^^ .•^' .s^^' -^ -'>_ V ,0 o^ .^:^ ^^ ..^" x'^' -^> xV 'r- x^-^ o> -'^A J. THOMAS SCHARF. HISTORY OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY FROM ITS ORGANIZATION TO THE SURRENDER OF ITS LAST VESSEL. ITS STUPENDOUS STRUGGLE WITH THE GREAT NAVY OF THE UNITED STATES ; THE ENGAGEMENTS FOUGHT IN THE RIVERS AND HARBORS OP THE SOUTH, AND UPON THE HIGH SEAS; BLOCKADE - RUNNING, FIRST USE OF IRON-CLADS AND TORPEDOES, AND PRIVATEER HISTORY. BY j?'thomas scharf, a. m., ll.d. AN OFFICER OF THE LATE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVV, Uil/iorof "Chionicles of Baltimore," '^Hislorv of Maryland," "History of Baltiinoif," "History of SI. Louis," " History of Western Maryland," " History of Philadelphia," "History of Westchester County, N. Y.," etc. Also, Member of Historical Societies of Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Wis- consin, Minnesota, Philosophical Society of Ohio, etc., etc. PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED. >7EW YORK: \.«\ R0GE;RS & SHERWOOD 1887. >y'M.B:i- San Francisco, Cal.: A. L. Bancroft &■ Co. Washington, I). C: C. D. AldersoK. Hartford, Conn.: Ch.arles P. Hatch. Burlington, Iowa: I. K. Skgnkr. New Orleans: Armaxd Hawkins. Mobile, Ala.: \Vm. E. Micki.e. Copyright, 1886. By J. Thomas Schaef, A. M., LL.D. All Rights Reserved. S i THE OFFICERS OF THE NAVY OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES, ■WHO, IMPELLED BY CONVICTIONS OF DUTY, RESIGNED THEIR COMMISSIONS IN THE NAVY OF THE UNITED STATES, AND SACRIFICING AMBITION, PROMOTION AND THE COMFORTS OF AN HONORABLE SERVICE. OBEYED THE ORDINANCES OF THE STATES OF WHICH THEY WERE CITIZENS, AND WERE COMMISSIONED IN THE NAVY AND ARMY OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES ; AND TO THEIE COMRADES, WHO FROM CIVIL LIFE BECAME OFFICERS IN THAT SERVICE; AS WELL AS TO THE BRAVE SAILORS WHO SHARED THE PERILS AND PRIVATIONS OF THAT NAVY, THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED, AS THE author's TRIBUTE TO CONSCIENTIOUS DUTY_^ELL PERFORMED, TO UNSURPASSED COURAGE BRILLIANTLY DISPLAYED; TO PRIVATIONS UNCOMPLAININGLY BORNE, AND TO THEIR SPLENDID EX- AMPLE OF CITIZENSHIP IN POVERTY SINCE THE TERMINATION OF THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES. WHILE IT CAN ADD NOTHING TO THEIR HONORABLE RECORD, IT WILL PRESERVE THE STORY OF A SERVICE WHICH IS SURPASSED BY THAT OF NO OTHER PEOPLE IN HONORA- BLE ACTION, AND IN GLORIOUS ACHIEVEMENTS. WHICH INADEQUATE MEANS RENDERED FRDITLSSS, BUT WHICH DEFEAT CANNOT OBLITERATE. \ PREFACE. IT is no exaggeration of the services rendered in the late war by the navy of the United States, to say that without its aid the armies of the Union would not have been successful; that if the United States had been as destitute of a navy and of naval resources as the Southern Confederacy was, that the Union would have been dissolved; that without Farragut and Foote, Grant and Sherman would occupy in history the same plane with McDowell and Banks, Burnside and Hooker; that when the navy was not co-operating McDowell was hurled back on Washington: McClellan was driven from Richmond to seek protection under the guns of the navy on James River; that Pope was bounced from Cedar Mountain and, ricochetting at Manassas, rested like a spent ball under the defences of the capital; that in the West the "tin-clad" navy conveyed the army to Fort Henry, and was its effective left wing at Donel- son; that the Mississippi River from Cairo to its mouth was firmly held by the Confederates until Foote from the North and Farragut from the South broke its barriers and opened its navigation: that Vicksburg and Port Hudson successfully de- fied and defeated the land forces, and surrendered as much to the navy as to the army; that Sherman would never have un- dertaken the '• march to the sea " if the navy had not provided protection on the seaboard; that Grant, in the Wilderness, di- verted by Lee from his direct march on Richmond, sought the friendly help of the navy in his campaign to capture the Con- federate capital; that the blockade from the Chesapeake Bay to the mouth of the Rio Grande shut the Confederacy out from the world, deprived it of supplies, weakened its military and naval strength, and compelled exhaustion, by requiring the W VI PREFACE. consumption of everything grown or raised in the country; that there was not an act in either army that surpassed in magnificent courage the bold defiance by Lieut. Morris, of the U. S. Navy, of death alike from shot and drowning, on