themselves.
It was, in fact, stored in a sub-treasury office in the former Bank of the United States at 30 Wall Street. Next door was the “Assay” office where gold from the mines in California and elsewhere was melted down into gold bars of various weights and stored in a vault. Each gold bar was marked with letters and figures which certified the weight and quality of the metal. The vault held over $130 million of gold bullion and over $1 million in gold coins on any given day.
Unluckily, the Confederate spies were delayed in their mission due to trouble procuring a Confederate smuggler’s ship outside of Norfolk. Instead, they arrived at the wharf in New York City several days after Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia had been defeated in the Battle of Gettysburg. Georg now knew their mission was even more critical for the Confederacy. He realized the stinging defeat of Lee’s army could change the course of the war.
But as fortune would have it, they entered New York City on the day following the first New York City draft lottery.
Chapter Sixteen
Monday, July 13, 1863
It was another hot and humid day in New York City. The five Confederate spies dressed as ordinary workingmen disembarked from a smuggler’s ship docked at the port of New York. They had finally left Norfolk, Virginia, the previous day under the cover of darkness.
Across town, Jimmy O’Brien awoke when he heard the baby crying. It had been sweltering in the city for a few days now and the air was so stifling at night it had been difficult to sleep. He and his family lived in the ground-floor apartment of a dilapidated tenement building in an area of New York City called Five Points. Lying next to him was his wife Bridget, whom he had met on the ship coming to America from Ireland.
He had left Dublin for New York City several years ago to seek his fortune in America. Ireland was still reeling from the potato famine and there was no future for him there. He took passage on what in those days was known as a “coffin ship” due to the many deaths of passengers that occurred during the Atlantic crossing. Diseases spread quickly through these ships due to overcrowding and poor sanitation, hence the name.
As his ship left Ireland, Jimmy spotted Bridget in the corner of the hold. She was traveling with other single women who had embarked from Ireland. Single women left Ireland in droves after the deaths of their parents or eviction from their family homes.
Jimmy and Bridget fell in love and were married by the ship’s captain. On their wedding night, they succeeded in gaining some sort of privacy with a blanket partition. Bridget was pregnant by the time the ship docked at the New York City wharf.
Jimmy was able to find them a place to live with the assistance of an uncle who had emigrated to New York City several years earlier. His uncle was also able to secure him a good-paying job in a warehouse down on the docks. Before too long, Jimmy and Bridget O’Brien had three children and his wife was expecting a fourth. But then all hell broke loose.
Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States and South Carolina seceded from the Union. In the beginning, there were parades and cheering while bands played and New York City young men proudly marched off to war. Bridget begged Jimmy not to enlist in the army for she needed him at home to help care for their children. Jimmy agreed and continued working at his menial job in the warehouse down on the docks.
By the spring of 1863, many of the New York City dockworkers were complaining about their low wages and long working hours brought on by the war. They decided to go on strike, and Jimmy was forced to walk a picket line with the rest of his friends.
The shipping companies operating the docks in New York City brought in strikebreakers or “scab” workers to break the strike. Striking dockworkers would taunt the replacement or “scab” workers and throw rocks and stones at them as they entered the warehouse. The “scab” workers included free black men who recently escaped from southern plantations. They worked for lower wages than the regular full-time dock workers.
Jimmy continued to do his best to support his family with as much temporary work as he could find. Fresh food was becoming scarce in the city as it was being sold to the Union Army at exorbitant prices. Coffee, when it was available, had more sawdust than coffee beans. Epidemics of diseases like dysentery and cholera were becoming rampant in his neighborhood and throughout the poorer sections of the rest of the city. Fortunately, his children were spared from the ravages of a recent cholera epidemic, but his next-door neighbor’s children were not as lucky.
But this morning, as he watched his wife try to soothe their crying baby in bed, he put on his old work dungarees. His other two children were still sleep
ing, so he closed their bedroom door quietly so as not to waken them. He went into the kitchen to eat breakfast. He smothered a half-eaten piece of stale bread he found in the cupboard with jam his wife had made and wolfed it down. He drank the remains of day-old coffee from last night’s dinner. After finishing breakfast, he kissed his wife goodbye and went to try and find some work for the day.
