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Thomas Henry Hines (October 8, 1838 – January 23, 1898) was a Confederate spy during the American Civil War. A native of Butler County, Kentucky, he originally served as a grammar instructor, particularly at the Masonic University of La Grange, Kentucky before the war. After several daring adventures and almost-impossible escapes during the war, he settled down after the war with much of his family in Bowling Green, Kentucky, where he would go on to serve on the Kentucky Court of Appeals.

Thomas Hines was said to resemble noted actor John Wilkes Booth, who would gain some fame immediately after Robert E. Lee surrendered. Hines was five feet nine inches tall, and weighed a mere 140 pounds. With his slim build, he was said to not be particularly menacing in appearance, and a friend said he had a voice like a "refined woman". He had a fondness not only for women, but music and horses as well. Union agents saw Hines as the man they most needed to apprehend, but except for his time at the Ohio Penitentiary in late 1863, he was never captured.

Early life

Hines was from Warren County, Kentucky, although he was born in Butler County, Kentucky. He became an adjunct professor at the Masonic University, a school established by the Grand Lodge of Kentucky Freemasons for teaching the orphans of Kentucky Masons in La Grange, Kentucky, in 1859 . He served as the principal of its grammar school, but with the advent of the war, he joined the Confederate Army in September 1861; this begun the struggles of the Masonic University that continued until its closure two decades later.

Civil War

Early war experiences

He joined the Confederate army, as did at least eleven of his cousins (none are known to serve in the Union army). Thomas Hines initially led "Buckner's Guides," which were attached to Albert Sidney Johnston's command, as his fellow guides recognized his "coolness and leadership". In November 1861 he was given a lieutenant's commission. On December 31, 1861, he led a successful mission to Borah's Ferry, Kentucky to attack an Union outpost there. The Guides were disbanded in January 1862 after the Confederate government of Kentucky fled Bowling Green, Kentucky, as Hines did not want to fight anywhere except in Kentucky. He traveled to Richmond, Virginia, and missed the Battle of Shiloh as a result. In April he decided to join Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan and he re-enlisted in the army as a private in the 9th Kentucky Cavalry in May 1862. Morgan recognized Hines' talents and commissioned him as a captain. Afterward, Thomas Hines would spend most of his time engaged in secret missions in his beloved Kentucky, often by himself as he was dressed in civilian clothes and did not want any extra attention, as he did not want to be executed as a spy.

On many of his forays in Kentucky, he made special trips to see loved ones. Often it was to visit Nancy Sproule, his childhood sweetheart and future bride, in Brown's Lock, Kentucky (near Bowling Green, Kentucky). Other times he would visit his parents in Lexington, Kentucky. In both places, Union spys attempted to capture Hines, but he always escaped, even after his father had been captured and his mother was sick in bed.

1863

In June 1863, Hines led an invasion into Indiana with 25 Confederates posing as a Union unit in pursuit of AWOL deserters. Their goal was to see if the local Copperheads would support the invasion John Hunt Morgan planned for July of 1863. Traveling through Kentucky for eight days to obtain supplies for their mission, they crossed the Ohio River to enter Indiana, near the village of Derby, Indiana, on June 18, 1863. Hines visited the local Copperhead leader, Dr. William A. Bowles in French Lick, Indiana, and learned that there would be no formal support for Morgan's Raid. On his was back to Kentucky, Hines and his men were discovered in Valeene, Indiana, leading to a small skirmish near Leavenworth, Indiana on Little Blue Island. Hines had to abandon his men as he swam across the Ohio River under gunfire.

After wandering around Kentucky for a week, Thomas Hines rejoined General John Hunt Morgan at Brandenburg, Kentucky; Colonel Basil W. Duke made a disparaging comment in his memoirs about how Hines had appeared, saying Hines was "apparently the most listless inoffensive youth that was ever imposed upon". (Despite being Morgan's second-in-command, Basil W. Duke was usually not told of all the espionage Hines was carrying out, causing some to believe that Hines and Duke did not like each other, which was not the case.) Hines learned how to capture the riverboats Alice Dean and the John T. McCombs, that enabled Morgan to transport his 2000+ men across the Ohio River. It was Hines' reports that encouraged Morgan to be rough with anyone posing as a Confederate sympathizer in Indiana. Hines stayed with Morgan until the end of the Raid, and was with John Hunt Morgan during their imprisonment first at Johnson's Island, and later at the Ohio Penitentiary just outside downtown Columbus, Ohio where, despite the rules of war dictating that prisoners of war should go to military prison, they were put in with common criminals.

