[KENNEDY, Robert Cobb (1835-1865)]. HOOPER, Edward W. (1839-1901). The Hotel Burners. The Confession of Robert Cobb Kennedy, the Rebel Incendiary. [New York], March 25, 1865. Folded 8vo sheet, unopened, 6pp. (203 x 127 mm). RARE PRINTED TRACT, SIGNED BY HOOPER (“E.W. Hooper”), Aide-de-Camp. Kennedy is described as “a Captain in the service of the insurgent States.” His “Confession” to the camp commander Martin Burke reads, in part: “After my escape from Johnson’s Island [Union prison, Sandusky Bay, Lake Erie] I went to Canada, where I met a number of confederates. They asked me if I was willing to go on an expedition… I was then sent to New York… There were eight men in our party… After we had been in New York three weeks we were told that the object of the expedition was to retaliate on the North for the atrocities [Sheridan’s] in the Shenandoah Valley. It was designed to set fire to the city on the night of the Presidential election… I set fire to... Barnum’s Museum, Love-joy’s Hotel, Tammany Hotel, and the New England House. The others only started fires in the house where each was lodging, and then ran off. Had they all done as I did, we would have had thirty-two fires, and played a huge joke on the Fire Department. I know that I am to be hung for setting fire to Barnum’s Museum, but that was only a joke. I had no idea of doing it. I had been drinking… I wish to say that killing woman and children was the last thing thought of. We wanted to let the people of the North understand that there are two sides to this war, and that they can’t be rolling in comfort while we at the South are bearing all the hardships and privations”, etc. Kennedy was executed at Fort Lafayette on 25 March 1865, which marked the last execution of a Confederate soldier by the United States government during the Civil War.