The Civil War Plot to Burn New York City

The plot to burn New York City was an attempt by the Confederate secret service to bring some of the destruction of the Civil War to the streets of Manhattan. Originally envisioned as an attack designed to disrupt the election of 1864, it was postponed until late November. On Friday evening, November 25, 1864, the night after Thanksgiving, conspirators set fires in 13 major hotels in Manhattan, as well as in public buildings such as theaters and one of the most popular attractions in the country, the museum run by Phineas T. Barnum. The crowd poured into the streets during the simultaneous attacks, but the panic faded when the fires were quickly extinguished. The chaos was immediately assumed to be some sort of Confederate plot, and the authorities began hunting for the perpetrators. While the incendiary plot was little more than a peculiar diversion in the war, there is evidence that operatives of the Confederate government had been planning a far more destructive operation to strike New York and other northern cities. The Confederate Plan to Disrupt the Election of 1864 In the summer of 1864, the reelection of Abraham Lincoln was in doubt. Factions in the North were weary of the war and eager for peace. And the Confederate government, naturally motivated to create discord in the North, was hoping to create widespread disturbances on the scale of the New York City Draft Riots of the previous year. A grandiose plan was devised to infiltrate Confederate agents into northern cities, including Chicago and New York, and commit widespread acts of arson. In the resulting confusion, it was hoped that southern sympathizers, known as Copperheads, could seize control of important buildings in the cities. The original plot for New York City, as outlandish as it seems, was to occupy federal buildings, obtain weapons from arsenals, and arm a crowd of supporters. The insurgents would then raise a Confederate flag over City Hall and declare that New York City had left the Union and had aligned itself with the Confederate government in Richmond. By some accounts, the plan was said to be developed enough that Union double-agents heard about it and informed the governor of New York, who refused to take the warning seriously. A handful of Confederate officers entered the United States at Buffalo, New York, and traveled to New York in the fall. But their plans to disrupt the election, which was to be held on November 8, 1864, were thwarted when the Lincoln administration sent thousands of federal troops to New York to ensure a peaceful election. With the city crawling with Union soldiers, the Confederate infiltrators could only mingle in the crowds and observe the torchlight parades organized by supporters of President Lincoln and his opponent, Gen. George B. McClellan. On election day the voting went smoothly in New York City, and though Lincoln did not carry the city, he was elected to a second term. The Incendiary Plot Unfolded In Late November 1864 About a half-dozen Confederate agents in New York decided to go ahead with an improvised plan to set fires after the election. It seems the purpose changed from the wildly ambitious plot to split New York City off from the United States to simply exacting some revenge for the destructive actions of the Union Army as it kept moving deeper into the South. One of the conspirators who participated in the plot and successfully evaded capture, John W. Headley, wrote about his adventures decades later. While some of what he wrote seems fanciful, his account of the setting of fires on the night of November 25, 1864 generally aligns with newspaper reports. Headley said he had taken rooms in four separate hotels, and the other conspirators also took rooms in multiple hotels. They had obtained a chemical concoction dubbed Greek fire which was supposed to ignite when jars containing it were opened and the substance came into contact with the air. Armed with these incendiary devices, at about 8:00 p.m. on a busy Friday night the Confederate agents began setting fires in hotel rooms. Headley claimed he set four fires in hotels and said 19 fires were set altogether. Though the Confederate agents later claimed they did not mean to take human lives, one of them, Captain Robert C. Kennedy, entered Barnums Museum, which was packed with patrons, and set a fire in a stairwell. A panic ensued, with people rushing out of the building in a stampede, but no one was killed or seriously injured. The fire was quickly extinguished. In the hotels, the results were much the same. The fires did not spread beyond any of the rooms in which they had been set, and the entire plot seemed to fail because of ineptitude. As some of the conspirators mixed with New Yorkers in the streets that night, they overhead people already talking about how it must be a Confederate plot. And by the next morning newspapers were reporting that detectives were looking for the plotters. The Conspirators Escaped to Canada All the Confederate officers involved in the plot boarded a train the following night and were able to elude the manhunt for them. They reached Albany, New York, then continued on to Buffalo, where they crossed the suspension bridge into Canada. After a few weeks in Canada, where they kept a low profile, the conspirators all left to return to the South. Robert C. Kennedy, who had set the fire in Barnums Museum, was captured after crossing back into the United States by train. He was taken to New York City and imprisoned at Fort Lafayette, a harbor fort in New York City. Kennedy was tried by a military commission, found to have been a captain in the Confederate service, and sentenced to death. He confessed to setting the fire at Barnums Museum. Kennedy was hanged at Fort Lafayette on March 25, 1865. (Incidentally, Fort Lafayette no longer exists, but it stood in the harbor on a natural rock formation at the present site of the Brooklyn tower of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.) Had the original plot to disrupt the election and create a Copperhead rebellion in New York had gone forward, it is doubtful it could have succeeded. But it might have created a diversion to pull Union troops away from the front, and its possible it could have had an impact on the course of the war. As it was, the plot to burn the city was an odd sideshow to the final year of the war.