Jimmy stopped into several neighborhood establishments, but the owners told him they did not have any work for him that day. As he walked down the street, he avoided the ones with signs in their windows which said “No Irish!” so he kept on walking.
By midmorning, having secured no work for that day, Jimmy went into McSorley’s Bar for a cold beer. He encountered several of his friends who used to work at the warehouse on the docks. He joined them at the bar and ordered a cold beer.
Meanwhile, the Civil War Draft lottery began the previous day in New York City. The first selection of names in the draft lottery wheel was picked on Sunday when most of the citizens were in church or their homes. The second drawing of names for the draft was scheduled to be picked this day.
A hotheaded Irishman named Shamus Reilly was sitting in the corner of the bar arguing with his friends.
“Hell, no I ain't fighting in any war for the Colored! Lincoln can go to hell for all I care!” and Shamus slammed his beer down on the table.
His friends tried to calm him down, but the other men in the bar picked up on his anger and shouted “Here, here!” and drank large gulps of beer.
Jimmy was sitting alone at the bar. Shamus recognized him and sauntered over to him. “What about you, O’Brien? You want to fight for some Colored fellows?” He said as he sneered at Jimmy.
Jimmy ignored him and kept sipping his beer. Shamus laughed and returned to his table after ordering several more rounds of beer for his friends.
Unexpectedly, a young man ran into McSorley’s Bar and waved a newspaper in his hand. “They’re here, they’re here.” He shouted and waved the newspaper for all to see. “The names of those drafted!!” He exclaimed.
Shamus Reilly jumped up and grabbed the paper from his hand. He scanned down the list of names, stopping at any ones he recognized and yelled them out. Several men jumped up from their tables and began shouting. “What the hell, that’s me!”
Shamus raised the paper and yelled, “See, I told you! They’re forcing the Irish to fight!” and flung the paper on the floor and began stomping on it with his dirty work boots.
Other men also began stomping on the paper and shouting expletives about President Lincoln and the government. Before long more people stopped and peered into the bar to see what the commotion was about. Several men broke chairs in the bar and began taunting each other.
“They can’t force the Irish to fight for no Coloreds!”
More and more immigrants began joining the crowds standing outside of the bar. Several of Jimmy’s friends seized him by the arms and wrenched him off of his bar stool. They hauled him out the door with them as they began marching with Shamus down the street.
At that point, the crowd turned into a drunken anti-draft mob and began shouting all together: “Hell no, we won’t go!” and “Old Abe Lincoln ain’t my president!”
Shamus steered the anti-draft mob uptown in the direction of the Provost Marshall’s district draft offices on Third Avenue & Forty-sixth Street.
Chapter Seventeen
The same day, Washington City
Allan Pinkerton was summoned into President Lincoln’s office. “Find my son Allan!” ordered Abraham Lincoln. He was wringing his hands and pacing around his office. Lincoln had dispatched a telegram to his son Robert urging him to come home to Washington City but had not received a reply. Pinkerton stepped back, surprised at seeing President Lincoln in such a state of agitation.
“He is missing in New York City, and we have not heard from him in days.” Lincoln sounded exasperated. “His mother is worried and in fact, I am too!”
Abraham Lincoln knew Robert always stopped in New York City to carouse with his friends during a break from Harvard College before boarding a train to Washington City. Lincoln knew the draft lottery would be starting soon in New York City. If the citizens of New York knew his son was in town, they would take any frustration about the conduct of the war out on him.
Lincoln grasped Pinkerton by the hand. “Take whatever resources you need! But find my son!” Lincoln said again and sat down at his desk. He began writing an urgent dispatch to General Meade.
Pinkerton saluted him and said, “I will leave right away and won’t return until I have found him!” He said firmly to the President.
Lincoln relaxed, already deep in thought. He was thinking of the precise words for his orders to General Meade. He desperately wanted him to capture Lee and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia before they could escape across the Potomac River. Lincoln knew it was the Union’s best chance to end the war.
Pinkerton placed his hat on his head and turned to go. “Your Excellency, may I use my own men?” He said softly using the formal address for the president.
