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[Illustration: JOHN RANDOLPH TUCKER]
LIFE OF REAR ADMIRAL
JOHN RANDOLPH TUCKER
COMMANDER IN THE NAVY OF THE UNITED STATES, CAPTAIN
AND FLAG-OFFICER IN THE NAVY OF THE CONFEDERATE
STATES, REAR ADMIRAL IN THE NAVY
OF THE REPUBLIC OF PERU AND PRESIDENT
OF THE PERUVIAN HYDROGRAPHICAL
COMMISSION OF THE AMAZON
WITH AN APPENDIX
CONTAINING NOTES ON NAVIGATION OF THE UPPER
AMAZON RIVER AND ITS PRINCIPAL
TRIBUTARIES
By CAPTAIN JAMES HENRY ROCHELLE
AND CONTAINING A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE
AUTHOR, AND PORTRAITS OF ADMIRAL
TUCKER AND CAPTAIN ROCHELLE
WASHINGTON
THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY
431 ELEVENTH STREET
MCMIII
COPYRIGHT, 1903,
BY MATTIE R. TYLER.
CONTENTS.
A SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR 9
DEATH OF CAPTAIN ROCHELLE 17
PREFATORY NOTE 18
PART I.
THE TUCKERS--BIRTH OF JOHN RANDOLPH TUCKER. BOYHOOD--APPOINTED A
MIDSHIPMAN IN THE UNITED STATES NAVY--FIRST CRUISE--"THE
ROARING LADS OF THE BRANDYWINE"--PASSES EXAMINATION FOR
PROMOTION--APPOINTED A PAST MIDSHIPMAN--PROMOTED TO THE RANK
OF LIEUTENANT--MARRIAGE--MEXICAN WAR. CAPTURE OF
TOBASCO--COMMANDS UNITED STATES BOMB-BRIG _Stromboli_--MADE
A COMMANDER--COMMANDS UNITED STATES RECEIVING SHIP
_Pennsylvania_--ORDNANCE OFFICER AT THE NORFOLK NAVY
YARD--RESIGNS ON THE SECESSION OF VIRGINIA 19
PART II.
APPOINTED A COMMANDER IN THE VIRGINIA NAVY--IN CHARGE OF THE
DEFENSES OF JAMES RIVER--TRANSFERRED TO THE CONFEDERATE
STATES NAVY--PLACED IN COMMAND OF THE _Patrick
Henry_--FITTING OUT UNDER DIFFICULTIES--FIRST PARTIALLY
ARMORED AMERICAN VESSEL. LIEUTENANT POWELL'S PLAN FOR
ARMORED GUNBOATS--OFFICERS OF THE _Patrick Henry_--GUARDING
JAMES RIVER--SCALING THE GUNS--"NAVAL SKIRMISH"--A FLAG
WHICH WAS NOT PRESENTED--BATTLE OF HAMPTON ROADS. SINKING OF
THE _Cumberland_; AN AMERICAN _Vengeur_--BURNING OF THE
_Congress_--COMBAT BETWEEN THE _Virginia_ AND THE
_Monitor_--FLAG-OFFICER TATNALL TAKES COMMAND OF THE
CONFEDERATE SQUADRON--SALLY INTO HAMPTON ROADS--PLAN FOR
CARRYING THE _Monitor_ BY BOARDING--EVACUATION OF
NORFOLK--TOWING UNFINISHED GUNBOATS TO RICHMOND--FEDERAL
SQUADRON ENTERS JAMES RIVER--CREWS OF THE _Patrick Henry_,
_Jamestown_ AND _Virginia_ MAN THE NAVAL BATTERIES AT
DREWRY'S BLUFF--ACTION AT DREWRY'S BLUFF--THE _Galena_; A
WELL-FOUGHT VESSEL. REPULSE OF THE FEDERAL SQUADRON--TUCKER
ORDERED TO COMMAND THE IRON-CLAD STEAMER _Chicora_ AT
