The Great Lakes Patrol was carried out by American naval forces, beginning in 1844, mainly to suppress criminal activity and to protect the maritime border with Canada. A small force of United States Navy, Coast Guard, and Revenue Service ships served in the Great Lakes throughout these operations. Through the decades, they were involved in several incidents with pirates and rebels.
The patrol was ended in 1920 when the US Coast Guard assumed full command of the operations as part of the Rum Patrol. This was initiated during the Prohibition era to try to reduce or end liquor smuggling from Canada across the rivers and lakes, a difficult task:Rodgers the Canada–United States border is 8,891 kilometers (5,525 mi) long.
Operations
Origin
The USS Michigan led the patrol, mostly singlehandedly, from its beginning on October 1, 1844 until the ship was retired in 1912. Michigan was the only American gunboat to patrol the Great Lakes. She was the first steam-powered, iron-hulled warship of the United States Navy, and was built in response to British authorities arming two steamships during the Rebellions of 1837–1838 in Canada.
Based in Erie, Pennsylvania throughout her career, the gunboat was commissioned on September 29, 1844 under Commander William Inman. Because the Great Lakes are vast inland seas in the north of the continent, during every winter parts of the lakes would freeze over, ending ship traffic. Even when passageways were open, icebergs would make navigation extremely hazardous and difficult. The Michigan usually sailed from about March to December before heading back for Erie for the winter. A type of house was built there at its mooring to protect the ship from the elements. During the winter, the officers and crew of the ship either stayed at their homes in Erie or at a government-owned hotel near the wharf., Naval Source Archives
Timber Rebellion
In 1853 the USS Michigan was assigned to operate against criminals who were ravaging the logging industry. These so called timber pirates conducted illegal cutting of timber on federal land and then smuggled the valuable commodity out of the area in order to sell it. The areas most affected were in the western Great Lakes region, along the coasts of Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota. Much of these forested areas controlled by the government were reserved for the building of new warships.
The illegal timber trade centered on Chicago and Milwaukee. It was nearly as violent as the alcohol trade, which was carried out over the same waters during the Prohibition era of the 1920s. In 1851 the government sent timber agents from the Department of the Interior to survey the land and work with local police and naval forces to stop the crime. When loads of wood were found to have been acquired illegally, the agents confiscated it and auctioned it off to the public, and later, in foreign markets. Many of the timber barons of the Great Lakes were involved in the illegal trade, and they began stealing back the wood or burning it before it could be shipped away.Rodgers, pg. 44-5
Timber agents and smugglers came into conflict on the upper Mississippi River. An entirely separate United States Navy operation was conducted along the Calcasieu River of Louisiana. In 1852 one agent was killed by the pirates while sailing a raft loaded with stolen timber to Dubuque, Iowa. Newspapers such as The Chicago Tribune and The Chicago Democratic Press openly advocated armed resistance against the agents. One article in the Chicago Tribune read as follows; "if they [the agents] regard their personal welfare, they had better keep clear of a such transactions as that which they are about to engage in. If men cannot have a law protect their property, they will protect it themselves." The newspapers noted that most of the timber smugglers were from Wisconsin and Illinois, and usually raided Michigan's timberlands, causing much damage to the reserves. When Agent Isaac W. Willard was sent to the Great Lakes in 1853, he observed gangs of timber pirates defy and intimidate federal authorities and burn government-owned property. They burned boats loaded with logs at Grand Haven, as a re-enactment of the Boston Tea Party of 1773.Rodgers, pp. 45-7
At this time the only American warship on the Great Lakes was the USS Michigan under Commander Abraham Bigelow. The only other vessel in the lakes which could have been used against the pirates was the revenue cutter USRC Ingham, described by one Detroit newspaper as being "burlesque" and unfit for duty. Because the Ingham had no steam engine, and was propelled solely by sails and wind, the more advanced steam-powered vessels used by the smugglers, could easily escape her.
