George Proctor Kane
Encyclopedia
George Proctor Kane was Mayor of Baltimore, Maryland, from November 5, 1877, to his death on June 23, 1878. He is best known for his role as Marshall of Police during the Baltimore riot of 1861
and his subsequent incarceration in Fort McHenry
and Ft. Warren prisons without benefit of habeas corpus
. His position as Marshall of Police and his Southern sympathies were two of many factors in Abraham Lincoln
's decision in February 1861 to pass through Baltimore
surreptitiously on his way to Washington to be inaugurated, in order to avoid a possible assassination attempt
. Despite his politics, Kane was instrumental in providing protection and an escort for Mrs. Lincoln
on her arrival in Baltimore in February 1861 on her way to the inauguration of her husband, who had preceded her.
, and afterward commanded the Eagle Artillery and the Montgomery Guards. He was later Colonel of the First Maryland Regiment of Artillery.
Mrs. Kane was Miss Anna Griffith, daughter of Capt. John Griffith, of Dorchester County, Maryland
.
Kane was (as a matter of course, since he had several political offices) much identified with the politics of the City of Baltimore. He was originally an adherent of the Old Whig
Party and an active and enthusiastic supporter of Henry Clay
as shown by the fact that he was Grand Marshal of the parade of the Whig Young Men's National Convention held at Baltimore May 1, 1844, which ratified the nomination of Mr. Clay for the Presidency of the United States
. The future Mayor of Baltimore was then but twenty-four years old. In 1847, during the famine in Ireland, he was very active in relief work. At this period he was president of the Hibernian Society. With several others Mr. Kane purchased the old Exchange (site of the present Custom-house
) and sold the property to the United States Government, which, upon remodeling the buildings, used them for years as the Custom-house and Post-office
. He was active in the Old Volunteer Fire Department
and president of the Old Independent Fire Company. Historians credit Colonel Kane with suggesting a paid steam fire department.
In 1849 he was appointed Collector of the Port of Baltimore.
In the 1850s, Baltimore was a city mired in political corruption
and mob violence
. As a result, the Maryland legislature
embarked upon a reform movement
, which included finding a strong new Marshall of Police. Kane filled the bill, becoming Marshall of Police in 1860. According to historian J. Thomas Scharf
, "It is impossible to overrate the change that the organization of an efficient police force wrought in the condition of the city." Mayor George Brown later wrote that the entire police force "had been raised to a high degree of discipline and efficiency under the command of Marshal Kane."
, uncovered what he believed to be a plot to assassinate President-elect Lincoln as he journeyed through Baltimore on his way to Washington to begin his first term. Pinkerton presented his findings to Lincoln, which included his belief that Kane, Marshall of Police of Baltimore, was a “rabid rebel” who could not be trusted to provide security to Mr. Lincoln while in Baltimore. Pinkerton believed that Kane could participate in the plot merely by underperforming in his duties, thereby giving others ample opportunity to carry out their plans, and claimed to have overheard a conversation in a Baltimore hotel in which Kane indicated that he had no intention of providing a police escort for Lincoln. Baltimore at this time was a hotbed of pro-Southern sympathies. Unlike other cities on the President-elect’s itinerary, including New York, Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Baltimore had planned no official welcome for Lincoln. Pinkerton’s information regarding Kane, along with other information discovered by him, his operatives and others, led to the President-elect’s decision to follow the detective’s advice, changing his travel plans and passing through Baltimore surreptitiously nine hours ahead of his published schedule.
In 1868, in response to stories then circulating in the press about the Baltimore plot, Kane wrote a lengthy account of his view of the events of Feb. 21-23, 1861. He believed the President and his family would arrive in Baltimore as planned on the North Central Railroad at the Calvert Street Station at 12:30 pm on February 23, and depart on a 3 pm train from the Camden Station on the west side of town. That left two and a half hours to fill in a city in which the President got only about 1000 votes, and most of those, according to Kane, from “the very scum of the city.” In other words, there were no sizable numbers of upper crust
Lincoln supporters who might be counted on to rally around the President in a public display, and entertain him, as had happened on the President’s previous stops in New York, Harrisburg, and Philadelphia. Kane came up with a plan, which he implemented, in which John S. Gittings, who owned the North Central Railroad, would travel to Maryland Line, get on the President’s train, and accompany him to Baltimore. Once in Baltimore, the train would make an unscheduled stop at Charles and Bolton Streets, where Kane would meet it with carriages that would carry the President and his family to Gittings’ mansion on Mt. Vernon
Place. There a sumptuous meal would be served. This plan avoided the Calvert Street Station altogether and kept the President largely out of view of rabble rousers. According to his own account, Kane carried out his plan exactly, with the only exception being that the President was not aboard the train, having already traveled through Baltimore. Newspaper accounts that described Mrs. Lincoln being met by an unruly crowd in the Calvert Street station were erroneous; she had already alighted from the train.
