Naval Affairs (continued).--Necessity of a Navy.--Raphael Semmes.--
The Sumter.--Difficulties in creating a Navy.--The Sumter at Sea.--
Alarm.--Her Captures.--James D. Bullock.--Laird's Speech in the
House of Commons.--The Alabama.--Semmes takes Command.--The Vessel
and Crew.--Goes to Sea.--Banks's Expedition.--Magruder at
Galveston.--The Steamer Hattaras Sunk.--The Alabama not a Pirate.--
An Aspinwall Steamer ransomed.--Other Captures.--Prizes burned.--
At Cherbourg.--Fight with the Kearsarge.--Rescue of the Men.--
Demand of the United States Government for the Surrender of the
Drowning Men.--Reply of the British Government.--Sailing of the
Oreto.--Detained at Nassau.--Captain Maffit.--The Ship Half
Equipped.--Arrives at Mobile.--Runs the Blockade.--Her Cruise.--
Capture and Cruise of the Clarence.--The Captures of the Florida.--
Captain C. M. Morris.--The Florida at Bahia.--Seized by the
Wachusett.--Brought to Virginia and sunk.--Correspondence.--The
Georgia.--Cruises and Captures.--The Shenandoah.--Cruises and
Captures.--The Atlanta.--The Tallahassee.--The Edith.
To maintain the position assumed by the Confederate States as a
separate power among the nations, it was obviously necessary to have
a navy, not only for the defense of their coast, but also for the
protection of their commerce. These States, after their secession
from the Union, were in that regard in a destitute condition, similar
to that of the United States after their Declaration of Independence.
It has been shown that among the first acts of the Confederate
Administration was the effort to buy ships which could be used for
naval purposes. The policy of the United States Government being to
shut up our commerce rather than protect their own, induced the
wholesale purchase of the vessels found in the Northern ports--not
only such as could be made fit for cruisers, but also any which would
serve even for blockading purposes. There was little shipping of any
kind in the Southern ports, and to that scanty supply we were, for
the time, restricted.
A previous reference has been made to the Sumter, Commander Raphael
Semmes, but a more extended notice is considered due. Educated in the
naval service of the United States, Raphael Semmes had attained the
rank of commander, and was distinguished for his studious habits and
varied acquirements. When Alabama passed her ordinance of secession,
he was on duty at Washington as a member of the Lighthouse Board; he
promptly tendered his resignation, and, at the organization of the
Confederate Government, repaired to Montgomery and tendered his
services to it. The efforts which had been made to obtain steamers
suited to cruising against the enemy's commerce had been quite
unsuccessful, none being found which the naval officers charged with
their selection regarded fit for the service. One of the reports
described a small propeller-steamer of five hundred tons burden,
sea-going, low-pressure engine, sound, and capable of being so
strengthened as to carry an ordinary battery of four or five guns;
speed between nine and ten knots, but the board condemned her because
she could carry but five days' fuel, and had no accommodations for
the crew.
The Secretary of the Navy showed this to Commander Semmes, who said:
"Give me that ship; I think I can make her answer the purpose." She
was to be christened the Sumter, in commemoration of our first
victory, and had the honor of being the first ship of war
commissioned by the Confederate States, and the first to display the
Stars and Bars of the Confederacy on the high-seas. The Sumter was at
New Orleans, to which place Commander Semmes repaired; and, as
forcibly presenting the difficulties under which we labored in all
attempts to create a navy, I will quote from his memoirs the account
of his effort to get the Sumter ready for sea:
"I now took my ship actively in hand and set gangs of mechanics at
work to remove her upper cabins and other top hamper, preparatory to
making the necessary alterations. These latter were considerable, and
I soon found that I had a tedious job on my hands. It was no longer
the case, as it had been in former years, when I had had occasion to
fit out a ship, that I could go into a navy-yard, with well-provided
workshops and skilled workmen, ready with all the requisite materials
at hand to execute my orders. Everything had to be improvised, from
the manufacture of a water-tank to the kids and cans of the
berth-deck messes, and from a gun-carriage to a friction-primer. . . .
Two long, tedious months were consumed in making alterations and
additions. My battery was to consist of an eight-inch-shell gun, to
be pivoted amidships, and of four light thirty-two-pounders of
thirteen hundred weight each, in broadside."
On the 3d of June, 1861, the Sumter was formally put in commission,
and a muster-roll of the officers and men transmitted to the Navy
Department. On the 18th of June she left New Orleans and steamed down
and anchored near the mouth of the river. While lying at the head of
the passes, the commander reported a blockading squadron outside, of
three ships at Passe a l'Outre, and one at the Southwest Pass. The
Brooklyn, at Passe a l'Outre, was not only a powerful vessel, but she
had greater speed than the Sumter. The Powhatan's heavy armament made
it very hazardous to pass her in daylight, and the absence of buoys
and lights made it next to impossible to keep the channel in
darkness. The Sumter, therefore, had been compelled to lie at the
head of the passes and watch for some opportunity in the absence of
either the Brooklyn or the Powhatan to get to sea. Fortunately,
neither of these vessels came up to the head of the passes, where,
there being but a single channel, it would have been easy to prevent
the exit of the Sumter.
