THE COMMISSIONING OF THE SUMTER, THE FIRST CONFEDERATE STATES' SHIP OF
WAR.
Fort Sumter surrendered on the 13th of April. The next day was a gala day
in Montgomery. We had driven an insolent enemy from one of the strongest
positions in the South, and the people were all agog to hear the news. A
large Confederate flag was displayed from a balcony of the War Office, and
the Hon. L. P. Walker, the Secretary of War, announced in a brief speech,
to the assembled multitude below, amid repeated cheering, and the waving
of hats, and handkerchiefs, the welcome tidings. The Union men, who have
become so numerous since the war, had, if any of them were in the city,
slunk to their holes, and corners, and the air was redolent, alone, of
Southern patriotism, and Southern enthusiasm.
The driving of the enemy from Charleston harbor, decided the fate of
Virginia, which had been trembling in the balance for some days. The grand
old State could no longer resist her generous impulses. Under a
proclamation of President Lincoln the martial hosts of an enraged and
vindictive North were assembling, to make war upon her sisters, and this
was enough--her ordinance of secession was passed, by a very gratifying
majority. Patrick Henry had become a prophet, and the beautiful, and
touching apostrophe of James Madison to the "kindred blood," and the
"mingled blood" of the American people, which was given to the reader a
few pages back, had proved to be the mere chimera of an excited
imagination.
The effect of the surrender of Sumter in the North was beyond conception.
A prominent leader of the public press of that section had said of the
American flag:--
"Tear down that flaunting lie,
Half-mast the starry flag,
Insult no sunny sky
With hate's polluted rag."
Instantly, and as if by the touch of a magician's wand, the polluted rag
became the rallying cry of the whole Northern people, and of none more so,
than of the very men who had thus denounced it. But there was method in
this madness; the rag had only been polluted whilst it was the emblem of
good faith between the North, and the South; whilst, in other words, it
prevented the mad fanatics of the North from violating that slave
property, which _their_ ancestors had promised _our_ ancestors, in the
solemn league and covenant of the Constitution, should forever remain
inviolate.
But now that the rag, instead of being an obstacle, might be made the
means of accomplishing their designs, it was no longer necessary to pull
it down. The moment it was fired upon, it became, in their eyes, a new
flag, and the symbol of a new faith. It was no longer to represent the
federative principle, or to protect the rights of States; it was
henceforth to wave over yelling, and maddened majorities, whose will was
to be both Constitution, and law. Strange that the thinking portion of the
Northern people did not see this; strange that the hitherto conservative
Democratic party did not see it. Or was it that the whole North had been
wearing a mask, and that the mask was now no longer available, or
desirable, to hide their treachery?
Perhaps the future historian, in calmer moments, when the waves of passion
engendered by the late storm shall have sunk to rest, will be better able
to answer this question. For the present it is sufficient to record the
fact, mortifying, it must be confessed, to poor human nature, that all our
quondam friends, without so many as half a dozen exceptions in a whole
nation--I speak, of course, of prominent men--went over to the common
enemy. The very men who had stood, shoulder to shoulder, with us, in
resisting Northern aggression, who had encouraged us with pen, and voice,
to resist, if need be, unto the death, who promised in case of secession,
to stand between us, and the march of Northern armies of invasion,
instantly, and without even the salvo to their consciences of
circumlocution, changed their political faith of a life-time, and became,
if not straight-out Republicans, at least blatant War Democrats.
The reader cannot be at a loss to account for this change. It was caused
by the purest, and most refined selfishness. Next to the love of wealth,
the love of office may be said to be the distinguishing passion of the
American people. In the hands of a skilful office-seeker, patriotism is a
mere word with which to delude the ignorant masses, and not a sentiment,
or a creed, to be really entertained. Our allies in the North were very
patriotic, whilst there were still hopes of preserving the Union, and
along with it the prospect of office, by the aid of the Southern people,
but the moment the Southern States went out, and it became evident that
they would be politically dead, unless they recanted their political
faith, it was seen that they had no intention of becoming martyrs. Their
motto, on the contrary, became _sauve qui peut_, and the d----l take the
hindmost; and the banks of the new political Jordan were at once crowded
with a multitude anxious to be dipped in its regenerating waters!
As the tidings of these doings in the North were flashed to us, over the
wires, in Montgomery, it became evident to me, that the Light-House Bureau
was no longer to be thought of. It had become necessary for every man, who
could wield a sword, to draw it in defence of his country, thus threatened
by the swarming hordes of the North, and to leave the things of peace to
the future.
