Post on Newspapers in Databases<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When I began using electronic databases to conduct research on Daniel Mountjoy Cloud and Thomas Nelson Conrad, my first step was to search for their names.\u00a0 Searches for Cloud\u2019s name yielded no results in Infotrac 19th<\/sup> Century Newspapers, Proquest Civil War Era Newspapers, and Proquest Historical Newspapers.\u00a0 Searches for Conrad were more fruitful.\u00a0 I found his obituary from The Washington Post<\/span><\/em> in Proquest Historical Newspapers.\u00a0 The article stated that he died on January 5, 1905 in Washington D.C. \u201cof acute indigestion,\u201d and that he \u201cwas a Confederate scout during the Civil War in the command of Gen. J.E.B. Stuart.\u201d\u00a0 It also references the fact that he became \u201ca general statistician in the Census Office\u201d in 1890. (Thomas Conrad Obituary<\/a>)\u00a0 In Infotrac 19th<\/sup> Century Newspapers, I found a February 20, 1868 article from The Virginia Sentinel<\/span><\/em> which mentions that Conrad was appointed a County Superintendant in Fauper County.\u00a0 The other two articles I found in Infotrac were excerpts from his autobiography which were published by The Morning Oregonian<\/span><\/em> and Chicago\u2019s Daily Inter Ocean<\/span><\/em> in November of 1892.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I then began searching for articles pertaining to Civil War espionage in the last two years of the conflict in order to increase my understanding of the context in which Cloud and Conrad allegedly planned to kidnap President Lincoln.\u00a0 By searching for terms such as \u201cspies\u201d \u201cspies and southern\u201d \u201cLincoln and plot,\u201d I found a number of articles in Proquest Historical Newspapers concerning Confederate spies who infiltrated or attempted to infiltrate the Union.\u00a0 A Washington Star<\/span><\/em> article reprinted in The New York Times<\/span><\/em> in August of 1864 tells the story of Charles Fenton Beavers, a young \u201cprivate in Mosby\u2019s guerrilla band\u201d who was hung after being sentenced to death by a Union Court Martial.\u00a0 That February, he \u201cgave himself up as a deserter from Mosby\u2019s force\u201d and later left, ostensibly to go home.\u00a0 In June, he was \u201ccaptured with arms in his hands with Mosby\u2019s guerillas in D.C.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0A Chicago Tribune<\/span><\/em> article from January of 1864 reports the capture of a Confederate spy who was only caught because he became inebriated and was arrested for public drunkenness.\u00a0 The article claims that \u201cit is notorious in Chicago; there are disloyal men and women who are always willing to give these spies a helping hand and aid them in securing the information so earnestly desired by rebel leaders.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A Chicago Tribune<\/span><\/em> article from March of 1864, months before Cloud and Conrad allegedly began planning to abduct President Lincoln, told of the discovery of a similar plot orchestrated by Confederate agents.\u00a0 The article claims that there was \u201ca plan submitted by Col. Musgrave to the Rebel War Department in November.\u201d\u00a0 It called for \u201cone hundred and fifty picked men to go secretly North\u201d to Washington, D.C. where they would coordinate the kidnapping.\u00a0 It would have likely involved armed agents accosting the President\u2019s carriage outside the city, and taking him across the Potomac to Virginia by boat.\u00a0(The Plot to Kidnap Lincoln<\/a>)<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The plot described in this article bears a great deal of similarity to the one Conrad describes planning in his published memoir.\u00a0 One explanation for this could be that he and Cloud based their attempted kidnapping on this previous plot.\u00a0 Another possibility is that Conrad devised the story of his attempted kidnapping\u00a0in order to generate attention and revenue and based it on this true story.\u00a0 I would like to read some secondary sources that mention Cloud and Conrad\u2019s plot and gain access to the primary sources cited in order to determine the veracity of the claims in the memoir.\u00a0 If the story is largely true, and they are included in a tour of Civil War Era Carlisle, the tour guide could mention stories of spies such as Charles Beavers to provide tourists with a contextual understanding of Civil War espionage.<\/p>\n Bibliography:<\/p>\n “Thomas Nelson Conrad Dead, Confederate Scout and Former President of Blacksburg, Va. College.” The Washington Post<\/em>. 6 January 1905, 10. (Proquest Historical Newspapers)<\/p>\n “County Organization.” Virginia Sentinel. <\/em>20 February 1868, 1. (Infotrac)<\/p>\n “To Kidnap Lincoln: The Attempt Made in 1864.” Morning Oregonian.<\/em> 20 November 1892, 18. (Infotrac)<\/p>\n “An Attempt to Kidnap Lincoln: An Interseting Story by a Former Confederate Spy.” Chicago Daily Inter Ocean.<\/em> 20 November 1892, 28. (Infotrac)<\/p>\n “A Guerilla Executed: Hanging of Charles Fenton Beavers at Washington.” New York Times<\/em>. 27 August 1864, 5. (Proquest Historical Newspapers)<\/p>\n “A Pretty Rebel Plot: President Lincoln to be Kidnapped.” The Chicago Tribune. <\/em>20 March 1864, 1. (Proquest Historical Newspapers)<\/p>\n “The Plot to Assassinate the President.” The Chicago Tribune. <\/em>27 April 1864, 2. (Proquest Historical Newspapers)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Post on Newspapers in Databases \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When I began using electronic databases to conduct research on Daniel Mountjoy Cloud and Thomas Nelson Conrad, my first step was to search for their names.\u00a0 Searches for Cloud\u2019s name yielded no results in … Continue reading