On the 30th of June, one bright morning, a boatman reported that the
Brooklyn had gone off in chase of a sail. Immediately the Sumter was
got under way, when it was soon discovered that the Brooklyn was
returning, and that the two vessels were about equally distant from
the bar. By steady courage and rare seamanship the Sumter escaped
from her more swift pursuer, and entered on her career of cutting the
enemy's sinews of war by destroying his commerce.
Numerous armed vessels of the enemy were hovering on our coast, yet
this one little cruiser created a general alarm, and, though a
regularly commissioned vessel of the Confederacy, was habitually
denounced as a "pirate," and the many threats to destroy her served
only to verify the adage that the threatened live long.
During her cruise up to January 17, 1862, she captured three ships,
five brigs, six barks, and three schooners, but the property
destroyed formed a very small part of the damage done to the enemy's
commerce. Her appearance on the seas created such alarm that Northern
ships were, to a large extent, put under foreign flags, and the
carrying-trade, in which the United States stood second only to Great
Britain, passed rapidly into other hands. The Sumter, while doing all
this mischief, was nearly self-sustaining, her running expenses to
the Confederate Government being but twenty-eight thousand dollars
when, at the close of 1861, she arrived at Gibraltar. Not being able
to obtain coal, she remained there until sold.
Captain James D. Bullock, an officer of the old navy, of high ability
as a seaman, and of an integrity which stood the test under which a
less stern character might have given way, was our naval agent at
Liverpool. In his office he disbursed millions, and, when there was
no one to whom he could be required to render an account, paid out
the last shilling in his hands, and confronted poverty without
prospect of other reward than that which he might find id a clear
conscience. He contracted with the Messrs. Laird, of Birkenhead, to
build a strong steam merchant-ship--the same which was afterward
christened "The Alabama" when, in a foreign port, she had received
her armament and crew. So much of puerile denunciation has been
directed against the builder and the ship, which, in the virulent
language of the day, our enemies denominated a "pirate," that the
case claims at my hands a somewhat extended notice.
The senior Mr. Laird was a member of the British Parliament, and,
because of the complaints made by the United States Government, and
the abuse heaped upon him by the Northern newspapers, he made a
speech in the House of Commons, in which he stated that, in 1861, he
was applied to to build vessels for the Northern Government, first,
by personal application, and subsequently by a letter from
Washington, asking him, on the part of the United States Navy
Department, to give the terms on which he would build an iron-plated
ship, "to be finished complete, with guns and everything
appertaining." Mr. Laird continued: "On the 14th of August I received
another letter from the same gentleman, from which the following is
an extract: 'I have this morning a note from the Assistant-Secretary
of the Navy, in which he says, "I hope your friends will tender for
the two iron-plated steamers."'" Mr. Laird then said that, while he
would not give the name of his correspondent, who was a gentleman of
the highest respectability, he was willing, in confidence, to submit
the original letters to the Speaker of the House or the first
Minister of the Crown; that, as "the American Government is making so
much work about other parties whom they charge with violating or
evading the law, when in reality they have not done so, I think it
only right to state these facts."
Those who have listened with credulity to the abuse of the
Confederate Government, as well as that of Great Britain, the one for
contracting for the building of the Alabama and the other for
permitting her to leave a British port, will thus see how little of
sincerity there was in the complaints of the United States
Government. For more than a generation the British people have been
the great ship-builders of the world, and it is a matter of surprise
that they should have given respectful consideration to charges of a
breach of neutrality because they allowed a merchantman to be built
in one of their ports and to leave it without any armament or crew,
which could have enabled it, in that condition, to make war upon a
country with which Great Britain was at peace.
Referring to the Alabama, as she was when she left the Mersey, Mr.
Laird said:
"If a ship without guns and without arms is a dangerous article,
surely rifled guns and ammunition of all sorts are equally and even
more dangerous. I have referred to the bills of entry in the
custom-houses of London and Liverpool, and I find that there have
been vast shipments of implements of war to the Northern States
through the celebrated houses of Baring & Co.; Brown, Shipley & Co.;
and a variety of other names. . . . I have obtained from the official
custom-house returns some details of the sundries exported from the
United Kingdom to the Northern States of America from the 1st of May,
1861, to the 31st of December, 1862.
There were--muskets, 41,500; rifles, 341,000; gun-flints, 26,500;
percussion-caps, 49,982,000; and swords, 2,250. The best information
I could obtain leads me to believe that one third to a half may be
added to these numbers for items which have been shipped to the
Northern States as hardware . . . so that, if the Southern States
have got two ships unarmed, unfit for any purpose of warfare--for
they procured their armament somewhere else--the Northern States
have been well supplied from this country, through the agency of some
most influential persons."