Kane and others in Baltimore, knowing the fever pitch of the city, sought to learn about plans for other troops to pass through town, but their telegrams north asking for information were largely ignored, probably at least partly because of Kane's well-known Southern sympathies. So it was on the next day, April 19, that Baltimore authorities had no warning that troops were arriving from Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. The first of the troops had arrived at the President Street Station, on the east side of town, and had successfully traveled the one-mile distance along Pratt St. via horse drawn rail cars, to the Camden Yards station on the west side, to continue to Washington. There a disturbance ensued that soon brought the attention of Marshall Kane. His police, according to Mayor Brown, prevented a large and angry crowd “from committing any serious breach of the peace
.” Upon hearing reports that the mobs would attempt to tear up the rails leading toward Washington, Kane dispatched some of his men to protect the tracks.
Meanwhile, the balance of northern troops encountered greater difficulty traversing Pratt Street. Obstructions were placed on the tracks by the crowd and some cars were forced back toward the President Street station. The soldiers attempted to march the distance along Pratt Street, and according to Mayor Brown were met with “shouts and stones, and I think, an occasional pistol shot.”
The soldiers fired back, and the scene was one of general mayhem. Marshall Kane soon appeared with a group of policemen from the direction of the Camden St. Station, “and throwing themselves in the rear of the troops, they formed a line in front of the mob, and with drawn revolvers kept it back. … Marshal Kane’s voice shouted, “Keep back, men, or I shoot!” This movement, which I saw myself, was gallantly executed, and was perfectly successful. The mob recoiled like water from a rock.” By the time it was over, four soldiers and twelve civilians were dead. These were the first casualties of the Civil War.
Even though Kane appears to have executed his duties faithfully during these events, and wrote an official account defending his actions s:Image:Kane george defense.pdf, there is no question that he was very pronounced in his Southern sympathies. After the riot, Marshall Kane telegraphed to Bradley T. Johnson in Frederick, Md
. as follows:
"Streets red with Maryland blood; send expresses over the mountains of Maryland and Virginia for the riflemen to come without delay. Fresh hordes will be down on us tomorrow. We will fight them and whip them, or die."[2]
This startling telegram produced immediate results. Mr. Johnson, afterwards General in the Confederate Army
, came with volunteers from Frederick by special train that night and other county military organizations began to arrive. Virginians were reported hastening to Baltimore.
, with a strong Federal force, took possession of Baltimore’s Federal Hill where he erected extensive fortifications. For the period of the war Baltimore was closely guarded by Northern troops.
Marshall Kane remained in office as head of the police until June 27, 1861, when he was arrested in the dead of night at his house on St. Paul Street by a detachment of Federal soldiers and taken to Fort McHenry. From there he was sent to Fort Lafayette
in New York. From there he wrote a letter to President Lincoln in September, 1861, describing the fever from malaria he contracted at Ft. McHenry, and the inhumane conditions at Fort Lafayette. "Whilst suffering great agony from the promptings of nature and effects of my debility I am frequently kept for a long time at the door of my cell waiting for permission to go to the water-closet owing to the utter indifference of some of my keepers to the ordinary demands of humanity." Later he was moved to Fort Warren in Boston. In all he was confined for 14 months. He was released in 1862 and went to Montreal.
, New York. From there he wrote to Secretary of State
William H. Seward
in October 1861 asking for a speedy trial
and complaining that the conditions at Lafayette had been so bad that he required medical care
for "an affection of the heart which I attribute to the nature of my confinement at Lafayette." This heart condition
may have precluded his service later on the field of battle for the Confederacy. Eventually Kane was released and went to Canada.
