A BRIEF RESUME OF THE HISTORY OF THE WAR, BETWEEN THE COMMISSIONING OF THE
SUMTER AND THE COMMISSIONING OF THE ALABAMA--SECRETARY MALLORY, AND THE
DIFFICULTIES BY WHICH HE WAS SURROUNDED--THE REORGANIZATION OF THE
CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY.
Although, as before remarked, I design only to write a history of my own
proceedings, during the late war, yet it will be necessary, to enable the
reader to understand these proceedings correctly, to run a mere thread of
the general history of the war along parallel with them. I have done this
up to the date of commissioning the _Sumter_. It will now be necessary to
take up the thread again, and bring it down to the commissioning of the
_Alabama_. I shall do this very briefly, barely enumerating the principal
military events, without attempting to describe them, and glancing very
cursorily at the naval events.
We ran the blockade of the Mississippi, in the _Sumter_, as has been seen,
on the 30th of June, 1861. In July of that year, the first great battle of
Manassas was fought, to which allusion has already been made. This battle
gave us great prestige in Europe, and contributed very much to the respect
with which the little _Sumter_ had been received by foreign powers. A long
military pause now ensued. The enemy had been so astonished and staggered
by this blow, that it took him some time to recover from its effects. He,
however, turned it to useful account, and set himself at work with great
patience, and diligence, at the same time, to collect and thoroughly drill
new troops. The victory, on the other hand, had an unfavorable effect upon
our own people, in giving them an undue impression of their superiority
over their enemy, and lulling them into supineness.
During the summer of 1861, two naval expeditions were fitted out, by the
enemy, and sent to operate against our coast. The first of these
expeditions, under command of Commodore Stringham, captured two hastily
constructed, and imperfect earth-works at Hatteras Inlet on the coast of
North Carolina, and made a lodgement on Pamlico Sound. The capture of
these works, is no otherwise remarkable, in a naval point of view, than
for the circumstance that a Confederate States naval officer fell into the
hands of the enemy, for the first time during the war. Commodore Samuel
Barron, of the Confederate States Navy, commanded the forts, and
surrendered, after a gallant resistance, to the overwhelming force which
assaulted him, on condition that he should be treated _as a prisoner of
war_. The battle of Manassas had occurred to humble the pride, and appeal
to the fears of the enemy, and the condition named by Barron was readily
assented to. The other naval expedition, under command of Commodore
Dupont, captured Port Royal, in South Carolina as mentioned in a former
page. The "_Trent_ Affair," already described, came off in November, 1861,
and Commodore Hollins' attack upon the enemy's fleet at the mouths of the
Mississippi, in which he gave him such a scare, occurred, as already
related, in October of the same year. This brings us to the close of the
first year of the war.
The year 1862 was big with events, which we will, for the most part,
merely string on our thread. The Confederates, in the beginning of the
year, occupied a position at Bowling Green, in Kentucky, which was
seemingly a strong position, with railroad communication, in their rear,
with all parts of the South, but they could not hold it, for the simple
reason, that the enemy, having command of the western rivers by means of
his superior naval force, penetrated into their rear, and thus compelled a
retreat. When the enemy, by means of his gun-boats, could send armies up
the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers, to the heart of Tennessee and
Alabama, it was folly to think of holding Bowling Green, with our limited
forces. Our army fell back to Nashville, and even abandoned that city,
after the fall of Forts Henry and Donelson, which were captured by the
Federal forces, in February, 1862.
The evacuation of all these points, one after another, and afterward the
loss of Island No. 10, on the Mississippi, and New Madrid, were serious
blows for us. But our disasters did not end here. The battle of Shiloh
followed, in which we were defeated, and compelled to retreat, after we
had, to all appearance, gained a victory almost complete on the first day
of the fight. Naval disasters accompanied, or followed our disasters upon
the land. Early in 1862, a naval expedition of the enemy, under the
command of Commodore Goldsborough, entered Pamlico Sound, and captured
Roanoke Island. Commodore Lynch, of the Confederate States Navy, with six
or seven small, ill-armed gunboats, which had been improvised from light
and frail river steamers, assisted in the defence of the island, but was
obliged to withdraw before the superior forces of the enemy. The enemy,
pursuing his advantages, followed Lynch's retreating fleet to Elizabeth
City, in North Carolina, where he captured or destroyed it.