The speech of Mr. Laird, exposing the hypocrisy of the
representations which had been made, as well by commercial bodies as
by the highest officers of the United States, called forth repeated
cheers from the Parliament.
There had been no secrecy about the building of the Alabama. The same
authority above quoted states that she was frequently visited while
under construction, and it is known that the British Government was
applied to to prevent her from leaving port. It was feared that she
might be delayed; but it was not considered possible that British
authorities would prevent an unarmed merchant-ship from leaving her
coast, lest she might elsewhere procure an armament, and, in the
service of a recognized belligerent, revive the terror in the other
belligerent which the little Sumter had recently inspired.
When the Alabama was launched and ready for sea, Captain Bullock
summoned Captain Semmes, lately commander of the Sumter, to
Liverpool, where he spent a few days in financial arrangements, and
in collecting the old officers of the Sumter. The Alabama, then known
as the 290, had proceeded a few days before to her rendezvous, the
Portuguese Island of Terceira, one of the group of the Azores. The
story that the name 290 belonged to the fact that she had been built
by two hundred and ninety Englishmen, sympathizers in our struggle,
was a mere fiction. She was built under a contract with the
Confederate States, and paid for with Confederate money. She happened
to be the two hundred and ninetieth ship built by the Lairds, and,
not having been christened, was called 290. Captain Semmes followed
her, accompanied by Captain Bullock on the steamer Bahama, and found
her at the place of rendezvous, also a sailing-ship which had been
dispatched before the Alabama with her battery and stores. Captain
Semmes, with a sailor's enthusiasm, describes his first impression on
seeing the ship which was to be his future home. The defects of the
Sumter had been avoided, so that he found his new ship "a perfect
steamer and a perfect sailing-ship, at the same time neither of her
two modes of locomotion being at all dependent upon the other. . . .
She was about nine hundred tons burden, two hundred and thirty feet
in length, thirty-two feet in breadth, twenty feet in depth, and
drew, when provisioned and coaled for a cruise, fifteen feet of
water. Her model was of the most perfect symmetry, and she sat upon
the water with the lightness and grace of a swan." She was yet only a
merchant-ship, and the men on board of her, as well as those who came
out with the Captain on the Bahama, were only under articles for the
voyage. She therefore had no crew for future service. When her
armament and stores had been put on board, she steamed from the
harbor out to the open sea, where she was to be christened and put in
commission. Captain Bullock went out on her and stood sponsor at the
ceremony. He had just cause to be proud of the ship, and we to be
thankful to him for the skill and care with which he had designed her
and supervised her construction. The scantling of the vessel was
comparatively light, having been intended for a scourge to the
enemy's commerce rather than for battle, and merely to defend herself
if it became necessary. Her masts were proportioned so as to carry
large canvas, and her engine was of three hundred horse-power, with
an apparatus for condensing vapor to supply the crew with all the
fresh water requisite. The coal, stores, and armament having been
received from the supply-ships, she steamed out to sea on Sunday
morning, August 24, 1862. There, more than a marine league from the
shore, on the blue water over which man holds no empire, Captain
Semmes read the commission of the President of the Confederacy
appointing him a captain, and the order of the Secretary of the Navy
assigning him to the command of the Alabama. There, where no
government held jurisdiction, where the commission of the Confederacy
was as valid as that of any power, the Alabama was christened, and
was henceforth a ship of war in the navy of the Confederate States.
The men who had come thus far under articles no longer binding were
left to their option whether to be paid off with a free passage to
Liverpool, or to enlist in the crew of the Alabama. Eighty of the men
who had come out in the several vessels enrolled themselves in the
usual manner. Captain Semmes had a full complement of officers, and
with this, though less than the authorized crew, he commenced his
long and brilliant cruise. The ship's armament consisted of six
thirty-two-pounders in broadsides and two pivot-guns amidships, one
of them a smooth-bore eight-inch, the other a hundred-pounder rifled
Blakely.
Captain Semmes, from his varied knowledge of affairs both on sea and
land, did not sail by chance in quest of adventure, but directed his
course to places where the greatest number of the enemy's merchantmen
were likely to be found, and to this the large number of captures he
made is in no small degree attributable. On board one of the ships
captured they got New York papers, from which he learned that General
Banks, with a large fleet of transports, was to sail on a certain day
for Galveston. On this he decided to go to the rendezvous appointed
for his coal-ship, and make all due preparation for a dash into the
fleet when they should arrive at the harbor of Galveston, and
therefore directed his course into the Gulf of Mexico.
In the mean time General Magruder had recaptured Galveston, so that
on his arrival the lookout informed him that, instead of a fleet,
there were five ships of war blockading the harbor and throwing
shells into the town, from which his keen perception drew the proper
conclusion that we had possession of the town, and that he was
confronted by ships of war, not transports laden with troops. As each
of the five ships observed by the lookout were supposed to be larger
than his own, he had of course no disposition to run into that fleet.