According to the New York Times
obituary of him on June 23, 1878, Kane received a commission on General Robert E. Lee’s staff, and was with Lee at Gettysburg. This seems unlikely; a letter he wrote to Jefferson Davis
on July 17, 1863, just two weeks after Gettysburg
, is from Canada, where Kane offers his services in organizing an expedition against Chicago, Milwaukee, and Detroit. His plan was to destroy all shipping, thus "paralyzing the lake commerce." By November, he writes Davis again from Montreal to report on the failure of a plan to rescue Confederate prisoners at Sandusky Bay
. In Canada in 1864, Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth
presented to Confederate officials - including Kane- his plan to kidnap President Lincoln.
In February 1864 Kane ran the Federal blockade
and was soon in Richmond. In 1864 he published a broadside in which he exhorted Marylanders in the Confederate army to form their own Maryland militias, rather than serve under the flags of other states. On July 20, 1864, he is reported by the Charleston Mercury to be “about to cooperate with our forces then near Baltimore, with 15,000 Maryland recruits." http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=rbpe&fileName=rbpe03/rbpe031/03101700/rbpe03101700.db&recNum=1&itemLink=D?rbpebib:1:./temp/~ammem_MbhU::&linkText=0 On October 8, 1864 he writes again to Davis, offering to recruit Marylanders to form a corps of heavy artillery
, a suggestion that was politely declined. In March 1865, he is reported to have been instrumental in acquiring fresh uniforms for Marylanders in the Confederate Army. In the closing days of the war, he is still writing to Jefferson Davis to report on the movement of troops around Danville, Virginia
.
On October 27, 1877, Kane was elected Mayor having won the Democratic nomination over Ferdinand C. Latrobe.
Mayor Kane was mayor of Baltimore City but a short time (his two-year term would have ended November 3, 1879). Ordinances receiving his approval were not numerous. One appropriated money for repairs to the Old City Hall on Holliday near Saratoga street, and transferred this building to the Commissioners of Public Schools to be used for school purposes. Authority to condemn and open Wolfe Street from Monument to North Avenue and Patterson Park Avenue from Oliver Street to North Avenue was granted. A resolution to appoint a committee to urge upon Congress the necessity of constructing a new post-office was approved by Mayor Kane and an ordinance to accept Homewood Park (a part of the present site of Johns Hopkins University
) was signed April 8, 1878; this ordinance however was not carried into effect at that time.
Colonel Kane died, while Mayor, June 23, 1878. Ferdinand C. Latrobe was elected to serve the unexpired term.
Baltimore riot of 1861
The Baltimore riot of 1861 was an incident that took place on April 19, 1861, in Baltimore, Maryland between Confederate sympathizers and members of the Massachusetts militia en route to Washington for Federal service...
and his subsequent incarceration in Fort McHenry
Fort McHenry
Fort McHenry, in Baltimore, Maryland, is a star-shaped fort best known for its role in the War of 1812, when it successfully defended Baltimore Harbor from an attack by the British navy in Chesapeake Bay...
and Ft. Warren prisons without benefit of habeas corpus
Habeas corpus
is a writ, or legal action, through which a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention. The remedy can be sought by the prisoner or by another person coming to his aid. Habeas corpus originated in the English legal system, but it is now available in many nations...
. His position as Marshall of Police and his Southern sympathies were two of many factors in Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
's decision in February 1861 to pass through Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
surreptitiously on his way to Washington to be inaugurated, in order to avoid a possible assassination attempt
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
. Despite his politics, Kane was instrumental in providing protection and an escort for Mrs. Lincoln
Mary Todd Lincoln
Mary Ann Lincoln was the wife of the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, and was First Lady of the United States from 1861 to 1865.-Life before the White House:...
on her arrival in Baltimore in February 1861 on her way to the inauguration of her husband, who had preceded her.
Early Political Life
Kane was born in Baltimore in 1820 and at an early age entered the grain and grocery business. He was commissioned an ensign in the Independent Grays, a military organizationMilitary organization
Military organization is the structuring of the armed forces of a state so as to offer military capability required by the national defence policy. In some countries paramilitary forces are included in a nation's armed forces...