CHARLESTON--SUCCESSFUL ATTACK ON THE BLOCKADING
SQUADRON--TUCKER POSTED AND APPOINTED FLAG-OFFICER OF THE
CHARLESTON SQUADRON--COMMANDING OFFICERS OF THE CHARLESTON
SQUADRON--DUPONT'S ATTACK ON CHARLESTON--CONFEDERATE
TORPEDO-BOATS AT CHARLESTON; DAMAGE DONE BY THEM--CHARLESTON
NAVAL BATTALION SERVING WITH THE ARMY--EVACUATION OF
CHARLESTON--ONE BATTALION OF THE CHARLESTON SQUADRON SERVES
WITH THE ARMY AT WILMINGTON--TUCKER, WITH THE CHARLESTON
SQUADRON BRIGADE, MARCHES THROUGH NORTH CAROLINA AND ARRIVES
AT RICHMOND--TUCKER ORDERED TO COMMAND AT DREWRY'S
BLUFF--CONFEDERACY AT ITS LAST GASP--EVACUATION OF
RICHMOND--TUCKER NOT INFORMED OF THE INTENTION TO EVACUATE
RICHMOND--SUCCEEDS IN JOINING HIS BRIGADE OF SAILORS TO
MAJOR-GEN. CUSTIS LEE'S DIVISION--ACTION AT SAYLOR'S CREEK;
DIDN'T KNOW THEY WERE WHIPPED, THOUGHT THE FIGHT HAD JUST
BEGUN--SURRENDER--PRISONER OF WAR--RELEASED ON
PAROLE--EMPLOYED BY THE SOUTHERN EXPRESS COMPANY 23
PART III.
TUCKER OFFERED THE COMMAND OF THE PERUVIAN FLEET, WITH THE RANK
OF REAR ADMIRAL--ARRIVES IN LIMA--NO PRECEDENT FOR THE
RETURN OF MONEY--COMMISSIONED A REAR ADMIRAL IN THE NAVY OF
PERU--COMMANDS THE ALLIED FLEETS OF PERU AND CHILE--SPANISH
WAR--TUCKER'S PLAN FOR A NAVAL CAMPAIGN; PROJECTED
EXPEDITION AGAINST MANILA--CESSATION OF HOSTILITIES--TUCKER
RETIRES FROM THE COMMAND OF THE FLEET, AND IS APPOINTED
PRESIDENT OF THE PERUVIAN HYDROGRAPHICAL COMMISSION OF THE
AMAZON--CROSSES THE ANDES AND REACHES THE AMAZON--EXPLORES
THE YAVARI RIVER--ORDERED TO THE UNITED STATES TO
SUPERINTEND THE BUILDING OF AN EXPLORING STEAMER--RETURNS TO
THE AMAZON WITH STEAMER _Tambo_. EXPEDITION UP THE UCAYALI
AND EXPLORATION OF THE TAMBO RIVER--ORDERED TO THE UNITED
STATES TO PROCURE A STEAMER OF LIGHT DRAUGHT OF
WATER--RETURNS TO THE AMAZON WITH STEAMER _Mairo_--SECOND
EXPEDITION UP THE UCAYALI--CANOE EXPEDITION UP THE PACHITEA
AND EXPLORATION OF THE PICHIS RIVER--EXPEDITION UP THE
AMAZON AND HUALLAGA RIVERS--ORDERED TO LIMA. ORDERED TO NEW
YORK TO SUPERINTEND THE CHARTS MADE BY THE HYDROGRAPHICAL
COMMISSION--PUBLICATION OF CHARTS ABANDONED ON ACCOUNT OF
THE FINANCIAL CONDITION OF PERU--LETTER FROM PRESIDENT
PARDO--LETTER FROM MINISTER FREYRE--TUCKER RETIRES TO HIS
HOME IN PETERSBURG, VIRGINIA--OCCUPATIONS AND AMUSEMENTS OF
OLD AGE--DEATH--CHARACTER AND QUALITIES--CONCLUSION 55
NAVIGATION OF THE UPPER AMAZON 81
CONCLUSION 112
Life of Rear Admiral John Randolph Tucker
A SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR.