The enemy was now not only in possession of the western waters--Vicksburg
and Port Hudson alone obstructing his free navigation of the Mississippi
as far down as New Orleans--but Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds, in North
Carolina, and the bay of Port Royal in South Carolina and Georgia, were
open to him. To complete the circle of our disasters, New Orleans was
captured by Farragut and Porter, in April--the small Confederate fleet
under Commodore John K. Mitchell, making a gallant but disastrous defence,
in which it was totally destroyed, with great loss of life of both
officers and men.
Let us turn now to a more pleasing picture; for all was not disaster for
the Confederates, during the year 1862. In March of that year, the
memorable naval engagement occurred in Hampton Roads, between the
Confederate States iron-clad steamer _Virginia_, and the enemy's fleet,
resulting in the destruction, by the _Virginia_, of two of the enemy's
wooden frigates. Great consternation and alarm were produced in the
enemy's fleet, and at Fortress Monroe, by Admiral Buchanan and his armored
ship, as well there might be, for the ship was perfectly invulnerable, and
but for her great draught of water, might have destroyed or driven off
the whole Federal fleet. Our people were greatly elated by this victory,
coming as it did, in the midst of so many disasters. It attracted great
attention in Europe, also, as being decisive of the fate of all the
old-time wooden ships, which had, up to that period, composed the navies
of the world. It so happened, that the Federals had completed the first of
their Monitors, at this very time, and this little iron ship, arriving
opportunely, engaged the _Virginia_ on the second day of the fight. Like
her great antagonist, she, too, was invulnerable, and the result was a
drawn battle. From this time onward, the enemy multiplied his armored
ships very rapidly, and it is scarcely too much to say, that he is almost
wholly indebted to them, for his success in the war.
Another very creditable affair for the Confederates came off on the 15th
of May. In the interval between the fight of the _Virginia_, with the
enemy's fleet in Hampton Roads, and the day last named, Norfolk had been
evacuated, and the _Virginia_, which had passed under the command of
Commodore Tatnall, was blown up. The consequence was that the James River
was open to the navigation of the enemy. Taking advantage of this state of
things, five of the enemy's gunboats, two of which were iron-clad,
ascended the river, with intent to reach, and shell Richmond, if
practicable. They met with no serious obstruction, or any opposition,
until they reached Drury's Bluff. Here the river had been obstructed, and
a Confederate earth-work erected. The earth-work was commanded by Captain
Eben Farrand, of the Confederate States Navy, who had some sailors and
marines under him. The Federal fleet having approached within 600 yards,
opened fire upon the fort, which it kept up for the space of three hours.
It was so roughly handled, however, by Farrand and his sailors, that at
the end of that time, it was obliged to retire, with several of its
vessels seriously damaged. No further attempt was made during the war, to
reach Richmond by means of iron-clads; the dose which Farrand had given
them was quite sufficient.
But the greatest of all the triumphs which crowned the Confederate arms
during this year of 1862, were the celebrated campaigns of Stonewall
Jackson, in the Shenandoah Valley, and the seven days' fighting before
Richmond. I will barely string these events, as I pass along. Banks,
Fremont, and Shields, of the enemy, were all operating in this valley,
with forces greatly outnumbering those of Jackson. The latter, by a series
of rapid and masterly movements, fell upon his enemies, one after the
other, and defeated them all; Banks, in particular, who having been bred
to civil life, was devoid of all military training, and apparently
wanting, even, in that first and most common requisite of a soldier,
courage, flying in disorder, and abandoning to his pursuer all the
supplies and _materiel_ of a large and well-appointed army. Such frantic
efforts did he make to escape from Jackson, that he marched thirty-five
miles in a single day; passing through the good old town of Winchester,
which he had formerly occupied, with so many signs of trepidation and
alarm, that the citizens received him and his troops, with shouts of
derisive laughter!