It therefore only remained to tempt one of the ships to follow him
beyond supporting distance. The hope was soon realized, as a vessel
was seen to come out from the fleet. The Alabama was under sail, and
Captain Semmes says: "To carry out my design of decoying the enemy, I
now wore ship as though I were fleeing from his pursuit, and lowered
the propeller into the water. When about twenty miles from the fleet,
the Alabama was prepared for action, and wheeled to meet her pursuer.
To the first hail made, the answer from the Alabama was, 'This is her
Britannic Majesty's steamer Petrel,' and the answer was, 'This is the
United States ship, ------' name not heard." Captain Semmes then
directed the first lieutenant to call out through his trumpet, "This
is the Confederate States steamer Alabama." A broadside was instantly
returned by the enemy. Captain Semmes describes the state of the
atmosphere as highly favorable to the conduct of sound, and the wind
blowing in the direction of the enemy's fleet. The Federal Admiral,
as afterward learned, immediately got under way with the Brooklyn and
two others of his steamers to go to the rescue. The crews of both
ships must have been standing at their guns, as the broadsides so
instantly followed each other. In thirteen minutes after firing the
first gun the enemy hoisted a light and fired an off-gun as a signal
that he had been beaten. Captain Semmes steamed quite close to the
Hatteras and asked if he had surrendered; then, if he was in want of
assistance. An affirmative answer was given to both questions. The
boats of the Alabama were lowered with such promptitude and handled
with such care that, though the Hatteras was sunk at night, none of
her crew were drowned. When her captain came on board, Captain Semmes
learned that he had been engaged with the United States steamer
Hatteras, "a larger ship than the Alabama by one hundred tons," with
an equal number of guns, and a crew numbering two less than that of
the Alabama. There was a "considerable disparity between the two
ships in the weight of their pivot-guns, and the Alabama ought to
have won the fight, which she did in thirteen minutes." The Alabama
had received no appreciable injury, and, continuing her cruise to the
Island of Jamaica, entered the harbor of Port Royal, where, by the
permission of the authorities. Captain Semmes landed his prisoners,
putting them on parole.
As an answer to the stereotyped charges against Captain Semmes as a
"pirate" and robber, I will select from the many unarmed ships
captured by him one case. He had gone to the track of the California
steamers between Aspinwall and New York, in the hope of capturing a
vessel homeward bound with Government treasure. On the morning before
such a vessel was expected, a large steamer, the Ariel, was seen, but
unfortunately not going in the right direction. An exciting chase
occurred, when she was finally brought to, but, instead of the
million of dollars in her safe, she was outward bound, with a large
number of women and children on board. A boarding officer was sent on
her, and returned, giving an account of great alarm, especially among
the ladies. Captain Semmes sent a lieutenant on board to assure them
that they had "fallen into the hands of Southern gentlemen, under
whose protection the were entirely safe." Among the passengers were a
battalion of marines and some army and navy officers. These were all
paroled, rank and file numbering one hundred and forty, and the
vessel was released on ransom-bond. Captain Semmes states that there
were five hundred passengers on board. It is fair to presume that
each passenger had with him a purse of from three to five hundred
dollars. Under the laws of war all this money would have been good
prize, but not one dollar of it was touched, or indeed so much as a
passenger's baggage examined.
The Alabama now proceeded to run down the Spanish Main, thence bore
eastward into the Indian Ocean, and, after a cruise into every sea
where a blow at American commerce could be struck, came around the
Cape of Good Hope, and, sailing north, ran up to the thirtieth
parallel, where so many captures had been made at a former time. Of
the ship at this date Captain Semmes wrote: "The poor old Alabama was
not now what she had been then. She was like the wearied fox-hound,
limping back after a long chase, foot-sore, and longing for quiet
repose."
She had, in her mission to cripple the enemy's commerce and cut his
sinews of war, captured sixty-three vessels, among them one of the
enemy's gunboats, the Hatteras, sunk in battle, had released nine
under ransom-bond, and had paroled all prisoners taken.
All neutral ports being closed against her prizes, the rest of the
vessels were, of necessity, burned at sea. Much complaint was made on
account of the burning of these merchantmen, though very little
reflection would have taught the complainants that the interests of
the captor would have induced him to save the vessels, and send them
into the nearest port for condemnation as prizes; and, therefore,
whatever grievance existed was the result of the blockade and of the
rule which prevented the captures from being sent into a neutral port
to await the decision of a prize court.