JAMES HENRY ROCHELLE, the author of the following pages, and the
subject of this sketch, was of French-English and Celtic, or
Scotch-Irish, extraction--English through his paternal
great-grandmother, who was the daughter of Hinchia Gilliam, and his
wife (nee) Harrison; Scotch-Irish through his maternal ancestry. The
name itself proclaims its French (Huguenot) origin.
It is well known that when Louis XIV revoked the edict of Nantes many
French Protestants, called Huguenots, fled from their homes to escape
persecutions worse than death. About forty thousand took refuge in
England, and in 1690 William III sent a number of them to America. A
party of them made their way up the James river and made a settlement,
which they called Mannakintown, or "Manacan," because the lands
formerly belonged to the Manacan Indians. Feeling that they no longer
had to defend themselves against oppression and cruelty, and that in a
free country their religion was no stigma, the characteristics of the
race came out. With order and work Manacan became a flourishing town.
Among those who had made a temporary home there was John Rochelle,
who came with the other Huguenot exiles, and, if Pope be right, he
soon enjoyed
"All the joys of sense--
_Health, peace and competence._"
But in a few years the spirit of discord entered among these exiles,
who had found peace, liberty and homes. The three Rochelle brothers
sought other homes; William settled in North Carolina, James went to
South Carolina, and John bought of William and Jonas Longbottom two
hundred and twelve acres of land on the south side of the Nottoway
river in the then parish of Albemarle. Here he lived, and married Mary
Gilliam, daughter of Hinchia Gilliam and his wife (nee) Harrison. They
had issue four sons--John, Levi, Hinchia and Nathaniel. John, the
oldest son, married his cousin, Judith Gilliam, famed for her beauty,
and they became the parents of nine children--Benjamin, John, Willis,
Clements, Elizabeth (who will live in history as the mother of the
famous soldier, George Henry Thomas), James, Lucy, and Mary.
James was born in the year 1786. At an early age he entered the
clerk's office of his county as deputy to the then clerk, Samuel
Kello. In 1815 he was chosen clerk and held the office until his
death.
On the 19th of April, 1817, he married Martha (Hines) Gray, widow of
Dr. Henry Mills Gray. Many children were born unto them, but only
three lived beyond the early years of infancy--John, Martha and James
Henry.
James Henry Rochelle was born at his father's home, near the
Courthouse, on the 1st day of November, 1826. His boyhood was passed
in the refining influence of a Virginia home, of the period when
Virginia was the garden spot of America, when her daughters were the
"mothers of Presidents" and her sons were statesmen, "_Sans peur et
sans reproche_."
On the 9th of September, 1841, he was appointed acting midshipman in
the United States Navy; served six months at sea, and then received
his warrant as midshipman. During the war with Mexico, young Rochelle
served on both the _Falmouth_ and _Decatur_, in the gulf. He was with
Commodore Perry, and participated in all the brilliant exploits of the
naval forces, and remained on the Mexican coast until there was added
to the United States a territory as large as Germany, France and
Spain, all three added together.
In September, 1847, he reported at Annapolis, the Naval School, and
was one of the 245 midshipman belonging to the famous "Classe 41,"
which passed in 1848. He was at once ordered to the frigate
_Constitution_, then in Boston harbor, ready to sail to the blue
waters of the Mediterranean and the sunny coast of Italy. On this
cruise he paid a visit to the beautiful and historical Island of
Malta, and here, in the very cradle of Free Masonry, he became a
member of that ancient institution. He saw three years' sea service
before returning home.
