HIS PART IN THE CIVIL WAR: IN ENGLAND
Though Maury arrived in Charleston the latter part of September, it was
not until October 12, 1862 that he departed with his twelve year old
son “Brave” on board the steamer _Herald_ to run the Union blockade. An
attempt had been made some three days before and had been unsuccessful,
as the vessel had run into an enemy sloop of war and was forced to
put back within the protection of the forts. The second trial was
successful, but it almost ended in disaster. “We crossed the bar once”,
Maury wrote, “and when we got in about two miles of the enemy the
pilots plumped the ship ashore, where she lay all night. In the morning
they opened on her but she got off without damage”. Maury certainly
could not have looked upon capture with any feelings of pleasure, but
to reassure his wife he wrote, before leaving Charleston, “If we get
caught, I expect soon to be exchanged. The Brave and I will have a
bully time in prison”.
Nothing further of an unusual nature happened on the six hundred miles
voyage to the Bermudas except that Captain Louis M. Coxetter, who had
never before been very far from land, after groping about for the
island had to admit on the sixth day that he was lost.
James Morris Morgan, who as a midshipman accompanied Maury to England,
thus relates how the great scientist extricated the captain from his
difficulty: “He (Coxetter) told Commodore Maury that something terrible
must have happened, as he had sailed his ship directly over the spot
where the Bermuda Islands ought to be! Commodore Maury told him that
he could do nothing for him before ten o’clock that night and advised
him to slow down. At ten o’clock the great scientist and geographer
went on deck and took observations, at times lying flat on his back,
sextant in hand, as he made measurements of the stars. When he had
finished his calculations, he gave the captain a course and told him
that by steering it at a certain speed he would sight the light at Port
Hamilton by two o’clock in the morning. No one turned into his bunk
that night except the Commodore and his little son; the rest of us were
too anxious. Four bells struck and no light was in sight. Five minutes
more passed and still not a sign of it; then grumbling commenced, and
the passengers generally agreed with the man who expressed the opinion
that there was too much d...d science on board and that we should all
be on our way to Fort Lafayette in New York Harbor as soon as day
broke. At ten minutes past two the masthead lookout sang out, ‘Light
ho!’—and the learned old Commodore’s reputation as a navigator was
saved”.[16]
Fortunately Commodore Wilkes’s squadron, which had been hovering
about the islands and overhauling all the ships that passed, had just
departed and the _Herald_ made her way unmolested into the harbor. Here
Maury remained for more than two weeks, waiting for the Royal Mail
Steamer _Delta_ from St. Thomas. During this time he was received as
a private citizen and world-renowned scientist by the governor of the
islands, and was called upon by the commandant of Fort St. George and
honored with a dinner on board H. M. S. _Immortality_ then stationed at
Port Hamilton.
When the English ship sailed, she was followed to sea by the U. S.
Sloops of War _San Jacinto_ and _Mohican_ in a threatening manner as
though about to repeat the “Trent Affair” and take Maury from the
vessel; but nothing of the sort materialized. At Halifax, where Maury
arrived November 9, he received the most distinguished consideration
from the general commanding the troops, the admiral of the fleet, and
the governor of Nova Scotia. The Confederate flag was flown from the
top of the hotel in his honor, and the hand-organs ground “Dixie” under
his window all day.
Here Maury’s party took passage, on November 13, on the Cunard Steamer
_Arabia_, a paddlewheel full-rigged ship plying between Liverpool and
Boston. The ship tumbled about considerably during a great part of the
voyage, and Maury was “as seasick and amiable as usual”. The voyage was
uneventful, and Liverpool was reached in safety.
On arrival, Maury conferred with Captain James T. Bulloch, C. S. Navy,
who had an office with Fraser, Trenholm, and Company, the financial
agents of the Confederate government, at No. 10 Rumford Place. After a
short stay in Liverpool, he went on to London to a house in Sackville
Street which had already been engaged for him, where, according to
Morgan, “All day long there would be in front of the house a string
of carriages with coronets on their doors, while their owners were
paying their respects to the great ‘Lieutenant Maury’”. Early in 1863,
Maury established himself at Bowdon, a village about nine miles from
Manchester, so that he could be near his son whom he had placed there
in the Rose Hill School.
