On April the 17th I received orders to proceed to Petersburg, and
join Captain Pegram there. The iron-clad which was building at
Norfolk was not likely to be ready for several months; and, as
Captain Pegram was anxious to be in active service, he was assigned
to the command of the iron-clad _Louisiana_, which was building
at New Orleans, and said to be nearly finished. With his usual
kindness he caused me to be ordered to the same vessel, and asked
me to go down with him. My first visit to the “Cockade City” was
a very agreeable one, as I made acquaintance there with a number
of Captain Pegram’s relatives, including his niece, Mrs. Annie T.
White, and his sister, Mrs. David May.
From Petersburg the journey by railroad to Louisiana was dreary
and monotonous in the extreme. I have a bare recollection of being
invited at Kingville, S. C, to go to the end of the station and
inspect an astonishingly fat hog, which was the wonder of that
part of the country. There really was no other incident of note
that I recall, except the frequent delays, and the arrival at
different points too late for the connecting trains. As we neared
our destination, the air was full of ugly rumors. We learned that
the United States fleet had attacked the forts below New Orleans,
and it was reported that the city had been evacuated. But we
pressed on, and finally reached Jackson, Miss., where we were told
that it was no use to go any further. No passenger trains were now
running, but we succeeded in getting on a train that was going
down, and got within twenty miles of New Orleans. There the cars
were stopped; and in a short time train after train came up from
the city, bringing out the Confederate troops, under command of
General Mansfield Lovell, and such stores as could be carried off.
A number of the soldiers who belonged to the “Garde d’Orleans,”
flatly refused to go any further, and, to my surprise, were allowed
to return to the city, which was now in the possession of Butler’s
forces. There was no choice for us but to go back to Virginia;
and Captain Pegram took charge of dispatches from General Lovell,
giving an account of the disaster. So it turned out that, by
stopping a day or two at Petersburg, we had missed an opportunity
of participating in one of the fiercest naval fights of the war.
The vessel which Captain Pegram was to have commanded was taken
down the river in an unfinished condition, and was either sunk or
was blown up. The journey back was worse than the journey down,
as the delays were multiplied. It was on the train, soon after
leaving Lovell’s troops at Tangipahoa, that I first met Colonel
James M. Morgan (then a midshipman), whose sister I afterwards
married. The vessel on which he was serving, the _McRae_, was lost
in the engagement, and he made his escape from the city with great
difficulty.
When we reached North Carolina there was no comfort there. Norfolk
had been evacuated by the Confederate forces, and the _Virginia_
had been destroyed to prevent her from falling into the hands
of the enemy. I received permission to rest in Sussex for a few
days, and then went to Richmond, where I was assigned to duty on
a floating battery lying in the James River, and commanded by
Captain Parker, with whom I had served on the _Beaufort_. This
so-called battery was a large flat, with a shield heavily plated
with iron in front. The name of the battery was the _Drewry_, and
she lay at Rockett’s, below Richmond. I had fancied that she was a
vessel of the same class as the _Virginia_, and when I went down
to the place where she lay I looked about vainly for the vessel.
Hailing a man who was at work on what I supposed to be a dredge, I
asked which was the _Drewry_. “This is she,” said he. I was both
disappointed and disgusted. The _Drewry_ was really a lighter,
about eighty feet long and fifteen feet broad, and was intended to
be loaded down within eight or ten inches of the water. She had a
wooden shield, V shaped, covered with heavy iron bars, and in the
angle of the shield was cut a port-hole for her one heavy gun. She
had no engines or sails, and was to be towed or allowed to drift
into position when an engagement was expected.
I engaged quarters at a very pleasant house in Franklin Street, and
found amongst the boarders there the mother and sister of Clarence
Cary, whom I had known on the _Nashville_. The sister, Miss
Constance Cary, married, after the war, Mr. Burton N. Harrison,
who was the private secretary of President Davis. Miss Constance
Cary, or Miss “Connie,” as she was usually called, wrote a good
deal in war times under the _nom de plume_ of “Refugitta;” and
during the last few years has written at least one very charming
society novel, besides an admirable work on household decoration.
There were also there, in the pleasant company, Miss Hettie Cary,
the famous Baltimore beauty, and her sister, Miss Jennie Cary,
a handsome woman, and unfailingly amiable. Of course she was
overshadowed by her sister; and she used to say that the only
inscription necessary for her tomb-stone would be: “Here lies
the sister of Hetty Cary, the lady who presented the Confederate
colors to Beauregard’s troops at Manassas.” Miss Hetty Cary, late
in the war, married General John W. Pegram, a nephew of Captain
R. B. Pegram. A fight took place two or three weeks after her
marriage, and Mrs. Pegram went immediately to the front to assist
in caring for the wounded. Almost the first man who was brought
up, as she reached the field hospital, was her dead husband. The
Carys and Captain Pegram’s sister-in-law, Mrs. General Pegram, and
her daughters, Miss Mary and Miss Virginia Pegram, were as kind
and considerate to me as if I had been a member of their family.
To one of Captain Pegram’s nephews, Willie Pegram, the youngest
son of Mrs. General Pegram, I became very warmly attached. He was
at this time particularly boyish looking, and wore spectacles,
which added to the simplicity of his appearance. A graduate of the
Virginia Military Institute, he had gone into service as a private
in Company F of the First Virginia Regiment, and upon the promotion
of Captain Lindsey Walker, had been elected Captain of the Purcell
Battery.
My time in Richmond passed almost too pleasantly. I was not
satisfied with myself, and saw no prospect of accomplishing
anything as long as I remained in the Navy. McClellan’s army was
close to Richmond, and one fine morning, at the end of May, the
battle of Seven Pines began. I obtained leave of absence, and,
armed with a navy sword, hastened down to the field, arriving there
about night-fall. The first troops I fell in with at the front
belonged to a Georgia regiment, the Eighth Georgia, I think; and
I asked to be permitted to take a musket and go in with them as a
volunteer, the next morning. Next morning came, but the fight did
not, and I trudged disconsolately back to Richmond.
I now made up my mind to leave the Navy. Fearing that Captain
Pegram would object to this, I went to the Navy Department myself
and handed in my resignation, which had been approved by Captain
Parker. I took care to say that I only resigned in order that I
might go into the army as a private soldier. My purpose was to join
the Purcell Battery, which Willie Pegram commanded, but he refused
to consent to this, telling me that if I waited something better
would turn up. I was not willing to wait, and went out to the
battery and reported to him for duty a few days before the Seven
Days Battle began.