In 1852 the United States Government sent a naval force, under the
command of Perry, to open intercourse with Japan and her then unknown
people. Rochelle received orders to report for duty on the ship
_Southampton_. Perry sailed from Norfolk on the 24th of November,
1852. With great judgment and ability he rendered his mission a
success, and sailed for home from Linada, in Japan, on the 1st of
October, 1854, and after an eventful voyage reached New York in the
spring of 1855.
After a home leave of some months, Rochelle was promoted on the 14th
of September to master, and on the next day was commissioned
lieutenant and assigned to duty on the Coast Survey Squadron. He
assisted in the survey of New York harbor, Casco bay and the Florida
reefs.
His next cruise was in the expedition to Paraguay. Unfortunately, few
of his many letters home were preserved. We give one written in 1859:
U.S. STEAMER _Southern Star_,
MONTEVIDEO, REPUBLIC OF URUGUAY,
March 11, 1859.
_My Dear Mother_:
The steamer _Harriet Lane_, one of the vessels of the Paraguay
expedition, will sail for New York on tomorrow morning, and as
she is very fast I have determined to write by her, although
it will not be long before we follow her to the United States.
We are preparing for sea now and expect to sail on the 17th of
this month for Norfolk, touching at Pernambuco and Barbadoes
for coal. We will be at home, I think, by the 20th of May or
1st of June, though it is possible that we may be detained
longer than I expect on the way.
I sincerely trust that I shall find you all well at home, and
that I will have a long leave to spend with you. I wrote you
in my letter that we had no difficulty in settling our affairs
with Paraguay. Lopez acceded at once to all the demands which
were made upon him, and expressed himself gratified at their
moderation. The health of the squadron is excellent and the
cruise has been a pleasant one. No accident or circumstances
have occurred to mar its efficiency or concord. If another
vessel should leave in time to get home much before we do, I
will write again, but I doubt if such an opportunity will
occur. You must not, of course, write to me again. Give my
best love to Sister, Jimmy, Letitia and Mattie, and my
affectionate regards to Mr. Edwards and Major Shands.
Ever your affectionate son,
J.H. ROCHELLE.
To follow Rochelle through all of his naval life would take more space
than we now have and would be to repeat scenes and events already
dealt with by him in the following pages. When the war came on he was
serving on the sloop-of-war _Cumberland_. Captain Scharf very
correctly says: "It required no sacrifice and entailed no
inconvenience to remain loyal to the Union, but to resign from that
service involved every consideration which might deter a man not
actuated by exalted principles." It was "exalted principles" which
caused Rochelle to resign his commission in the Navy, where he had
served with honor and advancement for twenty years, and to offer his
sword to his native State. From the columns of the Richmond _Dispatch_
we quote:
"All know how hot and furious the war was. The Anglo-Saxon race, the
first and foremost people on earth, are wise in counsel and fierce in
war. Fighting commenced at once. Captain Rochelle was placed under the
command of Captain Tucker, on the James river, on the war steamer
_Patrick Henry_, and with the _Merrimac_ fought the _Monitor_ and
wooden fleet of the North in Hampton Roads, the first naval battle in
which armored ships were used. That engagement covered the new and
little Confederate Navy with glory. When Norfolk was evacuated, and
our little wooden fleet fell back to Richmond after the destruction of
the _Merrimac_, which could not be carried up the James river on
account of its great draught of water, the heavy guns of the _Patrick
Henry_ were carried by Tucker and Rochelle with great difficulty up on
Drewry's Bluff, and aided very much in repulsing the attack of the
_Galena_ and other Northern gunboats, who hoped to carry Richmond by a
_coup de main_. After the evacuation of Norfolk and the peninsula
between the York and James rivers, the siege of Charleston, S.C.,
having commenced, he was sent there and soon after placed in command
of one of the largest iron-clad steamers in the Confederate Navy. Here
he remained during the remainder of the siege and until the advance of
Sherman through South Carolina and in the rear of Charleston forced
the evacuation of that vital point in the Confederacy. His ship, along
with others, was destroyed, and he returned to Richmond with a small
body of seamen, where the Southerners made their last stand around
Richmond and Petersburg _pro ara et pro forcis_. On reaching Richmond
he, along with Captain Parker, distinguished alike in arms and
letters, were placed in command of the Naval Academy and cadets which
the Confederates had established there--an arduous, important and
distinguished position. He remained in that position until the
evacuation of Richmond, when he marched the cadets in a body to
Washington, in Georgia, where they were disbanded after the capture of
President Davis and the dissolution of the Confederacy.