Thomas Hines discovered the way to escape from the Ohio Penitentiary. Hines had been reading Les Misérables, and was said to be inspired by Jean Valjean and Valjean's escapes through the passages underneath Paris, France. Hines noticed how dry the lower prison cells felt, and were lacking in mold, even through sunlight never shined there. This caused Hines to believe that escape by tunneling down was possible. After discovering an air chamber underneath them, which he had deduced, Hines begun the tunneling effort. The tunnel was only eighteen inches wide, which was just large enough for him to enter the four foot by four foot air chamber that was surrounded by heavy masonry. As Hines and the six others that would accompany Hines and John Hunt Morgan, a thin crust was left to hide the tunneling from the prison officials. They tunneled for six weeks, with the tunnel's exit coming between the inner and the twenty-five foot outer prison walls, near a coal pile. On the day of escape, November 26, 1863, John Hunt Morgan switched cells with his brother Colonel Richard Morgan. The day was chosen as a new Union military commander was coming to Columbus, Ohio, and Morgan knew that the prison cells wuld be inspected at that time. Together, after the daily midnight inspection, Thomas Hines, John Hunt Morgan, and five captains under Morgan's command used the tunnel to escape. Aided by the fact that the prison sentries sought shelter from the raging storm occurring at the time, the Confederate officers used climbed the twenty-five foot tall wall effortless, using metal hooks to effect their escape, and successfully escaped from the Penitentiary.

Hines had even left a note for the warden. It read: "Warden N. Merion, the Faithful, the Vigilant," as follows: "Castle Merion, Cell No. 20. November 27, 1863. Commencement, Nov. 4, 1863. Conclusion, Nov. 20, 1863. Hours for labor per day, three. Tools, two small knives. 'La patience est amere, mais son fruit est doux.' By order of my six honorable confederates." Those left behind were stripped searched and moved to different cells in the Ohio State Penitentiary. Two of the officers who escaped with Hines and Morgan, Captain Ralph Sheldon and Captain Samuel Taylor, were captured four days later in Louisville, Kentucky, but the other three (Captain Jacob Bennett, Captain L. D. Hockersmith, and Captain Augustus Magee) made good their escape to Canada and the South.

Thomas Hines led John Hunt Morgan back to Confederate lines. First, they took a train from Columbus, Ohio, where they bought tickets, to Cincinnati, Ohio, and jumped off the train before it entered the Cincinnati train station. They continued to evade capture in Cincinnati, Ohio, and stayed for one night at the Ben Johnson House in Bardstown, Kentucky. In Tennessee, Hines diverted the Union troops' attention away from John Hunt Morgan, and was himself recaptured, and sentenced to death by hanging. He escaped that night by telling stories to the soldier in charge of him and subdued him when given the chance. A few days later he would again escape Union soldiers who intended to hang him.

Northwest Conspiracy

Thomas Hines went to the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia upon his escape in January of 1864. He convinced Confederate president Jefferson Davis of a plan to instill mass panic in the Northern states, by means of freeing prisoners and causing arson in larger Northern cities. Impressed by Hines' plan, Davis agreed to back him. Davis urged Hines to tell Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin and Secretary of War James Seddon his plan. Both men agreed to the plan, and encouraged Hines to proceed, with the only hesitation by Davis, Benjamin, and Sheldon being the effect on public opinion on such a plan, including what Great Britain and France would think of Hines' actions.

Hines thought it would be easier to enter the North from Canada and traveled there during the winter. From Canada, Hines led the Northwest Conspiracy in 1864, which included men as Colonel Benjamin Anderson. It was hoped that Hines and his men would be able to free the Confederate prisoners held at Camp Douglas in Chicago, Illinois, where Confederate prisoners were often held in public observation by the residents of Chicago, Illinois. Thomas Hines led sixty men from Toronto, Ontario on August 25, 1864. They arrived during the Democrat National Convention held in Chicago, Illinois that year. The Copperheads had told Hines to wait until that time, as they said that 50,000 Copperheads would be there for the event. However, between Copperhead hesitation to assist Thomas Hines and his force, and with Federal authorities apparently knowledgeable of the plot, Thomas Hines and his men were forced to flee Chicago, Illinois, on August 30, 1864. Many of the men thought Benjamin Anderson may have been a double agent, forcing him to leave the group. A second attempt to free the Camp Douglas Confederate prisoners occurred during the United States Presidential Election of 1864, but that plan was also foiled. In one of these attempts, Thomas Hines escaped Chicago, Illinois by hiding in a mattress while Union soldiers inspected the house he was in. In the same year he tried to free Confederate prisoners of war by recruiting former members of Morgan's Raiders who had escaped to Canada, including John Hunt Morgan's telegrapher George "Lightning" Ellsworth, who was a native of Canada.

Late War

In October 1864, Hines learned that his beloved Nancy Sproule was in an Ohio convent. He decided to "spirit" her from it, and on November 10, 1864, at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Covington, Kentucky, they were wed, despite her father's wishes that they waited until the war was over, due to Hines' wartime activities. They spent a week's honeymoon in Kentucky, after which Hines returned to his clandestine activities in Canada.

Two days after Lincoln's assassination, on April 16, 1865, Hines was in Detroit, Michigan when he was mistaken for John Wilkes Booth, who was then the subject of a massive manhunt. After finding himself in a fight, Hines jumped several fences and made his way to Detroit's wharf. He waited for a ferryboat to empty of passengers, and then held the captain at gunpoint to take him across the Detroit River to Canada. Upon arrival, Hines apologized to the captain, and gave him five dollars. After the captain sailed back to Detroit and received police questioning, it was believed that Booth had escaped into Canada when it was actually Hines.