On the morning of the 11th of June, 1864, the Alabama entered the
harbor of Cherbourg. "An officer was sent to call on the port
admiral, and ask leave to land the prisoners from the last two ships
captured; this was readily granted." The next day Captain Semmes went
on shore to consult the port admiral "in relation to docking and
repairing" the Alabama. As there were only government docks at
Cherbourg, the application had to be referred to the Emperor. Before
an answer was received, the Kearsarge steamed into the harbor, sent a
boat ashore, and then ran out and took her station off the
breakwater. Captain Semmes learned that the boat from the Kearsarge
sent on shore had borne a request that the prisoners discharged from
the Alabama might be delivered to the Kearsarge. It will be
remembered that the Government of the United States, in many harsh
and unjust phrases, had refused to recognize the Alabama as a ship of
war, and held that the paroles given to her were void. This request
was therefore regarded by Captain Semmes as an attempt to recruit for
the Kearsarge from the prisoners lately landed by the Alabama, and he
so presented the facts to the port admiral, who rejected the
application from the Kearsarge.
Captain Semmes sent notice to Captain Winslow, of the Kearsarge,
whose presence in the offing was regarded as a challenge, that, if he
would wait until the Alabama could receive some coal on board, she
would come out and give him battle.
As has been shown by extracts previously made, Captain Semmes knew
that, after his long cruise, the Alabama needed to go into dock for
repairs. It had not been possible for him, on account of the rigid
enforcement of "neutrality," to replenish his ammunition. Unless the
niter is more thoroughly purified than is usually, if ever, done by
those who manufacture for an open market, it is sure to retain
nitrate of soda, and the powder, of which it is the important
ingredient, to deteriorate by long exposure to a moist atmosphere.
The Kearsarge was superior to the Alabama in size, and, having in
stanchness of construction, her armament was also greater, the latter
being measured, not by the number of guns, but by the amount of metal
she could throw at a broadside. The crew of the Kearsarge, all told,
was one hundred and sixty-two; that of the Alabama, one hundred and
forty-nine. Captain Semmes says: "Still the disparity was not so
great but that I might hope to beat my enemy in a fair fight. But he
did not show me a fair fight, for, as it afterward turned out, his
ship was iron-clad." This expression "iron-clad" refers to the fact
that the Kearsarge had chains on her sides, which Captain Semmes
describes as concealed by planking, the forward and after ends of
which so accorded with the lines of the ship as not to be detected by
telescopic observation. Many of that class of critics whose wisdom is
only revealed after the event have blamed Captain Semmes for going
out under the circumstances. Like most other questions, there are two
sides to this. If he had gone into dock for repairs, the time
required would have resulted in the dispersion of his crew, and, from
the known improvidence of sailors, it would have been more than
doubtful whether they could have been reassembled. It was, moreover,
probable that other vessels would have been sent to aid the Kearsarge
in effectually blockading the port, so that, if his crew had
returned, the only chance would have been to escape through the
guarding fleet. Proud of his ship, and justly confiding in his crew,
surely something will be conceded to the Confederate spirit so often
exhibited and so often triumphant over disparity of force.
On the 19th of June, 1864, the Alabama left the harbor of Cherbourg
to engage the Kearsarge, which had been lying off and on the port for
several days previously. Captain Semmes in his report of the
engagement writes:
"After the lapse of about one hour and ten minutes, our ship was
ascertained to be in a sinking condition . . . to reach the French
coast, I gave the ship all steam, and set such of the fore and aft
sails as were available. The ship filled so rapidly, however, that,
before we had made much progress, the fires were extinguished. I now
hauled down my colors, and dispatched a boat to inform the enemy of
our condition. Although we were now but four hundred yards from each
other, the enemy fired upon me five times after my colors had been
struck. It is charitable to suppose that a ship of war, of a
Christian nation, could not have done this intentionally."
Captain Semmes states that, his waist-boats having been torn to
pieces, he sent the wounded, and such of the boys of the ship as
could not swim, in his quarter-boats, off to the enemy's ship, and,
as there was no appearance of any boat coming from the enemy, the
crew, as previously instructed, jumped overboard, each to save
himself if he could. All the wounded--twenty-one--were saved; ten
of the crew were ascertained to have been drowned. Captain Semmes
stood on the quarter-deck until his ship was settling to go down,
then threw his sword into the sea, there to lie buried with the ship
he loved so well, and leaped from the deck just in time to avoid
being drawn down into the vortex created by her sinking. He and many
of his crew were picked up by a humane English gentleman in the boats
of his yacht, the Deerhound. Others were saved by two French
pilot-boats which were near the scene. The remainder, it is hoped,
were picked up by the enemy. Captain Semmes states in his official
report, two days after the battle, that about the time of his rescue
by the Deerhound the "Kearsarge sent one and then tardily another
boat." The reader is invited to compare this with the conduct of
Captain Semmes when he sank the Hatteras, and when, though it was in
the night, by ranging up close to her, and promptly using all his
boats, he saved her entire crew.