Research Paper on Climate Change the Myth of Global Warming

Research Paper on Climate Change: The Myth of Global Warming DEDICATION This Research Paper is lovingly dedicated to our respective parents who have been our constant source of inspiration. They have given us the drive and discipline to tackle any task with enthusiasm and determination. Without their love and support this project would not have been made possible. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT We would like to acknowledge the contributions of the following group and individuals to the development of this research paper: Our class peer research group for the cooperation and camaraderie. We are also heartily thankful to our teacher, Mr./Ms._____, whose encouragement, guidance and support from the initial to the final level enabled us to†¦show more content†¦Over the next 40 million years, temperatures continued to fluctuate, allowing for the polar ice caps to expand and retreat. Since, the climate has stayed relatively stable with only a single ice age. When temperatures warmed, woolly mammoths that thrived during the ice age and other mega mammals could not survive, while humans where able to adapt (A Global Warning?, 2007). However, it would be naive to thinking climate change would miraculously come to a stop on behalf of human inhabitation. The above-mentioned changes had drastic effects on the earth. Recently there has been less drastic, however still noticeable, climate fluctuations. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM For several years believers and skeptics have argued about the causes of global warming. The problem is complicated because believers warn that man-made causes if left to advance too far may be irreversible. Reduction of the rainforests, continued growth in hydrocarbon industries, increases in livestock, and depletion of the ozone are all considered factors in the debate. Skeptics maintain that the climate change is a natural phenomenon, that man’s effect on nature is largely overrated. The fact is that for several years, the earth’s temperature is rising. The problem remains in deciding what if anything we can do about it. 3 SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS All research studies also have limitations and a finite scope. In our case,Show MoreRelatedResearch Paper on Climate Change: the Myth of Global Warming4031 Words   |  17 PagesResearch Paper on Climate Change: The Myth of Global Warming DEDICATION This Research Paper is lovingly dedicated to our respective parents who have been our constant source of inspiration. They have given us the drive and discipline to tackle any task with enthusiasm and determination. Without their love and support this project would not have been made possible. 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Importance of House Safety Training in Healthcare-Free-Samples

Question: Develop your initial research idea. Your research idea should clearly include the research question. Answer: Research idea Research question: Why in-house training fails to produce desired safety outcome? Aim and objective: The main aim of the paper is to find out the factors contributing to failure in desired safety outcome in health care and other occupation. This will be done by the evaluation research articles reporting about in-house training program and barrier to achieving desired outcome in certain organization. The following are the core objective of the paper: To find out the factor contributing to failure of in-house safety training To evaluate performance of in-house training programmes on safety outcomes To find solutions to enhance the success of in-house safety training programme Purpose of the research topic: In-house safety training is important in health care and other organization to prevent workplace injury, adverse event and reduce impact on productivity. However, the current issue is that despite in-house safety training, desired safety outcome has not been achieved. There are examples of many workplace accidents which has occurred because of hazardous environment or negligence of staffs (Thygerson, Sanjel and Johnson, 2016; Walton and Rogers 2017). In such situation, finding out the reason for failure of in-house training in desired outcome in necessary. Hence, this paper is significant to get clear insight about the reason for high rate of hazardous event despite in-house training. This will help to adapt strategies to maximize effectiveness of training program. Conduct literature search and review The review of research literature gave idea about several reasons for poor safety outcome despite in-house training. Aluko et al. (2016) explained that knowledge, attitude and perception of occupational hazards among health care workers have an impact on safety outcome. The study brought attention to the fact that despite safety training, patients are often vulnerable to hazard. This was claimed because of workplace hazards and study of safety practices in a health care facility in Nigeria. The study of perceptions of staffs at the hospital revealed that knowledge of staffs in terms of safety practices varied. 