, and afterward commanded the Eagle Artillery and the Montgomery Guards. He was later Colonel of the First Maryland Regiment of Artillery.
Mrs. Kane was Miss Anna Griffith, daughter of Capt. John Griffith, of Dorchester County, Maryland
Dorchester County, Maryland
Dorchester County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland on its Eastern Shore. It is bordered by the Choptank River to the north, Talbot County to the northwest, Caroline County to the northeast, Wicomico County to the southeast, Sussex County, Delaware, to the east, and the Chesapeake...
.
Kane was (as a matter of course, since he had several political offices) much identified with the politics of the City of Baltimore. He was originally an adherent of the Old Whig
Whig Party (United States)
The Whig Party was a political party of the United States during the era of Jacksonian democracy. Considered integral to the Second Party System and operating from the early 1830s to the mid-1850s, the party was formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson and his Democratic...
Party and an active and enthusiastic supporter of Henry Clay
Henry Clay
Henry Clay, Sr. , was a lawyer, politician and skilled orator who represented Kentucky separately in both the Senate and in the House of Representatives...
as shown by the fact that he was Grand Marshal of the parade of the Whig Young Men's National Convention held at Baltimore May 1, 1844, which ratified the nomination of Mr. Clay for the Presidency of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
. The future Mayor of Baltimore was then but twenty-four years old. In 1847, during the famine in Ireland, he was very active in relief work. At this period he was president of the Hibernian Society. With several others Mr. Kane purchased the old Exchange (site of the present Custom-house
Custom House
A custom house or customs house was a building housing the offices for the government officials who processed the paperwork for the import and export of goods into and out of a country. Customs officials also collected customs duty on imported goods....
) and sold the property to the United States Government, which, upon remodeling the buildings, used them for years as the Custom-house and Post-office
Post office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
. He was active in the Old Volunteer Fire Department
Volunteer fire department
See also the Firefighter article and its respective sections regarding VFDs in other countries.A volunteer fire department is a fire department composed of volunteers who perform fire suppression and other related emergency services for a local jurisdiction.The first organized force of...
and president of the Old Independent Fire Company. Historians credit Colonel Kane with suggesting a paid steam fire department.
In 1849 he was appointed Collector of the Port of Baltimore.
In the 1850s, Baltimore was a city mired in political corruption
Political corruption
Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...
and mob violence
Riot
A riot is a form of civil disorder characterized often by what is thought of as disorganized groups lashing out in a sudden and intense rash of violence against authority, property or people. While individuals may attempt to lead or control a riot, riots are thought to be typically chaotic and...
. As a result, the Maryland legislature
Maryland General Assembly
The Maryland General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland. It is a bicameral body. The upper chamber, the Maryland State Senate, has 47 representatives and the lower chamber, the Maryland House of Delegates, has 141 representatives...
embarked upon a reform movement
Reform movement
A reform movement is a kind of social movement that aims to make gradual change, or change in certain aspects of society, rather than rapid or fundamental changes...
, which included finding a strong new Marshall of Police. Kane filled the bill, becoming Marshall of Police in 1860. According to historian J. Thomas Scharf
John Thomas Scharf
John Thomas Scharf was a United States historian, author, journalist, antiquarian, politician, lawyer and Confederate States of America soldier and sailor. He is best known for his published historical works. Modern historians and researchers today continue to cite his comprehensive histories as...
, "It is impossible to overrate the change that the organization of an efficient police force wrought in the condition of the city." Mayor George Brown later wrote that the entire police force "had been raised to a high degree of discipline and efficiency under the command of Marshal Kane."
Kane and the Baltimore Plot
In February 1861, Detective Alan Pinkerton, working on behalf of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore RailroadPhiladelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad
The Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad was the Pennsylvania Railroad's main line from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania southwest to Baltimore, Maryland in the 19th and early 20th centuries...