"The war being ended, he returned to his ancestral home in
Southampton. His old comrade-in-arms, Tucker, who had been at one time
Admiral in the Peruvian Navy, and was then about to make a survey of
the upper Amazon river for the Peruvians, sent for him, and he
accepted a position under that Government to make a hydrographic
survey of that vast fluvial system in the mountains of Peru east of
the Andes. He remained in Iquitos three years and then returned home,
where he devoted his time to reading, letters, and the society of his
friends. He was a doughty warrior and soldier, and from the beginning
loved a career of arms. He sorrowed over the rupture of the
Government, but when his State went out he nobly stood by her; went to
the front, and never grounded his arms until there was nothing left
to fight for. He knew to win would bring honor and safety, and failure
would make him a rebel, and while success on the Northern side gave to
many of his old comrades in arms on that side marble and bronze
statues in the new Pantheon at Washington, yet with the courage of his
convictions, in disaster his only regret was that he did not win. Of
such stern stuff are the cavaliers of Virginia made, and such as these
are yet to lift her from the dust and crown their old mother again
with glory."
"DEATH OF CAPT. JAMES H. ROCHELLE.
"COURTLAND, SOUTHAMPTON COUNTY,
"April 3, 1889.
"On the morning of the 31st of March, after an illness of only one
day, this county, and his many friends, met with a heavy loss in the
death of Capt. James Henry Rochelle. This distinguished soldier was a
veteran of two wars. Euripides, I think it was, said no man should be
called fortunate or happy until he had been placed with his good name
by death beyond the reach of accident or change. Then, indeed, is this
noble soldier happy, for he lived without reproach and died without
fear. Another noble son of Virginia has gone down below the horizon of
time, but his name will be held in sweet remembrance by his old
comrades and his memory cherished and honored by his kinsmen."
Life of Rear Admiral John Randolph Tucker
BY JAMES HENRY ROCHELLE.
PREFATORY NOTE.
In writing this biographical sketch I have performed not a task, but a
labor of love, for I was, during many years, both in times of peace
and of war, intimately associated with the distinguished sailor whose
career I have attempted to trace.
The appendix was added in consequence of letters I received asking for
information in regard to the navigation of the upper Amazon river and
its tributaries, a highway for commerce destined to be much better
known in the near future than it is at present.
J.H.R.
COURTLAND, VIRGINIA,
_July 1, 1888._
PART I.
THE TUCKERS--BIRTH OF JOHN RANDOLPH TUCKER.
BOYHOOD--APPOINTED A MIDSHIPMAN IN THE UNITED STATES
NAVY--FIRST CRUISE--"THE ROARING LADS OF THE
BRANDYWINE"--PASSES EXAMINATION FOR PROMOTION--APPOINTED
A PAST MIDSHIPMAN--PROMOTED TO THE RANK OF
LIEUTENANT--MARRIAGE--MEXICAN WAR. CAPTURE OF
TOBASCO--COMMANDS UNITED STATES BOMB-BRIG
_Stromboli_--MADE A COMMANDER--COMMANDS UNITED STATES
RECEIVING SHIP _Pennsylvania_--ORDNANCE OFFICER AT THE
NORFOLK NAVY YARD--RESIGNS ON THE SECESSION OF VIRGINIA
During the first years of the present century John Tucker, of the
Island of Bermuda, came to Virginia, where resided many of his
kinsmen, a branch of the Tucker family having settled in Virginia
prior to the War of the Revolution. The family has produced a number
of gifted men who have been honorably prominent in the political and
social life of the State, but no member of it has been more
distinguished or more esteemed than the subject of the present sketch.
