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LIEUTENANT SEMMES.

remained in the fast-sinking ship to share the fortunes of his comrades in a plunge into the deep. Being a good swimmer he reached a floating portion of the wreck, and was presently rescued in the midst of the tempest by his ship's boat returning from the shore. Of seventysix persons composing the crew of the Somers, thirty-nine were lost in this disaster. The entire conduct of Lieutenant Semmes in this emergency appears to have been marked by exemplary presence of mind.*

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ing himself in the midst of the operations for the reduction of the capital, became attached as aid-de-camp to General Worth, and bore his part in the battles in the valley of Mexico-of all which, with the entry into the city, and his previous naval service on the coast, he afterwards published an interesting account, in a well-written volume, entitled "Service Afloat and Ashore during the Mexican War."

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A passage from that work, in the concluding portion, where the author estiLieutenant Semmes was then reattached mates "the great advantages which are to the Flag-ship, and continued in ser- to accrue both to Mexico and ourselves" vice in the squadron till the following from the war with that country, curiousApril, when he was employed on a mis- ly exhibits the sentiments of the author sion into the interior to the Mexican in 1851, when his book was published, Government, to secure to secure the safety of in reference to some of the political quesMidshipman R. C. Rogers, who, while tions directly involved in the great Reattached to the Somers, had been cap-bellion in which Lieutenant Semmes tured on the shore in an attempt at became so active a participant. night to gain information of the topo- my opinion," says he, "the salvation of graphy of the country, with a view to the our institutions depends, in a great dedestruction of a powder magazine of the gree upon a reasonable extension of our enemy. The Mexicans, it was stated, limits. This is the only thing which threatened to try him as a spy, and will rob faction of its bitterness, if it Lieutenant Semmes was charged by Com- does not entirely destroy it. Fanaticism, modore Perry with a mission to the whether religious, political or social, is proper Minister in Mexico, to demand always local; it never spreads unless his release. At Jalapa he had some cor- indeed it be spread as the great Arabian respondence with General Scott on the enthusiast spread his faith by the sword. object of his journey, that officer think- And the reason why it does not spread ing that the matter, with other arrange- is, that it is error; and error, although it ments for the exchange of prisoners, may be contagious in small districts, like should be left in his hands. The affair the plague, can never inundate a vast ended in sending forward Captain Kear- country. Of what comparative importney from Puebla with a flag of truce ance is it at the present day, when our to negotiate an exchange. Lieutenant immense territory extends from the AtSemmes accompanied the flag, and some in- lantic to the Pacific oceans; that a meeteffectual negotiations were had at the out- ing to denounce a law of the Union, or posts of the army, when the object of the for any other disloyal and treasonable expedition, so far as Lieutenant Semmes purpose, is held in Faneuil Hall, in the was specially concerned, was brought to good city of Boston? The little actors an end by the appearance of Midship- on this little stage may make themselves man Rogers himself in Puebla, after an as ridiculous as they please, but the adventurous escape from the City of President of this great Republic will Mexico. Lieutenant Semmes then find- quietly point them to the map, to remind them that the Massachusetts of the old thirteen is not the Massachusetts of the

Lieutenant Semmes to Commodore Perry, U. S. frigate Raritan, December 10, 1846.

longer Britannia, but America, 'rules the waves.' But it would require a volume to enumerate all the advantages which have accrued, and are yet to accrue to us, from the Mexican war.'

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It is to be regretted that Captain Semmes thought himself called upon to relinquish these encouraging prospects of a mighty empire for the revolutionary project of its destruction. When the Southern rebellion ripened to actual revolt, he abandoned the service of the national Government, and, in command of the Sumter, became one of the most active agents of the Confederates.