[Illustration:
_From James Morris Morgan’s “Recollections of a Rebel Reefer.”_
C. S. CRUISER “GEORGIA”
Fitted out for the Confederate States by Maury in England]
At the time of Maury’s arrival in England, there were, it appears,
eight officers of the Confederate Navy in Europe, who were engaged
in the task of securing by whatever means possible the much needed
ships for the Confederacy. Captain Samuel Barron, who had been sent
over to command the ironclad rams at that time being built by Lairds
at Liverpool, was the flag-officer and in actual command, though the
duties and responsibilities of the various officers were not very
clearly defined and often overlapped.
Maury’s first accomplishment was the purchase, in March, 1863, of a new
iron screw-steamer of about 560 tons, which had just been completed
at Dumbarton on the Clyde. She was fitted out as a merchant steamer
under the name of the _Japan_, and on April 1, set sail, pretending to
be bound for the East Indies. At about the same time a small steamer,
the _Alar_, cleared from New Haven for St. Malo with Commander William
Lewis Maury and a staff of officers together with guns, ammunition, and
other supplies. The two ships met off Ushant, where the war material
was placed on board the larger vessel. Commander Maury, a cousin to M.
F. Maury, then commissioned her a Confederate man-of-war with the name
_Georgia_.
The ship at once began a cruise which lasted seven months and resulted
in the capture of eight or nine vessels, amounting to a loss of
$406,000. After cruising over the South Atlantic and calling at Bahia,
Brazil, where she fell in with the _Alabama_, and at Capetown, she made
her way in safety to Cherbourg, France, where she arrived during the
night of October 28–29. Here Commander Maury was detached because of
ill health, and the ship was refitted. But she was fated not to go out
on another cruise. The vessel was not adapted to the service for which
she was required; her coal capacity was limited and the consumption of
fuel on her was made very large because she lacked great sail-power
and always had to chase under steam. She did, however, slip out past
the Union ships on guard, and made her way to the Mediterranean to a
rendezvous with the C. S. S. _Rappahannock_ on the coast of Morocco.
Here her battery, ammunition, and a part of her crew were to be
transferred to the other vessel, and she was then to be sold. But
the French kept such a close watch on the _Rappahannock_ that she
was not able to leave the harbor of Calais, and the _Georgia_ was at
last forced to turn about and make her way to Bordeaux. She was then
ordered to Liverpool, where on the 10th of May, 1864, she was put out
of commission and sold to an Englishman by the name of Edward Bates
for about 15,000 pounds. She was then captured in August of that year
by Captain T. T. Craven of the U. S. S. _Niagara_, and sent to Boston,
where she was condemned; and afterwards the owner’s claim for damages
was disallowed by the Mixed Commission at Washington.
Maury was instructed by the Secretary of the Navy, on June 8, 1863, to
purchase another ship. This order, however, did not reach him until
two months afterwards, and he was not able to carry it out until the
month of November, when he secured a condemned dispatch boat belonging
to the Royal Navy. This was the _Victor_, a screw-steamer of about 500
tons which had been offered for sale at Sheerness. For fear of being
stopped, Maury hurried her to sea on the wintry night of November 24,
with workmen still on board and with only a few of her intended crew.
Her officers joined her in the Channel, where she was commissioned
the _Rappahannock_. Two days later she entered the harbor of Calais
under the guise of a Confederate ship in distress. Here the French
threw such restrictions about her as to prevent her from even making
an attempt to leave port. Some endeavors were made to sell the vessel,
but the war came to an end before this could be accomplished and the
ship was eventually turned over to the United States. Her commanding
officer had considered her a poor ship for commerce destroying, because
her machinery took up too much space and her magazine was so large as
to leave but little room for crew and provisions. The ship was often
referred to as “The Confederate White Elephant”, but she did serve the
very useful purpose of keeping two United States war vessels constantly
off Calais to prevent her from going to sea.