Mention has been made of the defective ammunition of the Alabama, and
in that connection I quote the following passage from Captain
Semmes's book, on which I have so frequently and largely drawn for
facts in regard to the Sumter and the Alabama (pages 761, 762):
"I lodged a rifle percussion shell near to her [the Kearsarge's]
sternpost--where there were no chains--which failed to explode
because of the defect of the cap. If the cap had performed its duty,
and exploded the shell, I should have been called upon to save
Captain Winslow's crew from drowning, instead of his being called
upon to save mine."
As it appears by the same authority that the Kearsarge had greater
speed than the Alabama, it followed that, though the Captain of the
Kearsarge might have closed with and boarded the Alabama, the Captain
of the Alabama could not board the Kearsarge, unless by consent.
The Alabama, built like a merchant-ship, sailed in peaceful garb from
British waters, on a far-distant sea received her crew and armament,
fitted for operations against the enemy's commerce. On "blue-water"
she was christened, and in the same she was buried. She lived the
pride of her friends and the terror of her enemies. She went out to
fight a wooden vessel and was sunk by one clad in secret armor. Those
rescued by the Deerhound from the water were landed at Southampton,
England.
The United States Government then, through its minister, Mr. Charles
Francis Adams, made the absurd demand of the English Government that
they should be delivered up to her as escaped prisoners. To this
demand Lord John Russell replied as follows:
"With regard to the demand made by you, by instructions from your
Government, that those officers and men should now be delivered up to
the Government of the United States, as being escaped prisoners of
war, her Majesty's Government would beg to observe that there is no
obligation by international law which can bind the government of a
neutral state to deliver up to a belligerent prisoners of war who may
have escaped from the power of such belligerent, and may have taken
refuge within the territory of such neutral. Therefore, even if her
Majesty's Government had any power, by law, to comply with the
above-mentioned demand, her Majesty's Government could not do so
without being guilty of a violation of the duties of hospitality. In
point of fact, however, her Majesty's Government have no lawful power
to arrest and deliver up the persons in question. They have been
guilty of no offense against the laws of England, and they have
committed no act which would bring them within the provisions of a
treaty between Great Britain and the United States for the surrender
of the offenders; and her Majesty's Government are, therefore,
entirely without any legal means by which, even if they wished to do
so, they could comply with your above-mentioned demand."
It will be observed that her Majesty's Minister mercifully forbore to
expose the pretensions that "the persons in question" had been
prisoners, and confined his answer to the case as it would have been
had that allegation been true. There are other points in this
transaction which will be elsewhere presented.
The Oreto, which sailed from Liverpool about the 23d of March, 1862,
was, while under construction at Liverpool, the subject of diplomatic
correspondence and close scrutiny by the customs officers. After her
arrival off Nassau, upon representations by the United States consul
at that port, she was detained and again examined, and, it being
found that she had none of the character of a vessel of war, she was
released. Captain Maffitt, who had gone out with a cargo of cotton,
here received a letter which authorized him to take charge of the
Oreto and get her promptly to sea. She was a steamer of two hundred
and fifty horse-power, tonnage five hundred and sixty, bark-rigged;
speed, under steam, eight to nine knots; with sail, in a fresh
breeze, fourteen knots; crew twenty-two, all told. The United States
Minister, Mr. Adams, had made a report to the British Government,
which, it was apprehended, would cause her seizure at once. This was
soon done, and with great difficulty the vessel was saved to the
Confederacy by her commander. She arrived at Nassau on the 28th of
April, and was detained until the session of the Admiralty Court in
August. As soon as discharged by the proceedings therein, she sailed
for the uninhabited island "Green Kay," ninety miles to the southward of
Providence Island, with a tender in tow having equipments provided by
a Confederate merchant, where she anchored the next day, and
proceeded to take on board her military armament sent out on the
tender. She now became a ship of the Confederate Navy, and was
christened Florida. Her long detention in Nassau had caused the ship
to be infected with yellow fever, and, as she had no surgeon on
board, the vessel was directed to the Island of Cuba, and ran into
the harbor of Cardenas for aid. The crew was reduced to one fireman
and two seamen, and eventually the Captain was prostrated by the
fever. The Governor of Cardenas, under his view of the neutrality
proclaimed by his Government, refused to send a physician aboard, and
warned the steamer that she must leave in twenty-four hours.
Lieutenant Stribling, executive officer of the ship, had been sent to
Havana to report her condition to the Captain-General, Marshal
Serrano. That chivalrous gentleman, soldier, and statesman, at once
invited the ship to the hospitalities of the harbor of Havana,
whither she repaired and received the kindness which her forlorn
situation required.
On the 1st of September, 1862, the vessel left Havana to obtain a
crew; and, to complete her equipment, which was so imperfect that her
guns could not all be used, the vessel was directed to the harbor of
Mobile. On approaching that harbor she found several blockading
vessels on the station, and boldly ran through them, escaping, with
considerable injury to her masts and rigging, to the friendly shelter
of Fort Morgan, where, while in quarantine, Lieutenant Stribling was
attacked with fever and died. He was an officer of great merit, and
his loss was much regretted, not only by his many personal friends,
but by all who foresaw the useful service he could render to his
country if his life were prolonged. Under the disadvantages of being
an infected ship and remote from the workshops, repairs were
commenced, and the equipment of the ship completed.