the deck of the sinking Cuinberlaiid. rather than surrender the ship. And it was in the school of that navy that Buchanan, Tat- nall, Ingraham, Mitchell, Semmes. Wood, Rollins, Tucker, Jones, Maffitt, Maury, Wilkinson, Davidson, Pegram, Brown, Bulloch. Brooke, and their associates, learned examples of heroic seamanship which enabled them to write the story of the Confederate Navy in high relief across the page of his- tory. That story it is the province of this book to tell, but the difficulties and embarrassments which have surrounded the subject can be known only to the author. Of official records there are very few of any kind in existence, and not a com- plete set for any department, or of the operations at any port, or of any vessel, except that preserved b}" Admiral Semmes of the Alabama. To meet that difficulty the author was com- pelled to rely mainly on the aid and assistance of Confederate naval officers. But while willing and anxious to aid in every way, these officers possessed but very few records and M-ere unwilling to rely merely on their memory. However, in reply to letters sent out by the autlior, much reliable information was obtained and valuable suggestions made, which when followed up led to the solving of many difficulties and the clearing away of much doubt and uncertainty. The "Official Records," now being published by the United States Govern- ment, have in the published volumes but very little that refers to naval affairs. Thus, the author has been compelled to rely upon his own unequaled collection of naval material, which he has been fifteen years in collecting, on contemporary ac- counts of operations, collected and preserved in newspapers, private letters, and individual papers, which compared with Federal authorities and such official Confederate records as escaped destruction, were again in many chapters referred to those officers now living who participated in the scenes and actions described for their supervision and correction. The author's object was the truth, the whole truth as far as practicable, and nothing but the truth, in all he wrote. Many worthy and deserving officers, who fully and faithfully performed their arduous duties, have not received mention in the book, solely because the author had not the record which would enable him to relate the service rendered; while there is abundant authority to establish the truth of all that is told in the book, much valuable service has been lost to history by the destruction of records It is to be hoped that the book will serve to excite surviv- ing officers, and the representatives of those deceased, to search for and recover lost manuscripts, so that future edi- PREFACE. vii tions may add to this labor of love, the record of services omitted in this. Notwithstanding the difficulties which beset the author, many facts have been brought to light, doubtful statements settled, errors corrected, and character rescued from misrep- resentation and falsehood. Histories of the U. S. Navy writ- ten during the war, or immediately after its close, have under- taken to give accounts and details of Confederate action and motive, without the facts, and without knowledge of the cir- cumstances of the Confederate side of the question, or of the particular action described. Errors, not necessarily inten- tional, but unavoidable, have thus been introduced into his- tory, which the author of this M^ork has endeavored to correct and explain. While vindicating the political views of Confed- erate officers, no criticism has been found necessary of those whose convictions of dutv impelled them to take tlie ''other side." If, therefore, in this effort to relate the deeds of daring, the instances and examples where ingenuity, enterprise and device rose above the embarrassments of restricted and lim- ited resources, we have exhibited a partiality or seemed to detract from the glory of the parent navy, it must be attrib- uted to sympathy with a common suffering, ratlier than a purpose to lesson that renown in which every American must now participate. Time has deprived prejudice of its rancor, politics of its bitterness, and, without changing convictions of duty, has united both sections of the Union under the govern- ment instituted by our fathers, and under its influence each party to the war can now read with profit the deeds of those who " Gashed with honorable scars, Low in glory's lap thev lie, Though they fell they fell like stars, Streaming sj^lendor through the sky." That navy at all times carries in pride, and we hope will always bear in triumph, that flag which now belongs alike to North and South. If we tell how the stars and bars wrested victor}- from the stars and stripes, we shall only exhibit the heroism of Americans, and make plain a glory that belongs to all the citizens of the Great Republic. The author heartily acknowledges the intelligent aid and generous encouragement which he has received from his pub- lishers ; and he also acknowledges his indebtedness to the pub- lishers of Admiral Porter's '• Naval History of the Civil War," for the loan of maps and illustrations. Baltimore, May 1st, 1887. