John Wilson Murray was something of a celebrity in his day even though today he’s remembered only by historians and history buffs. So what is so significant about Murray?
Well, at the age of 24, he was a rookie U.S. Navy Intelligence officer who found himself in the middle of one of the most ambitious covert operations of the American Civil War
When his Commander, J.C. Carter, heard rumours that the Confederacy was plotting to attack from the North, he called on the young Murray to investigate.
Murray didn’t seem qualified for this job. He had no espionage experience, but it’s possible that Carter assigned him this task expecting that the rookie spy would find nothing to rumours.
Murray's first task was to go to Canada and spy on an exiled Ohio Congressman who supported the Confederacy. During one of his stakeouts, he noticed a particular man who came to visit the congressman. There was nothing suspicious about this visitor other than his energetic demeanour.
Luckily for Murray, the congressman and his guest did not expect to be spied by the Union so they conversed freely enough in public that Murray overheard of a plot to attack Northern cities along the Great Lakes. Not only that, the visitor was none other than L. C. Cole, a high-ranking Confederate Officer.
Murray's next course was to tail Cole as he traveled across Central Canada and to several American cities. The chase ended in Sandusky, Ohio where Cole and two of his accomplices got off the train. Murray realized why Cole had picked this location for this attack.
The nearby Johnson's Island on Lake Erie was home to 4,000 Confederate prisoners of war. The U.S.S. Michigan, which guarded the island, carried over 100 tonnes of ammunition and if fallen into Southern hands, Detroit, Cleveland and Buffalo would have been bombed out of existence.
He knew what Cole was up to, but he had no idea how he was going to carry out his plan. That left him with no choice other than to befriend him, and that he did quite successfully.
Eventually, the young spy intercepted Cole's correspondence to find out that his newly found friend had planned to host a party on a July evening for the Union officers while 16 Confederate soldiers in pirated steamers were going to take over the U.S.S. Michigan and storm the prison.
Murray tipped Carter so when Cole invited the officers, none of them came. Then, he suggested to Cole that they should go and get them themselves. Once aboard the ship, Cole was arrested and taken to Johnson's Island, and the Confederate soldiers in the pirated steamers aborted their mission and fled to Canada after hearing or receiving any more messages from Cole.
When the war was over, Murray left the secret service to work for the Erie Police Department and later a Railway company before moving to Toronto, Canada to become Ontario's first government detective. He was among the first detectives to rely on surveillance, stakeouts, interrogation skills, and early forensic sciences, such as footprint mouldings. Many of these skills he acquired during his early years as an American spy.