Canadians with Custer

Since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, a myth has persisted that the hijackers entered the United States from Canada. This is completely untrue. Nevertheless, there was a time during the U.S. Civil War when attacks on America were launched from Canada, but the aggressors were mostly fellow Americans engaged in a secessionist struggle. Among the attacks were three daring naval commando expeditions against a prisoner-of-war camp on Johnsons Island in Lake Erie.

These Confederate operations on the Great Lakes remain largely unknown. However, some of the people involved did make more indelible marks in history, including a future Canadian prime minister, a renowned Victorian war correspondent, a beloved Catholic poet, a notorious presidential assassin, and a son of the abolitionist John Brown.

The improbable events linking these figures constitute a story worth telling and remembering. Rebels on the Great Lakes offers the first full account of the Confederate naval operations launched from Canada in 186364, describing forgotten military actions that ultimately had an unexpected impact on North Americas future.

Sue Logue's involvement in the revenge murder of Davis Timmerman after he killed her husband, Wallace, resulted in her being executed along with her brother-in-law, George, and hit-man Clarence Bagwell. Her nephew, Joe Frank, Junior, who aided Bagwell in the murder, served a life sentence. Sue's insatiable appetite for life included a purported love affair with young Edgefield SC teacher and politician Strom Thurmond, whom she believed would save her.

"Ms. Flowers spins a great tale of juicy Southern hospitality, bodacious family feuds, insidious betrayals, and gunslinging, vigilante justice that makes the OK Corral dust-up look like a Sunday afternoon picnic in the park."
-Carol Jose, co-author of Evil Web: A True Story of Cult Abuse and Courage

In August 1812, under threat from the Potawatomi, Captain Nathan Heald began the evacuation of ninety-four people from the isolated outpost of Fort Dearborn to Fort Wayne, hundreds of miles away. The group included several dozen soldiers, as well as nine women and eighteen children. After traveling only a mile and a half, they were attacked by five hundred Potawatomi warriors. In under an hour, fifty-two members of Heald’s party were killed, and the rest were taken prisoner; the Potawatomi then burned Fort Dearborn before returning to their villages.