Thomas Hines | |
|---|---|
 Thomas Hines | |
| Born | October 8, 1838 Butler County, Kentucky |
| Died | January 23, 1898 (aged 59) Frankfort, Kentucky |
| Allegiance |  Confederate States of America |
| Service |  Confederate States Army |
| Years of service | 1861–65 (CSA) |
| Rank |  Captain |
| Unit |  2nd Kentucky Cavalry 9th Kentucky Cavalry |
| Commands | "Buckner's Guides" |
| Battles / wars | American Civil War |
Thomas Henry Hines (October 8, 1838 – January 23, 1898) was a Confederate cavalryman who was known for his espionage activities during the last two years of the American Civil War.
A native of Butler County, Kentucky, he initially worked as a grammar instructor, mainly at the Masonic University of La Grange, Kentucky. During the first year of the war, he was a field officer, initiating several raids. He was an assistant to John Hunt Morgan, doing a preparatory raid (Hines' Raid) in advance of Morgan's Raid through the states of Indiana and Ohio, and after being captured with Morgan, organized their escape from the Ohio Penitentiary. He was then granted secret authorisation, following the Dahlgren Affair, by Jefferson Davis and his cabinet to unleash total war behind Union lines. From a secret base at Toronto in Upper Canada, Hines oversaw Confederate Secret Service covert operations with Copperhead Democrat leaders Harrison H. Dodd and Clement Vallandigham for arson, state terrorism, guerrilla warfare, and pro-Confederate regime change uprisings by the paramilitary Order of the Sons of Liberty against pro-Union governors throughout the Old Northwest.
Hines made narrow, unlikely escapes on several occasions during the war. At one point, he concealed himself in a mattress that was being used at the time; on another occasion, he was confused for the actor and assassin John Wilkes Booth, a dangerous case of mistaken identity that forced him to flee Detroit in April 1865 by holding a ferry captain at gunpoint. Union agents viewed Hines as the man they most needed to apprehend, but apart from the time he served at the Ohio Penitentiary in late 1863, he was never captured.
After the war, once it was safe for him to return to his native Kentucky, he settled down with much of his family in Bowling Green. He started practicing law, which led him to serve on the Kentucky Court of Appeals, eventually becoming its chief justice. Later, he practiced law in Frankfort, Kentucky, until he died in 1898, keeping many of the secrets of Confederate espionage from public knowledge.