57.6% has high knowledge about possibility of hazards in clinical setting and 42.4% has no knowledge. Another important result was only 58% required got professional training on occupational hazards and others got it through pre-employment orientation only. Hence, inappropriate coverage of in-house safety training might be considered as one of the reason for high rate of workpl ace hazards and injury incidents. The strength of this literature is that it has highlighted about the inefficiency in safety training for workers and impact on level of education and professional specialty on perception of risk. Another implication of this study is that it pointed out to the need for review of pre-employment orientation module to develop positive attitude towards occupation safety. From this evidence, possible solution to address the issue is understood. This includes developing good provision for safety kits and institutionalizing safety drills for workers. Feng et al. (2014) also supported the fact these elements are essential for developing effective safety culture in workplace. The above evidence gave idea about perception and safety practices towards occupational hazards in a health care facility. However, the work condition and environment of other industries might differ. Hence, examining other organization is also necessary to find out factors contributing to in-house safety training. The research by Onowhakpor et al. (2017) is important in this aspect as it investigated about safety practices and knowledge among sawmill workers. As sawmilling industry mainly comprise manual handling where workers are at high risk of occupational health hazards, evaluating the safety practice in such place is considered most important. The interview with sawmill workers revealed that very few workers had good knowledge on occupational hazards. Good knowledge of occupational hazard was found to decrease with age and increase with level of education and experience. The study is in consistent with other studies which showed poor knowledge about safety practices among staff s (Jasani et al. 2016). Other important points that might be a reason for high rate of workplace hazard include lack of protective measures and protocol in workplace and heavy workload of employees (Reason 2016). The strength of the literature is that it has established association between age and knowledge of occupational hazards. In addition, knowledge is highly linked to attitude towards occupational safety practices. Hence, it can be concluded that knowledge is the main determinant that determines compliance with safety practices. This means success of in-house training may differ due to knowledge of workers. In such case, it is necessary to provide workers with good safety equipments and implement additional control measures to reduce economic consequences and impact on productivity. This evidences also points out to a solution to address the issue. This may include holding regular seminars and health education messages to ensure that the essay of adherence to safety practice r emains with workers for long time. High work-life stress and poor safety communication is also considered to be factors resulting in poor health and safety issues for workers. Stress may reduce capacity and diminish attention of workers resulting in accidents (Hammer et al. 2015). (Sneddon, Mearns and Flin (2013) considered work-life stress issues in workers and gave the idea that high stress in the work might also be a reason for failure of in-house safety training. This study mainly investigated about drilling for oil and gas on offshore installation industry, which is hazardous occupation requiring great work situation awareness. Interview with employees revealed relation between stress and unsafe behavior of employees. Apart from this situation awareness was also considered to be a factor affecting workplace safety practices. Hence, the main implication from this study is that it points to the need for greater attention to situation awareness measures particularly in hazardous occupation so that unsafe work behavi or can be controlled. Drilling activity in various organizations can also be considered as a solution to maximize effectiveness of in-house training and prevent safety issues. Situation awareness skills can also reduce stress and develop confidence of staffs in doing work in a confident manner. Therefore, future in-house training programme should focus on developing perception of environment and situation awareness of workers. References Aluko, O. O., Adebayo, A. E., Adebisi, T. F., Ewegbemi, M. K., Abidoye, A. T., and Popoola, B. F. 2016. Knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of occupational hazards and safety practices in Nigerian healthcare workers.BMC research notes,9(1), 71. Feng, Y., Teo, E. A. L., Ling, F. Y. Y., Low, S. P. 2014. Exploring the interactive effects of safety investments, safety culture and project hazard on safety performance: An empirical analysis.International Journal of Project Management,32(6), 932-943. Hammer, L.B., Truxillo, D.M., Bodner, T., Rineer, J., Pytlovany, A.C. and Richman, A., 2015. Effects of a workplace intervention targeting psychosocial risk factors on safety and health outcomes.BioMed research international,2015. Jasani, P.K., Joshi, J.B., Kartha, G.P., Mehta, H. and Shah, I., 2016. A study of knowledge and utilization of safety measures against occupational hazards among constructional workers in Surendranagar city, Gujarat, India.International Journal Of Community Medicine And Public Health,3(11), pp.3055-3058. Onowhakpor, A.O., Abusu, G.O., Adebayo, B., Esene, H.A. and Okojie, O.H., 2017. Determinants of occupational health and safety: Knowledge, attitude, and safety practices toward occupational hazards of sawmill workers in Egor Local Government Area, Edo State.African Journal of Medical and Health Sciences,16(1), p.58. Reason, J., 2016.Managing the risks of organizational accidents. Routledge. Sneddon, A., Mearns, K. and Flin, R., 2013. Stress, fatigue, situation awareness and safety in offshore drilling crews.Safety Science,56, pp.80-88. Thygerson, S.M., Sanjel, S. and Johnson, S., 2016. Occupational and Environmental Health Hazards in the Brick Manufacturing Industry in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal.Occup Med Health Aff,4(248), p.2. Walton, A.L. and Rogers, B., 2017. Workplace Hazards Faced by Nursing Assistants in the United States: A Focused Literature Review.International journal of environmental research and public health,14(5), p.544.