Post War

After the war, Hines went to Canada, where he studied law with General John C. Breckinridge, a former Vice President of the United States. He finished his law studies after briefly living in Memphis, Tennessee in the Spring of 1866, where he also edited the Daily Appeal. Hines would move to Bowling Green, Kentucky in 1867, where many of his family lived, and began practicing law in the town. Basil W. Duke would appoint Hines a colonel in the Soldiers of the Red Cross. Thomas Hines would become the County Judge for Warren County, Kentucky. He later became a member of the Kentucky Court of Appeals from 1878 until 1886, having been elected to the office on the first Monday of August of 1878. During his time in the Kentucky Court of Appeals, Thomas Hines was a witness to the assassination of fellow Judge John Milton Elliott on March 26, 1879, while the two were leaving the Kentucky State House. A judge from Henry County, Kentucky, Colonel Thomas Buford, shot Elliott with a double-barrelled shotgun filled with twelve buckshot after Hines had turned and walked six feet away from Elliott. Buford had shot Elliott after asking Elliott if he wanted to go on a snipe hunt. Hines inspected the body as Buford turned himself in to a deputy sheriff who came to inspect the turmoil. Buford murdered him due to a case being dismissed that involved his sister to prove to Elliot that he could not let the case be dismissed.

After his time on the Kentucky Court of Appeals, Thomas Hines returned to practicing law in Frankfort, Kentucky. In 1886 Hines began writing a series of four articles discussing the Northwest Conspiracy for Basil W. Duke's Southern Bivouac magazine. The magazine was dedicated to the memory of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy and was wrote in a less adversarial manner than similar Southern magazines and had a larger Northern readership. The first of the articles was printed in the December 1886 issue. However, after consulting with former Confederate president Jefferson Davis at Davis' home in Mississippi, Hines did not name anybody on the Northern side who assisted in the conspiracy. After writing the first article, Hines was attacked for not being more forthcoming regarding all the participants from both newspapers reviewers (particularly from the Louisville Times) and Southern readers, which discouraged Hines to print nothing more about the Northwest Conspiracy. Hines died in 1898 in Frankfort, and was buried in Fairview Cemetery of Bowling Green, Kentucky, in the Hines series of plots. Also among the Hines family plots is the grave site of Duncan Hines, a second cousin twice removed.

Misinformation

Thomas Hines has had several problems with historical markers denoting his exploits. On the historical marker placed for Thomas Hines' entry into Indiana, in the vicinity of Derby, Indiana, the Indiana Historical Society placed the year Thomas Hines invaded Indiana as 1862, although it actually occurred in 1863.. In additional, a marker by the Confederate Monument of Bowling Green in Bowling Green's Fairview Cemetery says that Hines died before he could go to the dedication ceremony in 1876, when in reality he died in 1898, 22 years later, and buried just a few hundred feet away.

Notes

1. Schultz pg.33
2. Kleber 593
3. Horan pg.4,8
4. Johnson pg.1444
5. Kerr 625
6. Schultz pg.33
7. Schultz pg.34
8. Horan pg.24-28
9. Matthews 255
10. Johnson pg.360
11. Matthews pg.133
12. Matthews pg.156
13. Johnson pg.1445
14. Matthews pg.156-8
15. Quisenberry pg.41
16. Johnson pg.1445
17. Schultz pg.37
18. Schultz 42-47
19. Kleber pg.34.
20. Matthews pg.252
21. Horan pg.202-206
22. Horan pg.261,262
23. Smith pg.205
24. Johnson pg.1445
25. Matthews pg.215, 222, 254
26. Bush pg.xvi
27. Kerr 625
28. Confederate Monument marker at Fairview Cmetery
29. Hines Raid 1862 hisotrical marker IN.gov

Sources

• Bush, William. Reports of Selected Civil and Criminal Cases Decided in the Court of Appeals of Kentucky (Geo. G. Fetter Print. Co., 1879)
• Horan, James D., Confederate Agent: A Discovery in History (1954).
• Johnson, E. Polk. A History of Kentucky and Kentuckians (Lewis Pub. Co., 1912)
• Kerr, Charles. History of Kentucky (The American Historical Society, 1922)
• Kleber, John E. Encyclopedia of Louisville. (University Press of Kentucky) (2001)
• Matthews, Gary Robert. Basil Wilson Duke, CSA (University Press of Kentucky, 2005)
• Quisenberry, A.C. History of Morgan's Men (The Register of the Kentucky State Historical Society, Kentucky Historical Society, 1917)
• Schultz, Duane. The Dahlgren Affair (W. W. Norton & Company, 2000)
• Smith, Green Clay. Assassination of Judge John M Elliott Famous Kentucky Tragedies and Trials (The Baldwin law book company, incorporated, 1916)

• 1838 births
• 1898 deaths
• American Civil War prisoners of war
• American Civil War spies
• Confederate Army officers
• People from Bowling Green, Kentucky
• People of Kentucky in the American Civil War