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Alabama, Cbuiser 800 Albemable, Ram, Diagbam 403 Atlanta, Cedisee 641 - Be all. Lloyd J 769 ' Attack on Foets Jackson and St. Philip. . 290 Bbooke, John M 49 Browne, Isaac N 312 B0CHANAN, FrANKUN 152 -Bulloch, J. D 56 Cairo, U.S. Ieon-Clad 752 ' ' Chatakd, Fredeeick 104 Cooke, James W 408 ^ Davis, Jefferson 11 Florida, Cruiser 792 - Forrest, French 40 Fort Hindm an. Plan of 318 Fort Morgan 685 Fey, James 344 Governor Moore, Steamer 285 Harriet Lane, Steamer 608 Harbikt Lane, Capture of 605 HoLLiNS, George N , 243 Howell, Jefferson Davis 780 HuGER, Thomas B 288 Indianola, Iron-Clad 362 IjiGRAHAM, D.N 680 Jones, Cap R 184 Lee, B. E., Blockade Bunneb 468 Lee, Sidney Smith 712 Louisl\na, Ram 266 Maffitt, John T 392 Malloey, Stephen R 27 Manassas, K.\M 264 Manassas, in flames 296 Maurt, Matthew F 96 MclNTOSH.C.F 280 Merrimac (See Virginia) page Mississippi, below New Orleans 290 - Mitchell, John K 297 Mobile Bat, Diagram 552 Monitor. Profile 172 -Morris, C.M 88 Mound Battery 424 Nashville, sinking U. S. Vessel 633 Page, Richard L 553 Parker, William H 176 Patrick Henry, School Ship 776 Pensacola Navy- Yard, Destruction of. . . . 615 Queen of the West, Bam 352 " Roanoke Island, Plan 388 RocHELLE, John H 704 Savannah, Defences of 635 ^ ScHARF, J. Thomas Frontispiece Semmes, Raphael 744 Shenandoah, Cruiser 809 Smith's Island, Diagram 423 Stonewall, Ram 784 Sumter, Cruiser 787 ' Tathall, Josiah 216 Tennessee, Profile 653 Tennessee, Diagram 555 Tennessee, after captuee 574 Torpedoes 751-764 Torpedo Boats 759 Tucker, John R 200 Turret Ship.. 788 Virginia, IN dock 154 Virginia, Profile 172 Virginia, Sinking Cumberland 160 Virginia and Monitor in Battle — 168 Waddell.I.T... 816 Whittle, William C 300 Wilkinson, John 464 -Wood, John Taylok 121 CONTENTS CHAPTER I. PAGE. 27 53 94 Introduction, . . • • • • • • ^^ CHAPTER II. . Want of Preparation for War, . . . . .15 CHAPTER III. Organization of the Navy, . . , . CHAPTER IV. Privateers, or Letters of Marque, CHAPTER V. Virginia Waters, ... ... CHAPTER VI. Captures in Virginia Waters, ... .111 CHAPTER VII. Hampton Roads, . . . . . • ■ -128 CHAPTER VIII. The First Iron-clad, . . . . • - • l^^^ CHAPTER IX. The JN^AVAL Battle in Hampton Roads, . . . -157 CHAPTER X. The Virginia (Merrimac) and Monitor, . . . -167 CHAPTER XI. The Mississippi River from Cairo to V^icksburg, . • 239 CHAPTER XII. Building a Navy at New Orleans, 263 X CONTENTS. CHAPTER XIII. PAUE. Mississippi River from the (julf to Vicksburg, . . 278 CHAPTER XIV. The Rams ''Arkansas," "Queen of the West," "iNDiAxoiiA," AND "Webb," ..... ... 303 CHAPTER XV. North Carolina Waters, . . .... 368 CHAPTER XVI. The Blockade, . ....... 438 CHAPTER XVII. Trans-Mississippi Waters, . . . , .494 CHAPTER XVIII. Alabama Waters, . . . . ... 533 CHAPTER XIX. Florida Waters, . . . . . , .599 CHAPTER XX. Georgia Waters, . . . . • . . , . g2C CHAPTER XXI. South Carolina Waters, . . . , . .055 CHAPTER XXII. Virginia Waters (continued), . . . , . . 708 CHAPTER XXIII. , The Torpedo Service, . . . . . . .750 r CHAPTER XXIV. The Confederate States Marine Corps, . . . .769 CHAPTER XXV. The Confederate States Naval Academy, . . .773 CHAPTER XXVI. The Confederate States Cruisers, , , , . .782 APPENDIX. Names of Commissioned and Warrant Officers, C. S. Navy, . 819 Index, . . . . . . . . . 