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Jacob Thompson
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===Commissioner in Canada=== {{one source|section|date=November 2017}} In March 1864, [[Jefferson Davis]] asked Thompson to lead a secret delegation in Canada. He accepted and arrived in Montreal in May of that year. Thompson appears to have been the leader of [[Confederate Secret Service]] operations in Canada. From there, he directed a failed plot to free Confederate prisoners of war on [[Johnson's Island]], off [[Sandusky, Ohio]], in September. He also arranged the purchase of a steamer, with the intention of arming it to harass shipping in the [[Great Lakes]]. Regarded in the North as a schemer and conspirator, many devious plots were associated with his name, though much of this may have been public hysteria. On June 13, 1864, Thompson met with former New York Governor [[Washington Hunt]] at [[Niagara Falls]].<ref>p. 145, Castleman, John Breckenridge. ''Active Service''. Louisville, KY: Courier-Journal Job Printing, 1917.</ref> According to the testimony of the Peace Democrat [[Clement Vallandigham]], Hunt met Thompson, talked to him about creating a Northwestern Confederacy, and obtained money for arms, which was routed to a subordinate. Thompson gave [[Benjamin Wood (American politician)|Benjamin Wood]], the owner of the ''[[New York Daily News (19th century)|New York Daily News]]'', money to purchase arms.<ref>p. 146, Castleman, John Breckenridge. ''Active Service''. Louisville, KY: Courier-Journal Job Printing, 1917.</ref> One plot was a planned burning of [[New York City]] on November 25, 1864 in retaliation for Union Generals [[Philip Sheridan]] and [[William Tecumseh Sherman]]'s [[scorched-earth]] tactics in the South.<ref>p. 54, Benn Pitman. United States. Army. Military Commission (Lincoln Assassins: 1865). ''The Assassination of President Lincoln and the Trial of the Conspirators''. Cincinnati, OH: Moore, Wilstach & Baldwin, 1865.</ref> Some speculate that [[John Wilkes Booth]], who assassinated [[Abraham Lincoln]], met Thompson, but that has not been proved. (In the years after the war, Thompson worked hard to clear his name of involvement in the assassination.) His manor, called "Home Place," in [[Oxford, Mississippi]] was burned down by [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] troops in 1864. In the spring of 1865, Canadian customs raided a house in [[Toronto]] that had been rented by Thompson. They found [[Coal torpedo|coal torpedoes]] and other incendiary devices hidden beneath the floorboards.<ref>Adam Mayers, "Spies across the border," in ''Civil War Times Illustrated.'' June 2001, pg. 31.</ref>
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