, uncovered what he believed to be a plot to assassinate President-elect Lincoln as he journeyed through Baltimore on his way to Washington to begin his first term. Pinkerton presented his findings to Lincoln, which included his belief that Kane, Marshall of Police of Baltimore, was a “rabid rebel” who could not be trusted to provide security to Mr. Lincoln while in Baltimore. Pinkerton believed that Kane could participate in the plot merely by underperforming in his duties, thereby giving others ample opportunity to carry out their plans, and claimed to have overheard a conversation in a Baltimore hotel in which Kane indicated that he had no intention of providing a police escort for Lincoln. Baltimore at this time was a hotbed of pro-Southern sympathies. Unlike other cities on the President-elect’s itinerary, including New York, Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Baltimore had planned no official welcome for Lincoln. Pinkerton’s information regarding Kane, along with other information discovered by him, his operatives and others, led to the President-elect’s decision to follow the detective’s advice, changing his travel plans and passing through Baltimore surreptitiously nine hours ahead of his published schedule.
In 1868, in response to stories then circulating in the press about the Baltimore plot, Kane wrote a lengthy account of his view of the events of Feb. 21-23, 1861. He believed the President and his family would arrive in Baltimore as planned on the North Central Railroad at the Calvert Street Station at 12:30 pm on February 23, and depart on a 3 pm train from the Camden Station on the west side of town. That left two and a half hours to fill in a city in which the President got only about 1000 votes, and most of those, according to Kane, from “the very scum of the city.” In other words, there were no sizable numbers of upper crust
Upper crust
"The upper crust" is an English-language idiom that refers to a society's social or economic elites. It is derived from the housekeeping practices of the pre-industrialization British gentry, whose servants baked bread for the household but were permitted to eat only the pan-scorched bottom...
Lincoln supporters who might be counted on to rally around the President in a public display, and entertain him, as had happened on the President’s previous stops in New York, Harrisburg, and Philadelphia. Kane came up with a plan, which he implemented, in which John S. Gittings, who owned the North Central Railroad, would travel to Maryland Line, get on the President’s train, and accompany him to Baltimore. Once in Baltimore, the train would make an unscheduled stop at Charles and Bolton Streets, where Kane would meet it with carriages that would carry the President and his family to Gittings’ mansion on Mt. Vernon
Mount Vernon
The name Mount Vernon is a dedication to the English Vice-Admiral Edward Vernon. It was first applied to Mount Vernon, the Virginia estate of George Washington, the first President of the United States...
Place. There a sumptuous meal would be served. This plan avoided the Calvert Street Station altogether and kept the President largely out of view of rabble rousers. According to his own account, Kane carried out his plan exactly, with the only exception being that the President was not aboard the train, having already traveled through Baltimore. Newspaper accounts that described Mrs. Lincoln being met by an unruly crowd in the Calvert Street station were erroneous; she had already alighted from the train.
Baltimore riot of 1861
On April 18, 1861, two companies of US Artillery and four companies of militia arrived from Harrisburg at the Bolton Station, in the northern part of Baltimore. A large crowd assembled at the station, subjecting the militia to abuse and threats. According to the mayor at the time, “An attack would certainly have been made but for the vigilance and determination of the police, under the command of Marshal Kane.”Kane and others in Baltimore, knowing the fever pitch of the city, sought to learn about plans for other troops to pass through town, but their telegrams north asking for information were largely ignored, probably at least partly because of Kane's well-known Southern sympathies. So it was on the next day, April 19, that Baltimore authorities had no warning that troops were arriving from Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. The first of the troops had arrived at the President Street Station, on the east side of town, and had successfully traveled the one-mile distance along Pratt St. via horse drawn rail cars, to the Camden Yards station on the west side, to continue to Washington. There a disturbance ensued that soon brought the attention of Marshall Kane. His police, according to Mayor Brown, prevented a large and angry crowd “from committing any serious breach of the peace
Breach of the peace
Breach of the peace is a legal term used in constitutional law in English-speaking countries, and in a wider public order sense in Britain.-Constitutional law:...
.” Upon hearing reports that the mobs would attempt to tear up the rails leading toward Washington, Kane dispatched some of his men to protect the tracks.
Meanwhile, the balance of northern troops encountered greater difficulty traversing Pratt Street. Obstructions were placed on the tracks by the crowd and some cars were forced back toward the President Street station. The soldiers attempted to march the distance along Pratt Street, and according to Mayor Brown were met with “shouts and stones, and I think, an occasional pistol shot.”