In the mean time the blockading squadron had been increased, with the
boastful announcement that the cruiser should be "hermetically
sealed" in the harbor of Mobile. Some impatience was manifested after
the vessel was ready for sea that she did not immediately go out, but
Captain Maffitt, with sound judgment and nautical skill, decided to
wait for a winter storm and a dark night before attempting to pass
through the close investment. When the opportunity offered, he
steamed out into a rough sea and a fierce north wind. As he passed
the blockading squadron he was for the first time discovered, when a
number of vessels gave chase, and continued the pursuit throughout
the night and the next day. In the next evening all except the two
fastest had hauled off, and, as night again closed in, the smoke and
canvas of the Florida furnished their only guide. Captain Maffitt
thus describes the ruse by which he finally escaped: "The canvas was
secured in long, neat bunts to the yards, and the engines were
stopped. Between high, toppling seas, clear daylight was necessary to
enable them to distinguish our low hull. In eager pursuit the
Federals swiftly passed us, and we jubilantly bade the enemy good
night, and steered to the northward." She was now fairly on the
high-seas, and after long and vexatious delays entered on her mission
to cruise against the enemy's commerce. She commenced her captures in
the Gulf of Mexico, then progressed through the Gulf of Florida to
the latitude of New York, and thence to the equator, continuing to 12
deg. south, and returned again within thirty miles of New York. When
near Cape St. Roque, Captain Maffitt captured a Baltimore brig, the
Clarence, and fitted her out as a tender. He placed on her Lieutenant
C. W. Read, commander, fourteen men, armed with muskets, pistols, and
a twelve-pound howitzer. The instructions were to proceed to the
coast of America, to cruise against the enemy's commerce. Under these
orders he destroyed many Federal vessels. Of him Captain Maffitt
wrote: "Daring, even beyond the point of martial prudence, he entered
the harbor of Portland at midnight, and captured the revenue cutter
Caleb Cushing; but, instead of instantly burning her, ran her out of
the harbor; being thus delayed, he was soon captured by a Federal
expedition sent out against him." While under the command of Captain
Maffitt, the Florida, with her tenders, captured some fifty-five
vessels, many of which were of great value. The Florida being built
of light timbers, her very active cruising had so deranged her
machinery, that it was necessary to go into some friendly harbor for
repairs. Captain Maffitt says: "I selected Brest, and, the Government
courteously consenting to the Florida having the facilities of the
navy-yard, she was promptly docked." The effects of the yellow fever
from which he had suffered and the fatigue attending his subsequent
service had so exhausted his strength that he asked to be relieved
from command of the ship. In compliance with this request, Captain C.
M. Morris was ordered to relieve him.
After completing all needful repairs, Captain Morris proceeded to sea
and sighted the coast of Virginia, where he made a number of
important captures. Turning from that locality he crossed the
equator, destroying the commerce of the Northern States on his route
to Bahia. Here he obtained coal, and also had some repairs done to
the engines, when the United States steamship Wachusett entered the
harbor. Not knowing what act of treachery might be attempted by her
commander on the first night after his arrival, the Florida was kept
in a watchful condition for battle.
This belligerent demonstration in the peaceful harbor of a neutral
power alarmed both the governor and the admiral, who demanded
assurances that the sovereignty of Brazil and its neutrality should
be strictly observed by both parties. The pledge was given. In the
evening, with a chivalric belief in the honor of the United States
commander, Captain Morris unfortunately permitted a majority of his
officers to accompany him to the opera, and also allowed two thirds
of the crew to visit the shore on leave. About one o'clock in the
morning the Wachusett was surreptitiously got under way, and her
commander, with utter abnegation of his word of honor, ran into the
Florida, discharging his battery and boarding her. The few officers
on board and small number of men were unable to resist this
unexpected attack, and the Florida fell an easy prey to this covert
and dishonorable assault. She was towed to sea amid the execrations
of the Brazilian forces, army and navy, who, completely taken by
surprise, fired a few ineffectual shots at the infringer upon the
neutrality of the hospitable port of Bahia. The Confederate was taken
to Hampton Roads.
Brazil instantly demanded her restoration intact to her late
anchorage in Bahia. Mr. Lincoln was confronted by a protest from the
different representatives of the courts of Europe, denouncing this
extraordinary breach of national neutrality, which placed the
Government of the United States in a most unenviable position. Mr.