I had already passed the prime of life, and was going gently down that
declivity, at whose base we all arrive, sooner or later, but _I thanked
God_, that I had still a few years before me, and vigor enough of
constitution left, to strike in defence of the right. I at once sought an
interview with the Secretary of the Navy, and explained to him my desire
to go afloat. We had, as yet, nothing that could be called a navy; not a
ship indeed, if we except a few river steamers, that had been hastily
armed by some of the States, and turned over, by them, to the Navy
Department. The naval officers, who had come South, had brought with them
nothing but their poverty, and their swords; all of them who had been in
command of ships, at the secession of their respective States, having,
from a sense of honor, delivered them back to the Federal Government.
If a sense of justice had presided at the separation of the States, a
large portion of the ships of the Navy would have been turned over to the
South; and this failing to be done, it may be questionable whether the
Southern naval officers, in command, would not have been justified in
bringing their ships with them, which it would have been easy for them to
do. But, on the other hand, they had been personally intrusted with their
commands, by the Federal Government, and it would have been treason to a
military principle, if not to those great principles which guide
revolutions, to deliver those commands to a different government. Perhaps
they decided correctly--at all events, a military, or naval man, cannot go
very far astray, who abides by the point of honor.
Shortly before the war-cloud had arisen so ominously above the political
horizon, I had written a letter to a distinguished member of the Federal
Congress from the South, in reply to one from himself, giving him my views
as to the naval policy of our section, in case things should come to a
crisis. I make no apology to the reader for presenting him with the
following extract from that letter, bearing upon the subject, which we
have now in hand. "You ask me to explain what I mean, by an irregular
naval force. I mean a well-organized system of private armed ships, called
privateers. If you are warred upon at all, it will be by a commercial
people, whose ability to do you harm will consist chiefly in ships, and
shipping. It is at ships and shipping, therefore, that you must strike;
and the most effectual way to do this, is, by means of the irregular force
of which I speak. Private cupidity will always furnish the means for this
description of warfare, and all that will be required of you will be to
put it under sufficient legal restraints, to prevent it from degenerating
into piracy, and becoming an abuse. Even New England ships, and New
England capital would be at your service, in abundance. The system of
privateering would be analogous to the militia system on the land. You
could have a large irregular sea force, to act in aid of the regular naval
force, so long as the war lasted, and which could be disbanded, without
further care or expense, at the end of the war."
Wealth is necessary to the conduct of all modern wars, and I naturally
turned my eyes, as indicated in the above letter, to the enemy's chief
source of wealth. The ingenuity, enterprise, and natural adaptation of the
Northern people to the sea, and seafaring pursuits, had enabled them,
aided by the vast resources, which they had filched, under pretence of
legislation, from the South, to build up, in the course of a very few
years, a commercial marine that was second only to that of Great Britain,
in magnitude and importance.
The first decked vessel that had been built in the United States, was
built by one Adrian Block, a Dutch skipper, on the banks of the Hudson, in
1614, and in 1860, or in less than two centuries and a half, the great
Republic was competing with England, the history of whose maritime
enterprise extended back a thousand years, for the carrying trade of the
world! This trade, if permitted to continue, would be a powerful means of
sustaining the credit of the enemy, and enabling him to carry on the war.
Hence it became an object of the first necessity with the Confederate
States, to strike at his commerce. I enlarged upon this necessity, in the
interview I was now holding with Mr. Mallory, and I was gratified to find
that that able officer agreed with me fully in opinion.
A Board of naval officers was already in session at New Orleans, charged
with the duty of procuring, as speedily as possible, some light and fast
steamers to be let loose against the enemy's commercial marine, but their
reports up to this time, had been but little satisfactory. They had
examined a number of vessels, and found some defects in all of them. The
Secretary, speaking of the discouragement presented by these reports,
handed me one of them, which he had received that morning, from the Board.
I read it, and found that it described a small propeller steamer, of five
hundred tons burden, sea-going, with a low-pressure engine, sound, and
capable of being so strengthened as to be enabled to carry an ordinary
battery of four, or five guns. Her speed was reported to be between nine,
and ten knots, but unfortunately, said the Board, she carries but five
days' fuel, and has no accommodations for the crew of a ship of war. She
was, accordingly, condemned. When I had finished reading the report, I
turned to the Secretary, and said, "Give me that ship; I think I can make
her answer the purpose." My request was at once acceded to, the Secretary
telegraphed to the Board, to receive the ship, and the clerks of the
Department were set at work, to hunt up the necessary officers, to
accompany me, and make out the proper orders. And this is the way in which
the Confederate States' steamer _Sumter_, which was to have the honor of
being the first ship of war to throw the new Confederate flag to the
breeze, was commissioned. I had accepted a stone which had been rejected
of the builders, and which, though, it did not afterward become the "chief
corner-stone of the temple," I endeavored to work into the building which
the Confederates were then rearing, to remind their posterity that they
had struggled, as Patrick Henry and his contemporaries had struggled
before them, "in defence of their liberties."