821 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION. WHILE it does not enter within the scope of this work to discuss the political subjects which, after long years of debate, culminated in the late war between the States, yet we are confronted at the very threshold of our undertaking with the moral question : Whether there was either violation of oath, or ingratitude to the United States, in resigning commissions in that service, and accepting commis- sions under their States, b}- those officers who had been educated in the military and naval schools at West Point and Annapolis? That question involves in its solution the theories upon which the Constitution of the United States was framed. For, if it was ordained and established by one people, then the rela- tion of citizenship to the United States was wholly outside of all relation to the States, and the allegiance of those officers was due directly and entirely to the United States. If. on the contrary, the Constitution was ordained and established by the States, in their sovereign and independent character, then allegiance was due primarily to the States, and became due to the United States only through the action of the States. If, therefore, the States, by their sovereign act, transferred the allegiance of their citizens to the United States, that allegiance could only be by the act of the State, and remain due only so long as the State continued a party to the Constitution of the United States. Whether the theory of a national, or of a compact, govern- ment be the true theory of the Constitution, now and here- after, it is not necessary to discuss. The compact theory of the United States Constitution, announced in 1800 to all the States, and denied bv none, continued to be held by the people of the Southern States down to the year 1861. From that theory was derived the axiom of political faith, that the State, and not the citizen, was the contracting party to the Constitu- tion, and that the power, right and duty of continuing with or withdrawing' from the Union remained with the State. Hence 13 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. all Southern men held that the sovereign act of the State was obligatory on her citizens, and of such efficacy that disobedi- ence by her citizen to the ordinance of secession would have been treason to the State, In the political relations of States there are questions which the State only can determine ; of these that of allegiance is the first and of most importance. At the formation of the Constitution of 1789. the States trans- mitted the allegiance of their citizens to the United States. The act of the State, by which the citizen was bound to obey the authority of the United States, did not divest the citizen of his duty to obey the State, but made allegiance to the United States to be the citizen's duty because the State was one of the United States. That act of the State did not create a double allegiance — one to the State, and another to the United States — but transferred, while the State was a party to the United States Constitution, the single allegiance of her citizen to the United States through and by virtue of the act of the State. Under any theory of double allegiance it would have been impossible for the citizen to have escaped committing the crime of treason. For, if the State should be driven by oppression to withdraw from the Constitution of the United Slates, her citizen, under this double allegiance, would have been bound to the United States. Hence, if the citizens should obey their own State, the}^ would be pursued and hunted down as traitors to the Federal government; and, if forsaking the State to which their allegiance was originally exclusively due, they should adhere to the Federal government, they would be traitors to their own State and enemies to their fire- sides. Such a scheme of government would be a monstrous engine of cruelty and oppression, which no man can believe the fathers of the Constitution erected to. crush and grind their posterity between the upper and the nether inillstones of the two governments, and then pronounce it to be a scheme "to secure the blessings of liberty to themselves and their posterit}'.-' With the officers of the army and navy there was no party politics — but they held a faith or conviction upon the relation of their States to the Federal Union, disconnected from all party association, which did not permit them to dis- cuss whether their States were acting wisely or prudently — but only that their States had acted, and that they were bound by the sovereign act of their States. It was their sense of duty — their view of citizenship, their conviction of allegiance to the State — tliat impelled them to resign their commissions in the service of the United States and cast their fortunes with their States. By ordinance of the Virginia Convention, it Avas "ordained that all officers, civil and military, and the people generally of this State, be and they are hereby released from any and all THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. 