In late April the Michigan headed for Buffalo to resupply before her yearly patrol. After that Commander Bigelow sailed west across Lake Erie, passing north along Detroit on Thursday, May 5, 1853 and then entered Lake Huron via Saint Clair River. On the following morning, at about 2:15 am, a lookout sighted a light in the darkness ahead of the Michigan. The officer on duty, Lieutenant George M. Ransom, ordered the helmsman to steer north by northwest, so as to avoid the light, but by 2:40 am the light was still ahead and "close upon us", according to one sailor. At 3:00 am the two ships were only a few hundred yards from each other and it appeared as though the two would pass closely by. However, the unknown ship suddenly turned ninety degrees to port side and headed straight for the Michigans port bow.Rodgers, pp. 47-8
Lieutenant Ransom had only a few seconds to react, and he ordered the ship hard to port. Just as he was ringing the ship's bell to alarm the crew, the unknown ship crashed into the Michigan. Damage to the gunboat was heavy, though because of her iron hull, there was no leaking and the ship was not in danger of sinking. Commander Bigelow later said to Secretary of the Navy James Cochran Dobbin; "Had the Michigan been built of wood instead of iron, there is no doubt but that she would have been cut down before the water's edge and sunk." The other ship bounced off the Michigans metal hull just after impact, and her commander turned his ship back onto course and continued on without stopping. This angered Bigelow, who proceeded to chase the fleeing steamer. After a brief pursuit, the American gunboat was close enough to the steamer for her crew to read the vessel's nameboard. The steamer proved to be the Buffalo; at the time, she was the largest steam-powered timber ship to sail the lakes. She was owned by a Mr. Walbridge and was headed for Chicago.Rodgers, pp. 49-50
Though Lieutenant Ransom felt the ramming was deliberate, Commander Bigelow thought it must have been an accident. He brought his ship alongside the Buffalo and asked if the crew of the steamer needed any assistance. The crew answered to the negative so Bigelow let the ship go, but he followed it into Chicago for repairs. While it is not certain that the ramming was intentional or not, Bigelow endeavored to find evidence that it was. The commander filed a lawsuit against Mr. Walbridge: either his ship's captain had been irresponsible or he was trying to sink the Michigan.
The crew of the merchant ship Republic witnessed the Buffalo swerve off course to ram the gunboat, and the ship's captain submitted his report in writing; however, because the evidence was circumstantial, the case never went to trial. USS Michigan was put out of action for two months for repairs, which cost $1,674 to complete. Over the course of the next few weeks after refitting, the Michigan captured several timber pirates with the assistance of Agent Willard and a Marine Corps detachment. These operations are credited with ending the 1853 Timber Rebellion in a federal victory. But the illegal logging trade continued to as late as the 1870s.Rodgers, pp. 52-7
Beaver-Mackinac War
The Michigan was also involved in the Beaver-Mackinac War. In 1850 James Strang crowned himself the king of Beaver Island, at the head of Lake Michigan. Eventually he began forcing his radical beliefs on some of his mainstream Mormon followers, known as Strangites. The commander of the Michigan was ordered to arrest Strang in May 1851, which was done without conflict. Strang was held in custody for some time and then released, but on Monday, June 16, 1856, he was assassinated at St. James, in front of the Michigan. Captain Charles H. McBlair, commander of the gunboat, had invited the king aboard the ship. He was shot in the back with a pistol at close range as he was waiting on the docks. The assassins, Alexander Wentworth and "Dr. J. Atkyn [sic]", who were said to be blackmailing the Strangites, fled to the Michigan for sanctuary. They were later released at Mackinaw without being charged. Strang was shot three times, once in the head, but survived for three weeks before dying on July 9 from his injuries.Murder of James Strang
The Mormons assumed that Captain McBlair knew about the plot beforehand. Others accused him of being in on it. On July 5, a large mob from Michigan landed on Beaver Island and forcibly removed nearly 3,000 inhabitants with small steam boats. Many people were robbed first in what Byron M. Cutcheon later called "the most disgraceful day in Michigan history". The Mormons were taken to Voree, where some of them stayed while most others dispersed across the country. Beaver Island was later reoccupied by Irish Americans, who established a colony that flourished in the 1860s and 1870s."Beaver Island", American Heritage
American Civil War
During the American Civil War, USS Michigan kept up with her yearly patrol against smugglers and other criminals. At that time the gunboat was still the only American warship in those waters, other than six revenue cutters, which were largely ineffective in their operations against crime. Because the Civil War had such a high mortality rate, the government enforced a military draft. There were draft riots by working-class men who resented being sent to war when wealthier men could buy their way out. The most notable one was in New York City, where largely ethnic Irish attacked African Americans as the scapegoats for their anger. A race riot took place in Detroit in 1863, also about labor and economic competition issues at bottom, and another in Buffalo, New York. The USS Michigan spent much of the war patrolling back and forth between those urban areas.
By 1863 Johnson's Island in Lake Erie was used as a prisoner of war camp for Confederates. The Southern government knew of the camp. In 1863 Lieutenant William Henry Murdaugh of the Confederate States Navy suggested to President Jefferson Davis a plan to gain control of the lakes by capturing the Michigan. Ultimately Murdaugh's plan was never implemented. But in 1864 Davis authorized Captain Charles H. Cole of the Confederate States Army to go to the Great Lakes with Captain John Yates Beall and organize the escape of prisoners from Johnson's Island and Camp Chase., News-Herald, Blog, May 2011
Captain Cole had been a prisoner at Johnson's Island before his escape, so he knew the area and the people well. With Beall, Cole collected thirty-five volunteers to take over the Michigan. He cunningly befriended several of the gunboat's officers. Cole also contacted with the Sons of Liberty, a secret society that sympathized with the Confederate cause. The captain organized the successful infiltration of the 128th Ohio Infantry Regiment which guarded the prison camps. Ten of his volunteers posed as Union troops, with orders to assist in the capture of Johnson's Island after the Michigan had been secured.