John Randolph Tucker was born on the 31st day of January, 1812, at
Alexandria, near Washington, on the Virginia side of the Potomac
river, in which city his father had made his home and had there
married Miss Susan Douglas, the daughter of Dr. Charles Douglas, an
English physician, who emigrated to America soon after the Revolution.
Young Tucker received his early education in the good private schools
of his native city, which he continued to attend until he entered the
United States Navy as a midshipman on the 1st of June, 1826, being
then in the fifteenth year of his age.
The profession upon which he entered was one for which he was by
nature peculiarly adapted, and to the end of his days he loved the sea
and all that was connected with the life of a sailor. It has been said
of a great admiral that he could perform with his own hands the duties
of every station on board a ship-of-war, from seaman-gunner to
admiral, and the same may be, without exaggeration, said of Tucker.
He was fortunate in beginning his naval career on the Mediterranean
Station, where he made his first cruise in the frigate _Brandywine_.
Before the establishment of the Naval Academy at Annapolis the best
school for training a cadet in the etiquette, spirit and, perhaps,
even in the seamanship of the service, was a smart frigate of the
Mediterranean Squadron. If we may trust the traditions which have been
handed down to us in song and story about "the roaring lads of the
_Brandywine_," the training on board the ship in which Tucker first
served was well calculated to develop all that was dashing and daring
in the young gentlemen of her steerage mess.
After six years' service as a midshipman, Tucker passed the requisite
examination for promotion, but he had to wait for his turn to fill a
vacancy, and, consequently, was not promoted to the rank of lieutenant
until the 20th of December, 1837. As a lieutenant, he made a good deck
officer and a very excellent executive or first-lieutenant. In the
latter capacity he served on board the bomb-brig _Stromboli_, in the
Gulf of Mexico, during the war between Mexico and the United States.
The _Stromboli_ was actively employed, and Tucker participated in the
capture of Tobasco and other naval operations against the enemy.
During the latter part of the war Tucker succeeded to the command of
the _Stromboli_ as Lieutenant-Commanding, retaining the command until
the cessation of hostilities.
His last cruise whilst belonging to the United States Navy was made as
executive officer of the frigate _Cumberland_, the flag-ship of
Flag-Officer Stringham, on the Mediterranean Station, thus ending his
active service in the United States Navy where it began, after an
interval of thirty years.
Soon after his promotion to a lieutenancy Tucker was married, at
Norfolk, Virginia, on the 7th of June, 1838, to Virginia, daughter of
Captain Thomas Tarleton Webb, of the United States Navy. This union
was, uninterruptedly, most happy and harmonious until it was dissolved
by the death of Mrs. Tucker in 1858. She left several children, three
of whom--Randolph Tucker, of Richmond, Virginia; Tarleton Webb Tucker,
of Memphis, Tennessee; and Virginius Tucker, of Norfolk,
Virginia--are now living and prospering.
On September 14th, 1855, Tucker received his commission as a
Commander, and at the same time was ordered to command the
_Pennsylvania_, an old three-decker ship-of-the-line which was in
commission as receiving-ship at Norfolk. His next duty was as Ordnance
Officer of the Norfolk Navy Yard, and it was whilst he was employed on
this duty that the secession of Virginia caused him to forward his
resignation to the Secretary of the Navy.
There is no intention of discussing in this biographical sketch the
questions which were in controversy between the Northern and Southern
States until they were finally settled by the arbitrament of arms; it
is sufficient to say that nothing but the sincerest conviction that
the highest duty required the sacrifice could have induced an officer
in Tucker's position to leave an established and an illustrious navy
to enter the service of a people who had neither ships nor sailors.