The next day, the chief clerk of the Navy Department handed me the
following order:
CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA,
NAVY DEPARTMENT, MONTGOMERY, April 18, 1861.
SIR:--You are hereby detached from duty as Chief of the Light-House
Bureau, and will proceed to New Orleans, and take command of the
steamer _Sumter_ (named in honor of our recent victory over Fort
Sumter). The following officers have been ordered to report to you,
for duty: Lieutenants John M. Kell, R. T. Chapman, John M. Stribling,
and Wm. E. Evans; Paymaster Henry Myers; Surgeon Francis L. Galt;
Midshipmen, Wm. A. Hicks, Richard F. Armstrong, Albert G. Hudgins,
John F. Holden, and Jos. D. Wilson. I am respectfully your obedient
servant,
S. R. MALLORY, _Secretary of the Navy_.
_Commander_ RAPHAEL SEMMES.
The reader will observe that I am addressed as a "commander," the rank
which I held in the old service. The Navy Department, in consultation with
the President, had adopted the rule of accepting all the officers who
chose to come to us from the old Navy--as the Federal Navy began now to be
called--without increase of rank; and in arranging them on the Navy-list,
their old _relative_ rank was also preserved. This rule had two good
effects; it did not tempt any officer to come to us, moved by the hope of
immediate promotion, and it put us all on an equal footing, in the future
race for honors.
I had been living in Montgomery as a bachelor, at the house of Mr. Wm.
Knox, an old friend--my family having gone to spend some time with a
beloved brother, in Maryland, until I could see, by the light of events,
what final disposition to make of it. It did not occupy me long,
therefore, to make my preparations for departure, in obedience to my
orders. I took a respectful, and affectionate leave of the officers of the
government, with whom I had been associated, and embarked on the afternoon
of the same day on which I had received my orders, on board the steamer
_Southern Republic_ for Mobile. At Mobile I fell in with Lieutenant
Chapman, one of the officers who had been detailed to report to me, and
he, being a minute-man like myself, took a hasty leave of a young wife,
and we continued our journey together.
I found Mobile, like the rest of the Confederacy, in a great state of
excitement. Always one of the truest of Southern cities, it was boiling
over with enthusiasm; the young merchants had dropped their daybooks and
ledgers, and were forming, and drilling companies, by night and by day,
whilst the older ones were discussing questions of finance, and anxiously
casting about them, to see how the Confederate Treasury could be
supported. The Battle House, at which I stopped for a few hours, previous
to taking the steamer for New Orleans, was thronged with young men in
military costume, and all seemed going "as merrily as a marriage-bell."
Alas! my poor young countrymen, how many of you had disappeared from the
scene, when I next returned among you, near the close of the war, and how
many poor mothers there were, weeping for the sons that were not. But your
gallant and glorious record!--that, at least, remains, and must remain
forever; for you have inscribed your names so high on the scroll of fame,
that the slanderous breath of an ungenerous foe can never reach them.
I arrived in New Orleans, on Monday, the 22d of April, and at once put
myself in communication with the commanding naval officer, the venerable
Lawrence Rousseau, since gone to his long home, full of years, and full of
honors. Like a true son of the South he had obeyed the first call of his
fatherland, the State of Louisiana, and torn off the seal from the
commission of a Federal captain, which he had honored for forty years. I
will not say, "peace to his ashes," for the spirit of a Christian
gentleman, which animated his frame during life, has doubtless received
its appropriate reward; nor will I say aught of his name, or fame, for
these are embalmed in the memories of his countrymen. He was my friend,
and in that name "friend" I pronounce his eulogy. On the same day of my
arrival, in company with Lieutenant Chapman, I inspected, and took
possession of my new ship. I found her only a dismantled packet-ship, full
of upper cabins, and other top-hamper, furniture, and crockery, but as
unlike a ship of war as possible. Still, I was pleased with her general
appearance. Her lines were easy, and graceful, and she had a sort of saucy
air about her, which seemed to say, that she was not averse to the service
on which she was about to be employed.