Recruiter jailed for trying to lure Canadian into U.S. Civil War

Phil Egan

The Charlottetown Conference was still three months away in 1864 when a peculiar case was heard at the County Courthouse in Sarnia.

The U.S. Civil War was still raging and things weren’t looking good for the Union side. The first encounter between Robert E. Lee and Ulysses Grant had taken place at the Battle of the Wilderness the previous month, and the result was 28,000 casualties.

The war was going so badly for the North that the re-election of Abraham Lincoln that year was in doubt. The Union Army needed new recruits.

The court case in Sarnia was directly related to Civil War casualties and and stemmed from an incident that took place at Cassady’s Tavern in Wyoming. The accused, John Key, described as “an apparently respectable young man,” was sitting in the tavern having a drink when a soldier in militia uniform walked in. Key invited him for a drink, the newcomer, Corporal Anicke, accepted, and the pair removed themselves to a nearby sitting room.

At some point in conversation the young Corporal said he would like to visit the United States.

“I’m your man,” Key replied. “Come with me and I’ll give you $50 down, and when we get to Port Huron I’ll give you an officer’s commission.”

Key told Anicke he was exactly the type of man the Union Army needed, because “you know something about drilling.”

Key failed to mention the staggering casualties suffered five days earlier at Cold Harbor, one of the war’s bloodiest, in which the Union Army had attempted a frontal assault against entrenched Confederate forces.

Key told Corporal Anicke that, in total, he would earn $3,000 by enlisting in the U.S. Army.

But there was a problem. What Key was doing was enticing the Corporal to desert the British forces.

Arrested and brought to Sarnia for trial, Key had no one to speak for him and he was a long way from home. Another soldier who had overheard the enticement to desert testified for the prosecution.

John Key told the court he very much regretted his “hasty conduct,” and that he had no conscious intent to persuade Anicke to desert his country. The court, however, had no alternative but to sentence Key to four months in jail for the offence.

In an editorial following the trial, the London Free Press applauded the court’s decision, deploring the common U.S. practice of enticing Canadian soldiers to desert.