Lincoln didn’t bother looking up, but waved his hand in a dismissive motion. Pinkerton’s men and women were spying for the Union Army. But there had been grumblings from several Union Generals about their interference. Pinkerton smiled to himself, knowing he now had the support of the Commander in Chief and turned to go after saluting Lincoln. He let the office door slam behind him. Lincoln’s secretaries John Hay and John G. Nicolay looked up from their small desks outside Lincoln’s office as Pinkerton walked out of the room.
John Hay mentioned to his colleague, “I wonder what that was all about?” and then resumed his scratching on paper with a large quill pen. A mound of correspondence was on both the secretary’s desks, and they hoped to go home early this evening.
Chapter Eighteen
When Georg and the other Confederate spies stepped off their ship, a black dockworker recognized Georg. He had run away after Georg’s overseer had flogged him for fighting. The black man began shouting.
“Help, it’s my old master from New Orleans!” and pointed at Georg. “He’s a rebel spy!”
A policeman happened to be passing by and looked up to see what the shouting was all about. At that moment, Georg produced his revolver and shot the black man in the chest. The black dockworker was killed instantly and fell to the ground. The policeman heard the shot and ran across the street towards the five Confederate spies with his gun drawn.
The Confederate lieutenant shot the policeman before he could capture them. The sergeant and the two privates also pulled their pistols out of their pockets and pointed to where the policeman had come from. In case anyone across the street heard the gunfire.
Meanwhile, Shamus Reilly and the anti-draft mob happened to be marching down the street at the same time. Several of the younger men in the mob heard the shots and ran over to Georg and his men to see what the commotion was all about. They spotted the dead black dockworker and the dead policeman.
Georg, overhearing the chanting of the mob, thought quickly and began shouting. “Hell, if I’m going to fight for a Colored man! And he ain’t going to make me!” While he pointed at the dead policeman.
The surprised young dockworkers chimed in. “Hell, no draft, for Coloreds!” The rest of the anti-draft mob began forming around them. Other policemen heard the shouting and ran toward the mob.
Georg pointed towards the policemen. He shouted above the din of the mob. “Don’t let them draft you into the army!”
Fighting soon broke out and several of the policemen were knocked unconscious to the ground by the dockworkers. Georg and his lieutenant stripped two of the policemen of their uniforms during the confusion as the other policemen ran away.
Georg realized they could pose as policemen to infiltrate the Treasury Building on Wall Street. He then spotted a telegraph line overhead. Georg ordered one of his men to climb the pole and cut the wire to create more confusion in the city.
The Confederate spies slipped away during the melee and continued towards Wall Street.
Meanwhile, Shamus Reilly and the anti-draft mob resumed marching to the Provost Marshall Draft office on Third Avenue. Now they had blood on their hands!
Chapter Nineteen
When the anti-draft mob reached the Provost Marshall Draft office, they set the building ablaze to destroy the draft records. Then they smashed the draft lottery wheel and threw the broken pieces in the street. Afterward, the mob continued on its rampage through the city setting fires to other buildings before discovering Marguerite and her son.
Marguerite was frantic when she looked around the alley and realized her son Michel was gone. Suddenly, she noticed a small coal chute door open on the side of the last building. A black man reached out his hands to her and beckoned her to crawl through the open door. She bent down and squeezed through the opening just as two men carrying torches entered the alley.
“Where’d they go?” One of the men exclaimed and pointed his torch at the end of the alley. “Leave them be!” Said the other man. He was Jimmy O’Brien and was encouraging the mob to break up and go home but to no avail. Both men rejoined the anti-draft mob marching up the street.
Marguerite noted the black man looked surprisingly familiar as he helped her through the opening into the dimly lit basement. Once inside the building, she saw her son. As the black man brushed the coal dust off her clothes, she stood erect and realized it was her long-lost husband Joseph. He had returned to New York City to look for his family.
When she recognized him, she shrieked and hugged him and kissed him tenderly. Joseph with an astonished look on his face hugged her back and whispered:
“I have finally found you!” He said with tears in his eyes.
Michel was surprised at his mother`s reaction to the black stranger. He never knew his father, as Joseph had run away from the sugar plantation when Michel was only a baby.
