Biography
George P. Kane was Marshal of Police — head of the Baltimore City police force — at the start of the Civil War. Though he held Southern sympathies, his officers helped quell further violence during the Pratt Street Riot of April 1861. With Maryland a contested border state and Baltimore under Union military control, federal authorities regarded Kane as a security risk. On June 27, 1861 he was arrested at his home on St. Paul Street by federal soldiers in the night and taken to Fort McHenry; he was subsequently transferred to Fort Lafayette in New York and then to Fort Warren in Boston. He was confined for about fourteen months without trial, contracting malaria during his imprisonment and writing letters of protest to President Lincoln and Secretary of State Seward. Released in 1862, he went to Montreal. His detention is frequently cited as an example of the suspension of habeas corpus and the arrest of suspected Southern sympathizers in Maryland during the Civil War. (Recorded as George Proctor Kane)
Additional source for this Civil War detention: John A. Marshall, American Bastile (1869), printed pages 369-370, https://archive.org/details/americanbastile00marsgoog/page/n384/mode/2up. This is a partisan retrospective account; its judgments should be read as attributed claims.
The Fort Columbus return records admission on October 11, 1861; this is a prison admission, not a separately verified physical arrest day. It lists the historical residence as Baltimore, Maryland. The return records transfer to Fort Warren on October 30, 1861; this is not final release. Source: Official Records, Series II, Volume II, printed page 225, https://archive.org/details/cu31924079570242/page/n240/mode/1up.
The Fort McHenry return records admission on June 27, 1861; this is a prison admission, not a separately verified physical arrest day. It lists the historical residence as Baltimore, Maryland. The individual disposition or conditions read: Transferred Fort Lafayette September 11, 1861. Source: Official Records, Series II, Volume II, printed page 226, https://archive.org/details/cu31924079570242/page/n241/mode/1up.
The Fort Lafayette return records admission on September 13, 1861; this is a prison admission, not a separately verified physical arrest day. The return records transfer to Fort Columbus on October 11, 1861; this is not final release. Source: Official Records, Series II, Volume II, printed page 230, https://archive.org/details/cu31924079570242/page/n245/mode/1up.
The return lists arrest on June 27, 1861. It lists the historical residence as Baltimore, Maryland. The individual disposition or conditions read: Still held February 17, 1862. Source: Official Records, Series II, Volume II, printed page 232, https://archive.org/details/cu31924079570242/page/n247/mode/1up.
The Fort Warren return records admission on November 1, 1861; this is a prison admission, not a separately verified physical arrest day. The November 27 return separately records the prisoner’s reported arrest date as June 27, 1861; that self-report is not substituted for a conflicting contemporary record. It lists the historical residence as Baltimore, Maryland. Source: Official Records, Series II, Volume II, printed page 154, https://archive.org/details/cu31924079570242/page/n169/mode/2up. The Fort Warren political-prisoner return dated April 15, 1862 records this individual’s commission disposition as: “Not examined.” The report date is not an exact release date. An offered parole, unaccepted order, or not-examined marker does not establish release or uninterrupted physical imprisonment through that day. Source: Official Records, Series II, Volume II, printed page 285, https://archive.org/details/cu31924079570242/page/n300/mode/1up.