Maury and the other Confederate agents had great obstacles to meet
in securing ships, and probably did as well as possible under the
circumstances. Federal agents were constantly on the watch to see that
French and British neutrality was strictly observed, and besides Maury
and his associates were greatly handicapped by the lack of money for
the purchase of vessels and the insufficiency of both officers and
their crews. “If I had had money and officers”, wrote Maury, “I could
since I have been here have fitted out half a dozen just as good to
prey upon the Yankee commerce as the _Alabama_”.
Maury also had a hand in the attempt to have two ironclad rams
constructed in a French port for the Confederate government, one of
which he hoped to have the privilege of commanding. The specifications
for such vessels were these: ability to cross the Atlantic, hulls of
wood and iron with two armored turrets, engines of 300 horsepower which
would give great momentum and a speed of fifteen or sixteen knots, two
twin screw propellers, and a draft of fifteen feet. His general plan
and the cost of construction were approved by Secretary Mallory, and
on July 16, 1863 the contract was signed between Bulloch and L. Arman,
a naval constructor at Bordeaux, for the building of the two steam
rams. But these ships of war were destined never to be finished for
the Confederacy, for the turn of events in America and the attitude
of Great Britain caused the Emperor Napoleon to shift his position
diplomatically and maintain a strict neutrality, though at one time,
according to Maury’s diary, the Emperor had written to Arman for a
description of the guns with which the rams were to be armed in order
that the French government might superintend their fabrication, and
test them to see if they were properly constructed.
Maury was engaged in other activities in England and on the Continent
which were altogether political in their nature. He had a European
reputation for his literary and scientific attainments, and was
peculiarly well qualified to bring the Southern version of the causes,
progress, and probable outcome of the war before an influential class
of people. Upon his arrival in England he began at once to exert this
influence, both privately and publicly. As an example of the latter
form of propaganda was a letter which he addressed to the editor of
the London _Times_. This appeared in that newspaper on December 22,
1862, and set forth a sanguine account of conditions in the South as
he had recently seen them, and sought to impress upon the British the
hopefulness of the Southern cause.
On October 7 of that year, Gladstone, the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
had said at a banquet at Newcastle, “There is no doubt that Jefferson
Davis and other leaders of the South have made an army; they are
making, it appears, a navy; and they have made, what is more than
either—they have made a nation”. The speech caused a sensation, and
was received with cheers. “We may anticipate”, he also declared, “with
certainty the success of the Southern States so far as their separation
from the North is concerned”.[17] Maury had reason, therefore, for
being at first very hopeful of European recognition and intervention,
and was not merely drawing on his imagination when he wrote, “The
Emperor may, and I hope will, decide on recognition and there are hopes
here that when Parliament meets, February 5, the British government may
find itself compelled to do something”.
In a short time, however, his eyes began to be opened, and he saw
that, though great admiration was expressed for the bravery of the
soldiers and the heroism of the women of the South, such sympathy was
more apparent than real and was confined mostly to the upper classes.
He began to realize that, since 1850, a million and a half had gone
from the English middle class and settled in the North, and that their
relatives and friends at home naturally sympathized with that section
in the war.
Toward the close of the year 1863, Maury drew up a “Recast of
Resolutions, etc.” for a Southern sympathizer, the Reverend Dr.
Tremlett, of London, and for his 2000 parishioners, the purpose of
which was the organization of a society to encourage remonstrance
against the war. This developed into the “Society for Obtaining the
Cessation of Hostilities in America”, which was very active during the
year 1864. It had its headquarters at 215 Regent Street, London, and
numbered among its officers and members many very influential persons.
Leaflets and pamphlets were drawn up and distributed, which called upon
the participants to bring the strife and bloodshed, the misery and
suffering to a close. Many of these petitions were read in the churches
of both Ireland and England, and signatures representing several
millions of British people were secured. By that time, however, the war
had advanced to that stage in which no such petitions could affect the
North and only the complete collapse of the Confederacy would bring the
struggle to an end.
