THE CONFEDERATE NAVY. From an address delivered before Camp 171 U. C. V. of Washington, D. C., by Perry M. DeLeon, on Navies in War, and the Confederate Navy in the War Between the States, we make the following extract: Semmes on the Alabama and Sumter destroyed ... 87 87 ships He would have destroyed the Kearsage had the shell planted in her rudder port exploded. Waddell on the Shendoah destroyed ... 36 ships Maffitt, Barney and Morris on the Florida, destroyed. 37 ships Merchantmen destroyed valued at $18,000,000. Three things make my gorge rise: First, Calling the war between the States a rebellion; second, calling our gallant naval officers pirates, and our cruisers privateers; and third, accusing the officers who resigned from the old service, of violating their oaths, and being guilty of ingratitude to a government which educated them. That man has read history in vain who applies the term rebellion to a contest between sovereign States. The charge of piracy is too utterly contemptible and mendacious to need reply. If Semmes was a pirate, so was Farragut. If the Alabama was a privateer so was the Hartford, and every Federal ship that captured a vessel flying a Confederate flag engaged in commerce. The charge of piracy and ingratitude is likewise utterly mendacious and contemptible. During and since the war, Semmes was honored by the nations wherever he went. England, the greatest of sea-powers, especially doing him homage, the British naval officers and others presenting him with a sword after the Alabama met her glorious death. As to ingratitude the charge is simply absurd; the expenses of their education were paid by both the North and South, the South contributing far more than her share. These charges were made during the war by unprincipled politicians to bring our cause into disrepute. They have been repeated since the war by mendacious historians, or rather romancers who manufacture history to suit their fanaticism. As to privateers, it is thus legally defined: "A privateer is an armed vessel belonging to private parties, hence the name. It operates under a letter of marque issued by the Government of which her owners are subjects or citizens, to protect from being treated as a pirate." A man-of-war is a vessel belonging to either a de jure or a de facto government and cruises under a regular commission, her officers being also commissioned by the same power. The Southern Confederacy was not only a de facto government but was recognized as a belligerent. So much for balderdash current during the war and the ravings of fanatical sectionalists of today. The war found the South without ships, without seamen, with no commercial marine, and, at first with one navy yard, later on with none, with no powder works, no ordinance foundries, with but few machine shops, few ship carpenters, and not a single shop in which the simplest marine engine could be constructed. Our energetic and efficient secretary of the Navy, Hon. Stephen R. Mallory of Florida, had indeed a herculean task; and the wonder is that he accomplished so much with means so scant. It is but truth to state that it was as difficult for him to procure iron for his ironclads as for the United States Secretary Wells to build a gunboat. The story of our gallant little navy is a sad but glorious one. Despite the facts I have mentioned the genius of the naval officers of the South electrified the world. John M. Brooke, Williamson and Porter, revolutionized naval warfare in the construction of the famous Virginia, commonly called the Merrimac, as Ericson likewise did with the Monitor. Their famous contests made wooden warships a thing of the past. Brooke first taught how to rifle smooth-bore guns, and also taught gun makers that great guns could be made almost non-explosive by shrinking bands over their breeches, and their effectiveness increased to an extent to excite the wonder and admiration of all seamen. Hunter Davidson first made torpedoes effective for attack and defense. Gallant sailor that he was, he was as great in action as in the laboratory. I challenge the world to produce a more able, more gallant, more unselfish band of patriots than the peerless officers who, born in the South, and bred under the Stars and Stripes, were to win deathless fame under the Stars and Bars. Loving the old flag with a devotion sailors only know, glorying in its traditions, proud of its achievements, and their own part therein, caring naught and oft knowing naught of political issues, leaving their homes as boys, and far removed by their profession from early friends and associations and the burning issues of the day, their devotion to their native South was sublime. But alas! this sentiment was far from general. Leaving, as I have said, their States as boys, dissociated from the "ties that bind," very many Southern naval officers had ceased to regard their native States as sovereign, which