13 oaths which they may have taken to support the Constitu- tion of the late confederacy, known as The United States of America, and that the said oaths and the said Constitution are inoperative and void, and of no effect." Thus a political oath, taken by virtue of a command from the State, was absolved and released by a like sovereign act of the State. As to the resignation of those officers. Admiral Semmes very justly remarks : " It must be admitted, indeed, tliat there was some little nerve re- quired on the part of an officer of the ref;u]ar army or navy to elect to go with his State. His profession was his only fortune ; he depended upon it for the means of subsisting himself and family. If he remained where he was, a competency for life, and promotions, and honors, prob- ably, awaited him ; if he went with the South, a dark, uncertain future was before him ; he could not possibly better his condition, and, if the South failed, he would have thrown away the labor of a life-time. The struggle was hard in other respects. All professions are clannish. Men nmtually cling together who have been bred in a common pursuit, and this i-emark is peculiarly applicable to the army and the navy. West Point and Annapolis were powerful bonds to knit together the hearts of young men. Friendships were there formed which it was difficult to sever, especially when strengthened by years of after-associatit>n in com- mon toils, counnon pleasures, and common dangers. Naval officers, in particular, who had been rocked together in the same storm, and had escaped perhaps from the same shipwreck, found it very difficult to draw their swords against each other. The flag, too, had a charm which it was difficult to resist. It had long been the emblem of the principle that all just governments are founded on the consent of the governed, vindi- cated against our British ancestors in the War of the Revolution; and it was difficult to realize the fact that it no longer represented that principle, but had become the emblem of its opposite : that of coercing unwilling States to remain under a government which they deemed unjust and oppressive." Of the same tenor is the testimony borne by Capt. Bulloch and Parker, and by the sentiments of affection in every Southern officer who resigned from the United States Navy. It required no sacrifice and entailed no inconvenience to re- main loyal to the Union : but to resign from that service involved every consideration which might deter a man not actuated by exalted principles. There could not, therefore, be any violation of an oath which had been taken by command of the State, after the State absolved and released her citizen from its obligation and commanded his services in her own defence. As to ingratitude, in resigning after education in the military and naval schools — the same reasons apply with equal force. Those schools had been established and maintained by the States, in their associated capacity as " The United States of America," for the defence only of the States, for outside of the States there was nothing to defend. The citizens of the States were appointed cadets from the States, maintained by the taxes of citizens of the States, and were appointed to the army and navy which was designed only to protect and 14 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY. defend the States. It is hardly necessary to say that it nevei was within the contemplation of the States, when the schools at West Point and Annapolis were established, to conjecture or suppose that the graduates would ever be called upon to fight against the States — even for the union of the States. But in 1861 events had presented to the States that most un- expected result — the soldiers and sailors, educated by the Federal government in its character of agent of the Sia'. . were called upon by that agent to fight against its princi] i ! by the servant to make war on the master; by the crejilur.- to destroy the creator. In that anomalous condition of the relations of the States to the Federal Union, the eleves of West Point and Annapolis returned to their States without the least ingratitude to the United Ptates, which had lost sight of its origin and assumed a mastery where only a service or agency was designed.