In addition to this work as a propagandist which was carried on more
or less in the open, Maury was also concerned in political intrigues
with the Emperor Napoleon and Maximilian of Austria. These matters
were veiled in secrecy, of course; and it is difficult to determine,
at this late day, the exact extent of Maury’s operations. But there
is evidence that it was very considerable. Napoleon had succeeded in
conquering Mexico, and the crown had been offered to the Archduke
Maximilian of Austria. Maury, who in the old days in Washington had had
correspondence with this Austrian prince, thought the time opportune
to write to him concerning a scheme which he thought might be greatly
to the advantage of both Mexico and the Confederacy. The plan was the
offer of assistance in the separation of California from the Union
and its restoration to Mexico. Maury hoped that, in this way, foreign
complications would arise, which would result in European intervention
that would bring the war to a close.
At first, the scheme was received with great favor by Maximilian.
Meanwhile, Napoleon changed his mind concerning any plan he may have
once had for the recognition of the Confederacy and intervention in
her behalf, probably because of England’s repeated refusals to join
with him in any such action. As Bulloch says, “The invitation to build
ships in France was given during the period of successful resistance
at the South, and of apparent doubt and trepidation at the North. It
was withdrawn when force of numbers and immeasurable superiority in
war material began to prevail, and when aid and encouragement was most
needed by the weaker side. It suited the Imperial policy, and appeared
to be consistent with the designs upon Mexico, to extend a clandestine
support to the South when the Confederate armies were still strong and
exultant”.[18] Accordingly, when Maximilian visited the Emperor in
Paris to consult in regard to his acceptance of the Mexican throne,
he was persuaded by Napoleon to give up his plan of recognizing the
Confederacy and entering into intimate relations with that government;
and he did not receive Slidell, the Confederate representative, in
Paris, as he had fully expected to do. Nothing further came of Maury’s
plan. Maximilian was proclaimed Emperor of Mexico by a deputation from
that country at the Archduke’s palace at Mirarmar on the Adriatic, on
April 10, 1864; and on the 15th of that month he embarked for Vera
Cruz, without making any further advances toward the Confederacy.
So much, then, for Maury’s endeavors to secure ships of war for the
Confederacy, his work as a propagandist, and his political intrigues.
But a fourth activity of his remains to be considered. This had to do
with experiments with electric mines,—a continuation of that pioneer
work in this field which he had commenced in Richmond early in the
war. It has often been stated that this was the primary object of his
mission to England; but certainly neither his correspondence nor his
diary, which was begun at Bowdon on April 27, 1863, not very long after
his arrival abroad, bear out this impression. The fact is, that not
until after the comparative failure of his other plans and projects did
Maury devote much time and attention to these experiments. Then from
July, 1864 up to the time of his departure from England the following
spring, everything indicates that his mind was absorbed with the
electric mine.
It was not the fault of Maury, however, that this weapon was not more
quickly developed, and used more effectively in the war. “I saw”, he
bitterly complained in one of his letters, “that he did spring at
least one mine on Farragut’s ships (in the Battle of Mobile Bay). It
is so strange to me that sensible men will require to see ship after
ship blown up before they will have faith in submarine mining. Don’t
you remember some drawings that cousin John was making for me in the
fall or winter of 1861? That was a plan for mining our channel ways,
and our authorities have not yet faith in it to make of it a regular
organized system of defense”. Even as late as November, 1864 he wrote
in his diary: “The question may be asked why I do not hasten home with
this information and knowledge? Who—for Davis and Mallory are bitter
enemies—will believe my report? The importance of a navy and the value
of submarine mining were urged upon them by me from the beginning.
Moreover, I have written both the Secretary of War and the Secretary
of the Navy urging these things, and here I am ordered to lie. Another
thing, since the whole field is so new I can be of more service here
in traversing and exhausting it with experiments where mechanical
facilities and appliances are so abundant. I report results as fast
as I obtain them and in a manner, as to circumstances and details, so
minute that they may be brought into play as well as though I were
there. Finally, I think it best since so it must be”.
