366

MISSION OF LIEUTENANT WORDEN.

Lieutenant Worden had acted with great energy and discretion. At eleven o'clock on the night of the 6th of April he received orders from the Secretary of the Navy to take dispatches with all possible speed to Captain Adams. He left Washington City early the next morning, arrived at Montgomery late at night on the 9th, and departed early the following

At

morning for Pensacola, by way of Atlanta, in Georgia. He observed great excitement prevailing. Troops and munitions of war were being pushed forward toward Pensacola, and he thought it likely that he might be arrested; so, after reading his dispatches carefully, he tore them up. dawn on the morning of the 11th, while seeking for a boat to convey him. to the squadron, a "Confederate" officer interrogated him, and on ascertaining his rank and destination, directed him to report to General Bragg. An officer was sent with him to the General's head-quarters at the Naval Hospital at Warrington (whither they had been conveyed in a small steamer), where he arrived at ten o'clock in the morning. He told Bragg that he had come from Washington, under orders from the Navy Department to communicate with the commander of the squadron off that harbor. Bragg immediately wrote a "pass," and as he handed it to Worden, he remarked, "I suppose you have dispatches for Captain Adams ?" Worden replied, "I have no written ones, but I have a verbal communication to make to him from the Navy Department." The Lieutenant then left Bragg and made his way to the Wyandotte, the flag-of-truce vessel lying inside the lower harbor. The wind was high, and the Wyandotte did not go outside until the next morning. At noon a Worden's message was a April 12, delivered to Captain Adams, and Fort Pickens was re-enforced

1861.

that night. 2

Lieutenant Worden's arrival was timely. It frustrated a well-matured

1 The Sabine was an old but stanch sailing vessel, and had been Commodore Shubrick's flag-ship in the Paraguay expedition, a few years before.

2 Statement of Lieutenant Worden to the author.

PLANS OF THE INSURGENTS EXPOSED.

367

plan of General Bragg's for seizing the fort, which was to have been executed on the night of the 11th, but which, on account of the rough weather, was deferred until the following night, and was not unknown to Lieutenant Slemmer. That officer had been kept acquainted with affairs in the insurgent camp at Warrington by Richard Wilcox, a loyal watchman at the Navy Yard, who addressed him over the signature of "A Friend to the Union." During the siege, Slemmer had been allowed to send a flag of truce to the yard every day. The bearer was carefully conducted from his boat to the yard and back. Wilcox was generally on hand to perform that duty, and used these opportunities to communicate with Slemmer. On the 10th of April he discovered that one of Slemmer's sergeants was holding treasonable correspondence with two secessionists on shore (Sweetman and Williams), who were employed by General Bragg. The sergeant had arranged to assist in betraying the fort into the hands of the insurgents, for which service he was to receive a large sum of money and a commission in the "Confederate" Army. He had seduced a few companions into a

promised participation in his scheme. The act was to be performed, as we have observed, on the night of the 11th of April, when a thousand insurgents were to engage in the matter. They were to cross over in a steamboat (the same that conveyed Lieutenant Worden from Pensacola to Warrington) and escalade the fort at an hour when the sergeant and his confederates would be on guard. Wilcox informed Slemmer of the fact, and his testimony was confirmed by a Pensacola newspaper' that found its way into the fort. In that paper was a letter from a correspondent at Warrington, in which the intended attack on Fort Pickens was mentioned.

1 Pensacola Observer. Its correspondent "Nemo," named Mathews, was not a traitor, but a blunderer, and was arrested and sent to Montgomery. His indiscretion was of service to the National cause, and for this the conspirators were disposed to punish him.

368

RE-ENFORCEMENT OF FORT PICKENS.

Slemmer prepared to frustrate the designs of the insurgents, but friends instead of enemies visited him the following night.'