they were, and believed their allegiance due to the flag that floated over them. That brilliant and original thinker, Governor Henry A. Wise, of Virginia, was wiser than many thought when he advised the South to fight in the Union and under the Stars and Stripes. The sentiment of the Union was a tremendous factor, and sent tens of thousands into the Federal ranks. Of Southern born line officers, including commanders and lieutenants, 126 resigned, 127 remained in the Federal Navy; of the junior officers, masters and midshipmen eleven resigned, twenty-five did not; of the acting midshipmen, boys at the Naval Academy, 106 resigned, twenty-two did not; of the staff officers, paymaster, and surgeons 38 resigned, 56 did not; taking the total, 299 followed the Stars and Bars, 288 the Stars and Stripes; eliminating the midshipmen, boys as I have said, 193 resigned, 260 did not. In a word, excluding the "middies" fresh from home and subject to the order of their parents, a considerable majority of the Naval officers elected to remain in the United States Navy. Of the Marine Corps 14 resigned, 14 remained.**** I for We can not question the motives of any of these men. one with the flag floating over me for five years while Consul General in South America, can well understand the devotion felt by naval officers for the Flag, and I do not doubt for a moment that they were true to their convictions, and did what they deemed their duty; yet it is painful to reflect that the most vital wounds the South received were inflicted by her own sons— Farragut, Drayton, S. P. Lee, Winslow, Goldsboro, et al. This painful fact recalls these beautiful lines of Byron: "So the struck eagle stretched upon the plain, The naval officers who resigned gave up their means of livelihood, sacrificed their careers, and severed the ties of a lifetime for a cause, the success of which some of them like Commodore Ingraham believed to be at least doubtful. Patriotism and self-sacrifice could no farther go. With the officers of the army it was quite different. They were on the spot, conversant with the political questions of the day, in the thick of the sectional storm which raged over the country, swayed by the passions of the hour, and imbued with the sentiments of their friends and kindred. Hence when the die was cast nearly all of them espoused the cause of the South, even the great Lee, who declined to become the generalissimo of the Union Forces, because he belived his allegiance was due to his beloved Virginia, and his duty required him to cling to her, and obey her commands. Sordid indeed is the soul which questions his sincerity or asperses his memory. Sad was the fate of the older Confederate States Naval officers; bred on the deep, unfamiliar with affairs, knowing naught but their profession, separated thereby from the world, its fluc tuations and its concerns, the end found them broken in fortune, without a profession, bowed down with despair, utterly unfitted to fight the battle of life, and in the Southern cataclysm their countrymen too poor to aid them, or reward their services. A number of officers succumbed to despair and died in poverty; others were glad to receive any crumb that fell to their lot. ***** Tattnall had achieved an international Who then were they? reputation, as had Ingraham, Hollins and Maury. The first at Periho, declaring that blood was thicker than water, had saved an English warship from destruction and earned the plaudits of Britain. Ingraham at Smyrna had cleared his ship for action and demanded from Austria the release of the Hungarian patriot, Kostza, under threat of opening fire on the Hussar, a vessel somewhat superior to his own, on which the prisoner was held, the threat was effective-Austria gave up the capmedal. Hollins tive, and Congress voted Ingraham a Georgetown had given the snuff-colored Dagos a needed lesson. Last and greatest of all was Matthew F. Maury, the first of naval scientists, who did more for the marine than any man His works, Physical Geography of the who had ever lived. at When Sea, Gulf Stream, Ocean Lanes, are his monument, more enHe it was who first proposed an Atlantic during than brass. cable, which was laid in the line he had mapped out. Twelve nations conferred orders of knighthood upon him; Cambridge and the great Universities of Europe had honored him. he resigned, both before and after the war, the greatest governments of Europe besought him to accept high position, but like Lee he clung to his beloved Virginia, and ended his life Thus Viras a Professor at the Virginia Military Institute. ginia has given to the world two of the greatest of men, Maury and Lee, as in earlier days a Washington, a Jefferson, a Henry, a Marshall, a Mason, and many more. Eulogy has exhausted itself in characterizing Lee. His name is honored by the North, enshrined in the hearts of the South, and lauded by the whole civilized world. |