^ Such was the firm and honest sense of duty entertaiiipd not only by these officers, but taught and inculcated in the political literature of the Southern States, and incorporate'! in the great principles of government and parties from the election of Mr. Jefferson in 1800 to the close of Mr. Buchanan's in iMiO, The resolutions of Virginia and Kentucky, in 179S, was tlie magna cliarta of political principles not only for the South* rn States, but New England, in 1815, drew from them her justil ■ u- tion of opposition to the war with Great Britain. That tb ■••(^ resolutions had been assailed and the inference of the righ' of secession controverted by eminent statesmen and jurists o t the North is not denied, but they retained throughout tiu- South their great cardinal features of political faith. In ob > - ing convictions directly resulting from the teachings of ?[r. Jefferson and Mr. Madison, ratified and confirmed by the n. - peated elections of both of the authors of those resolutions, the officers discharged a duty as binding upon their conscienies as was their faith in the Supreme Being. 1 At the beginning of the war a great deal was ARMY. South. N<.f,h. said about the way the bodj' of the officers Generals 2 who commanded the army and navy was con- Colonels It stituted with reference to the North and the jj'^"*^g'"'"*'*^*'^°°*''^ g[ ,:,' Soiith. and much speculation was rife as to the Cantains" 151 IH") course these gentlemen would pursue in case Lieutenants'. [.'...!.'... !..'.!!'.".*.! 238 2'.':? of conflict between the two sections. Mr. Seward, in the political campaign of 1860, de- Total 407 5"; ■ nounced both services as mere slave-catching N.VVY. and slave-keeping institutions, and declared Captains 34 4' for the abolition of both when he was speaking Commanders (",2 6 .; in the West, where the Navy was particularly Lieutenants 135 19 i unmmnlar Surgeons 25 4t unpopular. Assistant Surgeons 44 3". The imi^ression. in 18G0, seemed prevalent Paymasters 30 3' that the majority of the olficers in both branches Chaplains 7 1< of the service came from the South, and had Masters 15 2!; Southern preiudices, but the armv and navy . '.'^^^'S??^'\:.- l^ ,?] . . • li .; ,, • It,, 'n -L.- t Actmg Midshipmen fiO 17f< registers give the following tables, from which Boatswains..... 14 27 it will be seen that there was a majority in Gunners .'.'.'.'. '. 20 2€ favor of the Nt)rth in both services — a majority * " of 112 in the army, and of 253 in the navy ; Total 460 7)3 CHAPTER II. WANT OF PREPARATION FOR WAR. IN the same line of reckless aspersion as that against the resigned officers was the charge r»"'ade against the Southern States of having, while in the Union, prepared resources of arms and collected munitions of war to effect its disso- lution. In support of that assertion, the Potter Committee of the Federal Congress reflected with severity upon the transfer of certain arms to the Southern States during the year 1860, prior to the election of Mr. Lincoln, and when secession was being discussed in the same language which had been used on that subject for thirty years before. But the subsequent secession of the Southern States gave point and application to the charge that Secretary Floyd had prepared the South for war by arm- ing the States with United States arms. The raid of John Brown into Virginia had put into actual war the continued threat of the avowed Abolitionists, who regarded the Consti- tution as a "compact with the devil and a league with hell" — and who swore to " Tear down that flaunting lie ! Half-mast the starry flag ! Insult no sunny sky With hate's polluted rag." For defence against those attacks of invasion the peace- ful policy of Virginia had rendered her wholly unprepared. Northern cupidity availed itself of that excitement and vociferously cried to Congress for the manufacture of more arms. Pittsburgh manufacturers lobbied a bill through Con- gress for the manufacture of cannon to arm the unfinished Southern forts. The appropriation for casting these cannon was passed by Congress, without the knowledge or solicitation of Secre- tary Floyd, under the industrious lobbying of Pittsburgh iron- founders. The guns were cast in obedience to law, and the early shipment of them in advance of the full completion (15) 16 THE CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY, of the forts, though not in advance of the readiness of the forts to receive their armament, was due more to the fact that the Pittsburgh iron-founders were bound bj^ their con- tract to deUver them before receiving their pay than to the special eagerness of the Secretary to get them off. The Secre- tary simply obeyed a mandate of Congress, and the Pittsburgh c