Seward, with his usual diplomatic insincerity and Machiavellianism,
characteristically prevaricated, while he plotted with a
distinguished admiral as to the most adroit method of disposing of
the "elephant." The result of these plottings was that an engineer
was placed in charge of the stolen steamer, with positive orders to
"open her sea-cock at midnight, and not to leave the engine-room
until the water was up to his chin, as at sunrise _the Florida must
be at the bottom_." The following note was sent to the Brazilian
_chargé d'affaires_ by Mr. Seward:
"While awaiting the representations of the Brazilian Government, on
the 28th of November she [the Florida] sank, owing to a leak, which
could not be seasonably stopped. The leak was at first represented to
have been caused, or at least increased, by collision with a
war-transport. Orders were immediately given to ascertain the manner
and circumstances of the occurrence. It seemed to affect the army and
navy. A naval court of inquiry and also a military court of inquiry
were charged with the investigation. The naval court has submitted
its report, and a copy thereof is herewith communicated. The military
court is yet engaged. So soon as its labors shall have ended, the
result will be made known to your Government. In the mean time it is
assumed that the loss of the Florida was in consequence of some
unforeseen accident, which casts no responsibility on the Government
of the United States."
The restitution of the ship having thus become impossible, the
President expressed his regret that "the sovereignty of Brazil had
been violated; dismissed the consul at Bahia, who had advised the
offense; and sent the commander of the Wachusett before a
court-martial." [58]
The commander of the Wachusett experienced no annoyance, and was soon
made an admiral.
The Georgia was the next Confederate cruiser that Captain Bullock
succeeded in sending forth. She was of five hundred and sixty tons,
and fitted out on the coast of France. Her commander, W. L. Maury,
Confederate States Navy, cruised in the North and South Atlantic with
partial success. The capacity of the vessel in speed and other
essentials was entirely inadequate to the service for which she was
designed. She proceeded as far as the Cape of Good Hope, and
returned, after having captured seven ships and two barks. Then she
was laid up and sold.
The Shenandoah, once the Sea King, was purchased by Captain Bullock,
and placed under the command of Lieutenant-commanding J. J. Waddell,
who fitted her for service under many difficulties at the barren
island of Porto Santo, near Madeira. After experiencing great
annoyances, through the activity of the American consul at Melbourne,
Australia, Captain Waddell finally departed, and commenced an active
and effective cruise against American shipping in the Okhotak Sea and
Arctic Ocean. In August, 1865, hearing of the close of the war, he
ceased his pursuit of United States commerce, sailed for Liverpool,
England, and surrendered his ship to the English Government, which
transferred it to the Government of the United States. The Shenandoah
was a full-rigged ship of eight hundred tons, very fast under
canvass. Her steam-power was merely auxiliary.
This was the last but not the first appearance of the Confederate
flag in Great Britain; the first vessel of the Confederate Government
which unfurled it there was the swift, light steamer Nashville, E. B.
Pegram, commander. Having been constructed as a passenger-vessel, and
mainly with reference to speed and the light draught suited to the
navigation of the Southern harbors, she was quite too frail for war
purposes and too slightly armed for combat.
On her passage to Europe and back, she, nevertheless, destroyed two
merchantmen. Nearing the harbor on her return voyage, she found it
blockaded, and a heavy vessel lying close on her track. Her daring
commander headed directly for the vessel, and ran so close under her
guns that she was not suspected in her approach, and had passed so
far before the guns could be depressed to bear upon her that none of
the shots took effect. Being little more than a shell, a single shot
would have sunk her; and she was indebted to the address of her
commander and the speed of his vessel for her escape. Wholly unsuited
for naval warfare, this voyage terminated her career.
A different class of vessels than those adapted to the open sea was
employed for coastwise cruising. In the month of July, 1864, a swift
twin-screw propeller called the Atlanta, of six hundred tons burden,
was purchased by the Secretary of the Navy, and fitted out in the
harbor of Wilmington, North Carolina, for a cruise against the
commerce of the Northern States. Commander J. Taylor Wood, an officer
of extraordinary ability and enterprise, was ordered to command her,
and her name was changed to "The Tallahassee." This extemporaneous
man-of-war ran safely through the blockade, and soon lit up the New
England coast with her captures, which consisted of two ships, four
brigs, four barks, and twenty schooners. Great was the consternation
among Northern merchants. The construction of the Tallahassee
exclusively for steam made her dependent on coal; her cruise was of
course brief, but brilliant while it lasted.
About the same time another fast double-screw propeller of five
hundred and eighty-five tons, called the Edith, ran into Wilmington,
North Carolina, and the Navy Department requiring her services,
bought her and gave to her the name of "Chickamauga." A suitable
battery was placed on board, with officers and crew, and Commander
John Wilkinson, a gentleman of consummate naval ability, was ordered
to command her. When ready for sea, he ran the blockade under the
bright rays of a full moon. Strange to say, the usually alert
sentinels neither hailed nor halted her. Like the Tallahassee, though
partially rigged for sailing, she was exclusively dependent upon
steam in the chase, escape, and in all important evolutions. She
captured seven vessels, despite the above-noticed defects.
[Footnote 58: M. Bernard's "Neutrality of Great Britain during the American
Civil War."]