The results of Maury’s experiments in the electric mine while in
England are embodied in the following agreement, made April 11, 1865
with an English electrical engineer as agent: “My dear Sir,—My own
experiments show that the electrical torpedo or mine has not hitherto
been properly appreciated as a means of defense in war. It is as
effective for the defense as ironclads and rifled guns are for the
attack. Indeed, such is the progress made in what may be called the new
department of military engineering that I feel justified in the opinion
that hereafter in all plans for coast, harbor, and river defenses and
in all works for the protection of cities and places whether against
the attack by armies on land or ships afloat, the electrical torpedo
is to play an important part. It will not only modify and strengthen
existing plans but greatly reduce the expense of future systems.
These experiments have resulted in some important improvements and
contrivances, not to say inventions and discoveries, which have been
fully made known to you verbally. The communication was confidential
and for the purpose of making you a party interested in bringing the
subject into proper notice. It was also verbally agreed that you should
undertake to negotiate with certain powers for the adoption of this new
system of defense as improved by me and grants made therefor should be
shared between us, I receiving one half of the full amount so granted
without charge or deduction of any sort.
“The only restrictions placed upon you in this matter are: 1. The
enemies of my country are not for any consideration whatever to have
the benefits of these improvements. On the contrary, on making them
known to others, you are to make them known in confidence and with
a clause in the agreement especially providing against publicity
and stipulating that the plan shall not be made known to any Yankee
or his government. 2. I had already offered to H. I. H. Grand Duke
Constantine, as a token of acknowledgment for his great kindness and
friendly consideration shown me and mine, when this war broke out, to
place all these my discoveries and improvements at his feet and for
the use of his government. I have referred him to you as my confidant
and friend who is fully prepared to carry out my plans in all their
details, or who will explain them in confidence to any person he may
appoint. You are to make no charge, therefore, for imparting this
information, at his request, and should he or his government think
proper to offer me an honorarium, it is not to be shared by you. 3.
My friend, Captain M. Jansen of the Dutch Navy who resides at Delft,
has assisted me in a part of these experiments. We are as brothers.
All that I have done is known to him and he has the authority to use
the information acquired for his own government, provided he may be
personally benefited thereby. The restriction here is, that should you
deem it worth while to bring the subject before the Dutch government
you will first confer with Captain Jansen and shape your course
accordingly. Should you effect a negotiation there, please turn over to
him my share of the Dutch grant. 4. I restrict you also as to Mexico.
Leave that to me. Should, however, any negotiation be entered into with
that government, I shall refer the authorities to you for the articles
such as wire, etc. required.
“Such in substance is our verbal understanding. But as I am about to
leave England, it becomes proper, for more reasons than one, that we
should make a memorandum of agreement in writing, to the end of making
it good in law and binding also upon our heirs and assigns. With this
view, this writing is drawn and the following statement is added.
The points upon which this system hangs and which give special value
to the information imparted to you concerning it are mainly these:
1. A plan for determining by cross bearings when the enemy is in the
torpedo field of destruction and for ‘making connections’ among the
torpedo wires in a certain way and by which the concurrence of each
of two operators becomes necessary for the explosion of any one or
more torpedoes. This plan requires each operator to be so placed or
stationed that a line drawn straight from them to the place of the
torpedoes may intersect as nearly as practicable at right angles. And
it requires the connection to be such that each operator may put his
station in or out of circuit at will. When the torpedoes are laid, a
range for each station is established for every torpedo or group of
torpedoes. When either operator observes an enemy in range with any
torpedo, he closes his circuit for that torpedo. If the enemy before
getting out of this range should enter the range for any torpedo
from the other station, the operator there closes his circuit and
discharges the igniting spark. Consequently, if the ranges belong to
the same torpedo, its explosion takes place. But if not, there will be
no explosion. Hence, here is an artifice by which explosion becomes
impossible when the enemy is not in the field of destruction and sure
when she is. 2. The Electrical Gauge, a contrivance of my own which you
perfectly understand and some of which you have already made; by means
of it one of the tests which the igniting fuse has to undergo before
it is accepted is applied. By means of it, the operators can telegraph
through the fuse to each other without risk to the torpedoes and by
which the torpedoes may without detriment to their explosibility be
tested daily or as often as required. And thus the operators can at all
times make sure that all is right. 3. A plan for planting torpedoes
where the water is too deep for them to lie on the bottom and explode
with effect, by which they will not interfere with the navigation
of the channels and by which, when the enemy makes his appearance,
they may by the touch of a key be brought instantly into the required
position at the required depth. These contrivances are very simple.