The soldiers fired back, and the scene was one of general mayhem. Marshall Kane soon appeared with a group of policemen from the direction of the Camden St. Station, “and throwing themselves in the rear of the troops, they formed a line in front of the mob, and with drawn revolvers kept it back. … Marshal Kane’s voice shouted, “Keep back, men, or I shoot!” This movement, which I saw myself, was gallantly executed, and was perfectly successful. The mob recoiled like water from a rock.” By the time it was over, four soldiers and twelve civilians were dead. These were the first casualties of the Civil War.
Even though Kane appears to have executed his duties faithfully during these events, and wrote an official account defending his actions s:Image:Kane george defense.pdf, there is no question that he was very pronounced in his Southern sympathies. After the riot, Marshall Kane telegraphed to Bradley T. Johnson in Frederick, Md
Frederick, Maryland
Frederick is a city in north-central Maryland. It is the county seat of Frederick County, the largest county by area in the state of Maryland. Frederick is an outlying community of the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is part of a greater...
. as follows:
"Streets red with Maryland blood; send expresses over the mountains of Maryland and Virginia for the riflemen to come without delay. Fresh hordes will be down on us tomorrow. We will fight them and whip them, or die."[2]
This startling telegram produced immediate results. Mr. Johnson, afterwards General in the Confederate Army
Confederate States Army
The Confederate States Army was the army of the Confederate States of America while the Confederacy existed during the American Civil War. On February 8, 1861, delegates from the seven Deep South states which had already declared their secession from the United States of America adopted the...
, came with volunteers from Frederick by special train that night and other county military organizations began to arrive. Virginians were reported hastening to Baltimore.
Kane's Arrest
However, after days of excitement and suspense, the upheaval subsided, and soon General Benjamin ButlerBenjamin Franklin Butler (politician)
Benjamin Franklin Butler was an American lawyer and politician who represented Massachusetts in the United States House of Representatives and later served as the 33rd Governor of Massachusetts....
, with a strong Federal force, took possession of Baltimore’s Federal Hill where he erected extensive fortifications. For the period of the war Baltimore was closely guarded by Northern troops.
Marshall Kane remained in office as head of the police until June 27, 1861, when he was arrested in the dead of night at his house on St. Paul Street by a detachment of Federal soldiers and taken to Fort McHenry. From there he was sent to Fort Lafayette
Fort Lafayette
Fort Lafayette was an island coastal fortification in the Narrows of New York Harbor, built offshore from Fort Hamilton at the southern tip of what is now Bay Ridge in the New York City borough of Brooklyn...
in New York. From there he wrote a letter to President Lincoln in September, 1861, describing the fever from malaria he contracted at Ft. McHenry, and the inhumane conditions at Fort Lafayette. "Whilst suffering great agony from the promptings of nature and effects of my debility I am frequently kept for a long time at the door of my cell waiting for permission to go to the water-closet owing to the utter indifference of some of my keepers to the ordinary demands of humanity." Later he was moved to Fort Warren in Boston. In all he was confined for 14 months. He was released in 1862 and went to Montreal.
Kane in the Civil War
As the Civil War was beginning, Kane was moved from Fort McHenry to Fort Lafayette, and then to Fort ColumbusFort Columbus
Fort Columbus was a fortification and army post in Governors Island, New York Harbor, New York City, New York, from 1806 to 1904.-Fort Jay:Fort Columbus was the name of a fortification and later the army post that developed around it...
, New York. From there he wrote to Secretary of State
United States Secretary of State
The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...
William H. Seward
William H. Seward
William Henry Seward, Sr. was the 12th Governor of New York, United States Senator and the United States Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson...
in October 1861 asking for a speedy trial
Speedy trial
Speedy trial refers to one of the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution to defendants in criminal proceedings. The right to a speedy trial, guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment, is intended to ensure that defendants are not subjected to unreasonably lengthy incarceration prior to a fair...
and complaining that the conditions at Lafayette had been so bad that he required medical care
Health care
Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...
for "an affection of the heart which I attribute to the nature of my confinement at Lafayette." This heart condition
Heart disease
Heart disease, cardiac disease or cardiopathy is an umbrella term for a variety of diseases affecting the heart. , it is the leading cause of death in the United States, England, Canada and Wales, accounting for 25.4% of the total deaths in the United States.-Types:-Coronary heart disease:Coronary...
may have precluded his service later on the field of battle for the Confederacy. Eventually Kane was released and went to Canada.