The re-enforcement of Fort Pickens was performed as follows:-Early in the evening the marines of the Sabine and St. Louis, under Lieutenant Cash, were sent on board the Brooklyn, Captain Walker, when she weighed anchor and ran in as near to Fort Pickens as possible. Launches were lowered, and marines, with Captain Vogdes's artillerymen, immediately embarked. The landing was effected not far from the flag-staff bastion, at about midnight, under the direction of Lieutenant Albert N. Smith, of Massachusetts. They had passed into the harbor, and under the guns of Forts McRee and Barrancas, unobserved. The whole expedition was in charge of Commander Charles H. Poor, assisted by Lieutenants Smith, of the Brooklyn, Lew and Newman, of the Sabine, and Belknap, of the St. Louis. The insurgents, in endeavoring to conceal their own movements, had assisted in obscuring those of the squadron, by extinguishing the lamp of the light-house. In the thick darkness, the expedition struck the designated landing-place with great accuracy." When the important work was accomplished, heavy guns were fired on the vessels, the fort was lighted up, and the insurgents, who were on the point of making an attack on Fort Pickens, observing the

ominous appearance of affairs there prudently remained on shore.3

Lieutenant Worden, in the mean time, had returned to Pensacola, and departed for home. He left the Sabine about three o'clock in the afternoon," landed at Pen

a April 12, 1861.

MAP OF PENSACOLA BAY AND VICINITY.

sacola, and at nine in the evening left there in a railway car for Montgomery, hoping to report at Washington on Monday night. He was disappointed. Bragg had committed a great blunder, and knew it early on the morning

1 The loyal Wilcox tried to escape to the North. He reached Norfolk, where he was pressed into the "Confederate service," in which he remained, at that place, until it was taken possession of in May, 1862.

2 Report of Commander II. A. Adams to the Secretary of the Navy, April 14, 1861.

3 Statement of Mr. Wilcox. A correspondent of the Charleston Mercury, writing on the 13th, said that the firing alarmed the insurgents. An attack on Fort McRce was expected. The troops were called out, and

PERSECUTION OF LIEUTENANT WORDEN.

369

of the 13th, when a spy informed him of the re-enforcement of Fort Pickens. That movement exasperated him, and he was deeply mortified by a sense of his own utter stupidity in allowing Lieutenant Worden to visit the squadron. To shield himself from the charge of such stupidity by his associates and superiors, he laid aside all honor as a man and a soldier, and accused the lieutenant with having practiced falsehood and deception in gaining permission to visit the Sabine. He telegraphed this charge to the conspirators at Montgomery, with a recommendation for his arrest. Five officers were detailed for the service, one of whom had served with Worden in the Navy. They arrested him a short distance below Montgomery, and, on their arrival at that city, placed him in the custody of Cooper, the "Adjutant-General of the Confederacy." Cooper took from him unimportant dispatches for his Government, and on Monday, the 15th, Worden was cast into the common jail. Bragg's false charge made him an object of scorn to Davis and his fellowconspirators, and the citizens generally; and there, in that, common jail, this gallant officer, whose conduct had been governed by the nicest sense of honor, suffered indignity until the 11th of November following, when he was paroled and ordered to report at Richmond, where Davis and his associates were then holding court. Cooper sent him to Norfolk, whence he was forwarded to the flag-ship of Admiral Goldsborough, in Hampton Roads, when Lieutenant Sharpe, of the insurgent navy, was exchanged for him.' Worden was the first prisoner of war held by the insurgents.

a

a November 18, 1861.

A few days after the re-enforcement of Fort Pickens, the Atlantic and Illinois arrived with several hundred troops, under the command of Colonel Harvey Brown, with an ample quantity of supplies and munitions of war. These were taken into Fort Pickens, and within ten days after the arrival of Worden, there were about nine hundred troops in that fort. Colonel Brown assumed the command, and Lieutenant Slemmer and his little band of brave men, worn down with fatigue, want of sleep, and insufficient food, were sent to Fort Hamilton, at the entrance to New York harbor, to rest. They shared the plaudits of a grateful people with those equally gallant defenders of Fort Sumter. Lieutenant Slemmer was commissioned major of the Sixteenth Regiment of Infantry; and because of brave conduct subse

many of them lay on their arms all night. On the day after the re-enforcement, John Tyler, Jr., son of exPresident Tyler, who was employed under Walker, the so-called "Secretary of War," telegraphed the fact to the Richmond Enquirer, saying:-"Re-enforcements were thrown into Fort Pickens by the Government at Washington, in violation of the convention existing between that Government and this Confederacy." This false charge of bad faith on the part of the National Government was intended to affect the Virginia Convention, then sitting in Richmond. Tyler telegraphed by authority of the Hon. L. P. Walker," who did not consider his order to Bragg, some time before, to attack Fort Pickens at the earliest practicable moment, as a "violation of the convention" which he pretended had existence. What was called "bad faith" on the part of the National Government, appears to have been considered highly honorable for the conspirators to practice. Such evidences of moral obliquity, on the part of the leaders in the rebellion, were continually observed throughout the war that ensued.