The enemy, after his defeat at Manassas, put General McClellan in command
of the Army of the Potomac, and the balance of the year 1861 was devoted,
by this officer, to the collecting and drilling of troops. In the spring
of 1862, he landed at Fortress Monroe, with a splendidly appointed army of
90,000 men, provided with 55 batteries of artillery, consisting of 350
field pieces. Magruder held him in check, for some time, with 11,000 men,
which enabled the Confederate commanders to gather together their forces,
for the defence of Richmond. He moved at length, was checked a while at
Williamsburg, by Longstreet, but finally deployed his immense forces on
the banks of the Chickahominy.
A series of battles now took place, commencing on the 30th of May, and
extending through the month of June, which resulted in the raising of the
siege, and the total rout and precipitate retreat of the Federal
commander. I will barely enumerate these battles, as follows: Seven Pines;
Mechanicsville and Beaver Dam; Gaines' Mills; Savage Station; Frazer's
Farm; and Malvern Hill;--names sufficient alone to cover the Confederate
cause with immortal glory, in the minds of all true men, as the highest
qualities of courage, endurance, patriotism, and self-sacrifice, that any
men could be capable of, were exhibited on those fields, destined to
become classic in American annals.
Following up the defeat of McClellan, by Johnston and Lee, Stonewall
Jackson gained his splendid victory of the Second Manassas over Pope;
defeating him with great loss, and driving him before him to the gates of
Washington. Thus, notwithstanding our disasters in the West and South, an
entirely new face had been put upon the war in Virginia. The enemy's
capital, instead of Richmond, was in danger, and McClellan was hastily
withdrawn from Fortress Monroe, for its defence.
We must now pause, for we have brought the thread of the war down to the
commissioning of the _Alabama_, and the reader will see with what
forebodings, as well as hopes, we took the sea, in that ship. The war may
be said now to have been at its height. Both the belligerents were
thoroughly aroused, and a few blows, well struck, on the water, might be
of great assistance. I resolved to attempt to strike these blows.
A few words, now, as to the _status_ of the Confederate States Navy. As
remarked in the opening of these memoirs, the Confederate States had no
navy at the beginning of the war, and the South being almost entirely
agricultural, with few or no ships, and but little external commerce,
except such as was conducted in Northern bottoms, had but very indifferent
means of creating one. Whilst the North was one busy hive of manufacturing
industry, with its ship-yards and work-shops, resounding, by night and by
day, with the busy strokes of the hammer, the adze, and the caulking-iron;
whilst its steam-mills and foundries were vomiting forth their thick smoke
from their furnaces, and deafening the ears of their workmen by the din of
the trip-hammer and the whirr of the lathe; and whilst foreign material of
every description was flowing into open ports, the South had neither
ship-yards nor work-shops, steam-mills nor foundries, except on the most
limited scale, and all her ports were as good as hermetically sealed, so
far as the introduction of the heavy materials of which she stood in need
was concerned.
It will be seen what a difficult task the Secretary of the Navy had before
him, and how unjust are many of the censures that were cast upon him, by
persons unconversant with naval affairs. Indeed, it is rather a matter of
surprise, that so much was accomplished with our limited means.
Work-shops and foundries were improvised, wherever it was possible to
establish them; but the great difficulty was the want of the requisite
heavy machinery. We had not the means, in the entire Confederacy, of
turning out a complete steam-engine, of any size, and many of our naval
disasters are attributable to this deficiency. Well-constructed steamers,
that did credit to the Navy Department and its agents, were forced to put
to sea, and to move about upon our sounds and harbors, with engines
disproportioned to their size, and incapable of driving them at a speed
greater than five miles the hour.