According to the New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
obituary of him on June 23, 1878, Kane received a commission on General Robert E. Lee’s staff, and was with Lee at Gettysburg. This seems unlikely; a letter he wrote to Jefferson Davis
Jefferson Davis
Jefferson Finis Davis , also known as Jeff Davis, was an American statesman and leader of the Confederacy during the American Civil War, serving as President for its entire history. He was born in Kentucky to Samuel and Jane Davis...
on July 17, 1863, just two weeks after Gettysburg
Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg , was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War, it is often described as the war's turning point. Union Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade's Army of the Potomac...
, is from Canada, where Kane offers his services in organizing an expedition against Chicago, Milwaukee, and Detroit. His plan was to destroy all shipping, thus "paralyzing the lake commerce." By November, he writes Davis again from Montreal to report on the failure of a plan to rescue Confederate prisoners at Sandusky Bay
Sandusky Bay
Sandusky Bay is a body of water situated in between Erie, Ottawa, and Sandusky counties in the U.S. state of Ohio and just to the south of Lake Erie. Sandusky Bay runs from Muddy Creek Bay to Cedar Point, which is part of Sandusky....
. In Canada in 1864, Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth was an American stage actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. Booth was a member of the prominent 19th century Booth theatrical family from Maryland and, by the 1860s, was a well-known actor...
presented to Confederate officials - including Kane- his plan to kidnap President Lincoln.
In February 1864 Kane ran the Federal blockade
Blockade runner
A blockade runner is usually a lighter weight ship used for evading a naval blockade of a port or strait, as opposed to confronting the blockaders to break the blockade. Very often blockade running is done in order to transport cargo, for example to bring food or arms to a blockaded city...
and was soon in Richmond. In 1864 he published a broadside in which he exhorted Marylanders in the Confederate army to form their own Maryland militias, rather than serve under the flags of other states. On July 20, 1864, he is reported by the Charleston Mercury to be “about to cooperate with our forces then near Baltimore, with 15,000 Maryland recruits." http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=rbpe&fileName=rbpe03/rbpe031/03101700/rbpe03101700.db&recNum=1&itemLink=D?rbpebib:1:./temp/~ammem_MbhU::&linkText=0 On October 8, 1864 he writes again to Davis, offering to recruit Marylanders to form a corps of heavy artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
, a suggestion that was politely declined. In March 1865, he is reported to have been instrumental in acquiring fresh uniforms for Marylanders in the Confederate Army. In the closing days of the war, he is still writing to Jefferson Davis to report on the movement of troops around Danville, Virginia
Danville, Virginia
Danville is an independent city in Virginia, United States, bounded by Pittsylvania County, Virginia and Caswell County, North Carolina. It was the last capital of the Confederate States of America. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the city of Danville with Pittsylvania county for...
.
After the Civil War
In 1865 Kane entered the tobacco manufacturing business at Danville, Va. Returning to Baltimore he was appointed to the Jones Falls Commission and was elected sheriff by the Democratic party in 1873.On October 27, 1877, Kane was elected Mayor having won the Democratic nomination over Ferdinand C. Latrobe.
Mayor Kane was mayor of Baltimore City but a short time (his two-year term would have ended November 3, 1879). Ordinances receiving his approval were not numerous. One appropriated money for repairs to the Old City Hall on Holliday near Saratoga street, and transferred this building to the Commissioners of Public Schools to be used for school purposes. Authority to condemn and open Wolfe Street from Monument to North Avenue and Patterson Park Avenue from Oliver Street to North Avenue was granted. A resolution to appoint a committee to urge upon Congress the necessity of constructing a new post-office was approved by Mayor Kane and an ordinance to accept Homewood Park (a part of the present site of Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
) was signed April 8, 1878; this ordinance however was not carried into effect at that time.
Colonel Kane died, while Mayor, June 23, 1878. Ferdinand C. Latrobe was elected to serve the unexpired term.