1 Statement of Lieutenant Worden to the author.

* Lieutenant Worden's family and friends were in much distress concerning his imprisonment, for at times his life seemed to be in great jeopardy among lawless men, and was preserved, doubtless, by the Provost-Marshal of Montgomery, in whom Worden found a friend. Applications to the "Confederate Government" were for a long time treated with silent contempt. Mutual acquaintances wrote to Mrs. Davis, requesting her to use her influence in procuring his parole, for all other prisoners were allowed that privilege then. Her uniform reply was: "I shall do nothing; he is just where he ought to be." The prisoner, in the mean time, made no complaint, asked for no parole, and only once communicated with the chief conspirators. He then simply asked for the reasons why he was in prison.

VOL. I.-24

370

DEFENDERS OF FORT PICKENS HONORED.

quently in Tennessee, he was raised to the rank of brigadier-general. The Chamber of Commerce of New York included in their resolution to honor the defenders of Fort Sumter with a series of bronze medals,' those of Fort Pickens, and these were presented to Slemmer, his officers and men, at the same time. The medals were executed by the same sculptor (Charles Müller), and of the same sizes. The engraving represents the one presented to Lieutenant Slemmer, on a smaller scale than the original."

By the 1st of May there was a formidable force of insurgents menacing Fort Pickens, who were lying on the arc of a circle, from the water-battery beyond Fort McRee on the right, to the Navy Yard on the left. They numbered nearly seven thousand, and were arranged in three divisions. The first, on the right, was composed of Mississippians, under Colonel J. R. Chalmers; the second was composed of Alabamians and a Georgia regi

1 See pages 883 and 334.

2 This medal, made of bronze, is six inches in diameter. On one side is a medallion portrait of Lieutenant Slemmer, and the inscription, "ADAM J. SLEMMER." On the other side is Cerberus, as the Monster of War. chained to Fort Pickens. By this design the artist intended to typify the forbearance of the Government and its servants, which was conspicuously exhibited during the defense of Fort Pickens. The initial letters U. S. on the collar of the monster indicate his owner. Amid the taunts and insults of the foc, he is kept chained to the fort. His impatience of restraint is shown by his actions. On this side of the medal is the inscription:THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, NEW YORK, HONORS VALOR, FORBEARANCE, AND FIDELITY. FORT PICKENS, 1861." Two sizes of medals bore these devices and inscriptions, and the other two, on the reverse side, a view of Fort Pickens, with the inscription:-"THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, NEW YORK, HONORS THE DEFENDERS OF FORT PICKENS-FAR OFF, BUT FAITHFUL."

The following are the names of the defenders of Fort Pickens:

COMMISSIONED OFFICERS.-First Lieutenant, Adam J. Slemmer; Second Lieutenant, Jeremiah H. Gilman. NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS.-First Sergeant, Alexander Jamieson; Corporals, David H. Boyd, Patrick Mangan, James P. Caldwell, and Benjamin Webster; Fifer, Thomas Smith; Drummer, William Sheppard: Artificers, Frederick Bickel and Simeon Webster; Ordnance Sergeants, Robert Granger, Elias H. Broady, and John Flynn.

PRIVATES.-John Bainfield, Michael Burns, John H. Boyer, Francis Bohnert, Joseph Clancy, John Cannon, Jacob C. Deckert, James Dolan, James Foley, Lewis Holmes, Thomas Honlahan, Edward L. Hastings, John Jackson, Thomas Jackson, Martin King, John Kerns, Owen McGair, Jackson McLeod, Thomas Manning, Thomas McGuire, James Matthews, John Mealey, Theodore Meeker, John Miller, Michael Morris, Patrick Mulligan. Michael Murphy, Michael Murray, William Nelson, Patrick Norton, James O'Brien, Frederick O'Donnell, Bartholomew O'Neil, John J. Reilly, Thomas B. Shaw, David Summers, Patrick Travers, and Francis Winters. The whole number of officers and men who received medals was fifty-three. These were of the same regi ment of Artillery (First, U. S. A.) as the defenders of Fort Sumter.