They are readily understood from verbal description. They require
neither models nor drawings for illustration. You understand them all.
They are of little or no value except to governments and, as against
these letters of patent are of no use, I have not deemed letters patent
desirable. I have every confidence in you and therefore intrust the
whole secret to your keeping and discretion. Having thus placed myself
in your hands, let us make this agreement binding also upon our heirs
and assigns, and to this end I propose that the necessary steps be at
once taken. Yours truly, M. F. Maury, Confederate Navy. To Nath. J.
Holmes, Esq.”
Maury had at this time fully decided to return to the Confederate
States in the spring, and was then arranging his affairs in England
with that end in view. He hoped to arrive there early enough to make
use of his electric mines in the land warfare of the spring campaign.
He had recently undergone a surgical operation, and his friends in
England were very much opposed to his going home, some of them being
of the opinion that by the time he arrived Richmond would have been
abandoned and he would have no home to go to. But he conceived it to be
his duty to return, as he might be of greater service there than he was
abroad.
Before the date he had set for sailing, May 2, Lee had surrendered
at Appomattox and Lincoln had been assassinated; still Maury did not
change his plans, but sailed on the Royal Mail Steamer _Atrato_ with a
quantity of insulated wire, copper tanks, magnetic exploders, etc. for
Havana with the hope of being able to keep open Galveston or some other
port on the coast of Texas.
He had worried a great deal about the members of his family who were in
the Confederate service. “My dreams”, he wrote in January, 1863, “are
nightly of death and mutilation of children and friends”. Just four
days after this date his son John, who was at Vicksburg on the staff of
General Dabney H. Maury, disappeared while reconnoitering the enemy
alone, and was never heard of again.[19] News of this unfortunate event
did not reach the father until April 8, 1863, and soon afterwards he
wrote as follows on the evils of war: “War is a great scourge, and this
has touched you and me and many a good fellow with a heavy hand. As I
look out upon the landscape that lies before my window, and see the
men and women working in the fields, and the fields smiling to man’s
husbandry, when I see no marks of the spoiler, and recognize that each
one is safe in his person and secure in his possessions, then it is
I see peace, and think of my poor country with a sigh, and, oh, with
what reflections. ‘Thoughts on thoughts a countless throng’, bless
your hearts—you and John—for comforting, with so much solicitude and
affection, my poor dear wife in her affliction! Good brothers are you
both. How lovely and beautiful are the memories of my Johnny! I wonder
if all parents think of their dead as I do of mine. Bless that sleeping
boy! Never did he, in his whole life, do one single act that either
displeased or grieved me or his mother. ‘He never offended’. What an
epitaph; and how proudly I write it! But where is the end of this war
to find us—where you and yours, me and mine, and where so many that
are dear and near to us? Our charming circle of relations is, I fear,
broken up, never, never to be restored on this side of the grave”.
His family had been made refugees three different times, and Maury had
been much concerned over their needs and probable sufferings. He wrote
in the summer of 1864 to Dr. Tremlett from the Duke of Buckingham’s
palace at Stow, “I had a letter to-day of May 7th from my daughter
Nannie, and she says, ‘Flour has gone to $100 per barrel—too high for
us—but meal is cheaper, thank God!’... ‘We had for dinner to-day soup
made out of nothing, and afterwards a shin. ’Twas good, I tell you; we
all dote on shins’. And again, from my little Lucy, ‘Ham and mashed
potatoes to-day for dinner; and, as it was my birthday (9th May), Mamma
said I might eat as much as I wanted’. Here, you see, there is no
complaining, but only a gentle lifting of the curtain, which in their
devotion and solicitude they have kept so closely drawn before me. With
this pitiful picture in my mind’s eye, I felt as if I must choke with
the sumptuous viands set before me on the Duke’s table. Alas, my little
innocents!”
So it was with a heavy heart and the future all dark that he and his
young son set sail, after an absence of more than two years, for
home,—the home which Maury himself was not to see until several more
years of exile had been spent in foreign lands.