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In the predawn hours of March 7, 1868, four prisoners aided by a guard escaped from Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas and steered a small, open fishing boat into a violent storm in the Gulf of Mexico. The men were never seen again.
One of them, Colonel George St. Leger Grenfell, was a British soldier of fortune who had come to America in 1862 and earned a unique place in the Confederate Valhalla. Grenfell, a talented cavalry officer who served with John H. Morgan, Braxton Bragg, and J. E. B. Stuart, plotted to help northern Copperheads overthrow the governments of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois and establish a Northwestern Confederacy. When the plan - the "Chicago Conspiracy" as it became known - was discovered, Grenfell, along with 150 cohorts, was arrested. He and six others were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Although Grenfell's escape from Fort Jefferson apparently ended in tragedy, rumors that the legendary soldier of fortune was still alive persisted for many years. Stephen Z. Starr vividly recounts here the fascinating story of this romantic and neglected character.