The casting of cannon, and the manufacture of small arms, were also
undertaken by the Secretary, under the direction of skilful officers, and
prosecuted to considerable efficiency. But it took time to accomplish all
these things. Before a ship could be constructed, it was necessary to hunt
up the requisite timber, and transport it considerable distances. Her
armor, if she was to be armored, was to be rolled also at a distance, and
transported over long lines of railroad, piecemeal; her cordage was to be
picked up at one place, and her sails and hammocks at another. I speak
knowingly on this subject, as I had had experience of many of the
difficulties I mention, in fitting out the _Sumter_ in New Orleans. I was
two months in preparing this small ship for sea, practising, all the
while, every possible diligence and contrivance. The Secretary had other
difficulties to contend with. By the time he had gotten many of his
ship-yards well established, and ships well on their way to completion,
the enemy would threaten the _locus in quo_, by land, and either compel
him to attempt to remove everything movable, in great haste, and at great
loss, or destroy it, to prevent it from falling into the hands of the
enemy. Many fine ships were, in this way, burned on the very eve of
completion.
It must be recollected, too, that in the early days of the war, we had no
finances. These were to be improvised along with other things. I travelled
to the North, on the mission which has been described in these pages, on
money borrowed from a private banker. If we had had plenty of funds in the
beginning of the war, it is possible that we might have accomplished more
than we did, in Europe, in the matter of getting out ships to prey upon
the enemy's commerce--that is, in the way of purchase, for it soon became
evident, from the experience we had had, in building the _Alabama_, and
other ships contracted for by the Navy Department, that we could not rely
upon constructing them. The neutral powers became too watchful, and were
too much afraid of the Federal power. When the Government did put the
Secretary in funds, several months had elapsed, the war had begun, the
coast was blockaded, and all the nations of Europe were on the alert.
With reference to the _personnel_ of the Navy, a few words will describe
the changes which had taken place in its organization, since I last
referred to the subject. It will be recollected that it then consisted of
but four captains, four commanders, and about thirty lieutenants, and that
the writer was the junior, but one, of the four commanders. A considerable
accession was made to the navy-list, as Virginia, North Carolina, and
other States seceded, and joined their fortunes with those of their more
impulsive sisters, the Cotton States. A number of old officers, past
service, disdaining to eat the bread of ignoble pensioners upon the bounty
of the Northern States, which were seeking to subjugate the States of
their birth or adoption, came South, bringing with them nothing but their
patriotism and their gray hairs. These all took rank, as has been
remarked, according to the positions they had held in the old service.
These old gentlemen, whilst they would have commanded, with great credit,
fleets and squadrons of well-appointed and well-officered ships, were
entirely unsuited for such service as the Confederacy could offer them. It
became necessary, in consequence, to re-organize the Navy; and although
this was not done until May, 1863, some months after the _Alabama_ was
commissioned, I will anticipate the subject here, to avoid the necessity
of again referring to it. I had been promoted to the rank of captain in
the Regular Navy, in the summer of 1862. The Act of May, 1863, established
what was called the Provisional Navy; the object being, without
interfering with the rank of the officers in the Regular Navy, to cull out
from that navy-list, younger and more active men, and put them in the
Provisional Navy, with increased rank. The Regular Navy became, thus, a
kind of retired list, and the Secretary of the Navy was enabled to
accomplish his object of bringing forward younger officers for active
service, without wounding the feelings of the older officers, by promoting
their juniors over their heads, _on the same list_. As late as December,
1861, we had had no admirals in our Navy. On the 24th of that month, the
Act organizing the Navy was so amended, as to authorize the appointment of
four officers of this grade. There was but one of these admirals
appointed, up to the time of which I am writing--Buchanan, who was
promoted for his gallant fight in the _Virginia_, with the enemy's fleet
in Hampton Roads. Buchanan, being already an admiral in the Regular Navy,
was now transferred to the Provisional Navy, with the same rank; and the
captains' list of this latter Navy was so arranged that Barron stood first
on it, and myself second. I was thus, the third in rank in the Provisional
Navy, soon after I hoisted my pennant on board the _Alabama_. In reviewing
these matters, my only regret now is, that the older officers of whom I
have spoken, and who made so many sacrifices for principle--sacrifices
that have hastened several of them to the tomb, were not made admirals on
the regular or retired list. The honors would have been barren, it is
true, as no commands, commensurate with the rank, could have been given
them, but the bestowal of the simple title would have been a compliment,
no more than due to veterans, who had commanded squadrons in the old
service, and who had abandoned all for the sake of their States. The
reader is now in a condition to accompany me, whilst I describe to him the
commissioning of the _Alabama_.