thirty-forty-fifty-a hundred States! And that she is as powerless now for evil as she was formerly powerful for good. The Federal officers, armed with a posse comitatus, if need be, from the Pacific, will disperse her mobs, however composed, and execute the process which represents the majesty of twenty-thirty -forty-fifty millions of people. As our territorial limits increase, the individual States will become less and less important, and local jealousies and heartburnings will scarcely produce more effect upon the nation at large than does the gossiping of a remote village upon a metropolitan city. Shay's Rebellion in The first notice we have of this vessel Massachusetts, and the Whisky Rebellion in the rebel service is in the message of in Pennsylvania threw the whole country President Jefferson Davis, in April, 1861, into commotion, and caused the Execu- to the Provisional Congress at Montgomtive much anxiety and a good deal of ery. He there speaks of her as one of trouble before they could be quelled. two purchased vessels, which had been We should regard these things at the named the Sumter and Macree, and present day as mere 'tempests in a tea- which were then being prepared for pot.' And where is the solution for this? sea with all possible dispatch. The In the fact that then St. Mary's in Geor- Sumter was formerly the Marquis de la gia was our southern boundary, whereas Habana, a propeller steamer plying benow our flag floats proudly on the shores tween Havana and New Orleans as a of the boundless Pacific! The diversity packet, and always noted as an extraorof climates, productions and pursuits, dinary fast sailor. After the purchase will be so many additional motives for from the Spanish owners, she was enadhesion, making us, comparatively more tirely refitted for naval service; the dependent upon each other, and binding upper works with the cabins were reus together in one great free-trades' moved, to afford a clear deck, and new union. While these great ends are ac- machinery was inserted, working below complished, each State will be as inde- the water-line. Her armament consistpendent in all local concerns as before, ed of four 32-pounder rifled guns, and and except in a few prescribed particulars, one rifled 68 on a pivot, to which a 12will be, to all intents and purposes, sov-pounder field howitzer was added. Her ereign. It is this particularity of our chief officers, when she was placed in system which befits it for extension al- commission in the beginning of June, most ad infinitum, in contradistinction to central and consolidated governments. As for commerce, it is only necessary to remark, that our Pacific front opens to us, and will enable us to monopolize almost all the commerce of the East Indies, and of the west coast of America, north and south. This will make us the carriers and the factors of the world. Twenty years hence and it will be no

were Captain Semmes, Lieutenants John M. Kells, R. F. Chapman, W. E. Evans, and J. M. Stripling, with a complement of 114 men. She was shortly after brought down the river to the forts at the entrance, and the remainder of the mouth was passed in drill and preparation for sea, awaiting an opportunity for running the blockade, which was main

* Service Afloat and Ashore, pp. 473-4.

RUNNING THE BLOCKADE.

tained at the mouth of the Mississippi by the United States steam sloops Brooklyn and Powhatan. At length, on the last day of June, it being ascertained that the blockading vessels were temporarily out of the way, the Sumter ran out to sea. She had scarcely, however, crossed the bar when the Brooklyn was perceived in chase of a sailing vessel, which was immediately given up for the pursuit of the Sumter. A trial of speed now ensued between the two war steamers with every inch of canvas spread, which was continued for several hours, when, by the extraordinary efforts of the Confederate vessel-her field howitzer being thrown overboard to lighten her-she gained on her competitor, and the Brooklyn returned to her station on the blockade.

When he perceived that the pursuit was abandoned, Captain Semmes, rejoicing in the liberty of the seas, called all hands on deck, and gave three lusty cheers for the Southern Confederacy. The first trophy of his cruise was the capture, off the Isle of Pines, on the 3d of July, of the ship Golden Rocket, of Maine, of 600 tons, valued at $40,000. The officers and crew were taken off, and after being rifled of specie, provisions, extra sails, and whatever was available, the ship was burnt to the water's edge. "The flames," says an enthusiastic sailor of the Sumter, in a letter intercepted by one of our cruizers in the Gulf, leaped wild and high. First the fire ascended the mizzen-mast, and ran along the deck to the main, and then to the foremast. I have seen many beautiful sights, but this burning vessel was the most sublimely-grand sight my eyes ever witnessed." The next day Captain Semmes celebrated the national anniversary by the capture of the brigantines Cuba and Machias, laden with sugar, both of Maine. On the 5th and 6th five other Northern vessels, also laden with sugar, fell prizes to the Sumter. Seven of the captured vessels were carried in to Cienfuegos, where

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they were held for the benefit of the captors, under protection of the authorities till directions should be received as to their disposal from the home government. The matter immediately became the subject of earnest remonstrance from Washington, as a violation of the Royal Proclamation, when the affair presently ended in the release of the vessels to their rightful owners, an examination of the case, proving to the satisfaction of the Captain-General of the Island of Cuba that the captures had been made in waters within the jurisdiction of the island, and under unlawful circumstances.*

One of these early prizes of the Sumter, the brig Cuba, failed to reach the port of Cienfuegos, to which she had been ordered with the rest. On her capture a prize crew, consisting of a midshipman, two sailors, and two marines, had been put on board of her, under whose threats she was navigated by her crew, till the 7th, when Captain Stront, with his officers, secured the arms, put the captors in irons, and regained possession of the vessel. He presently sent the two sailors on to New York by a brig which he fell in with, and pursued his way to the same port without further adventure than a somewhat threatening scene with the rebel prize officer, Midshipman A. D. Hudgins, a Virginian, who had been educated at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. This person succeeded in getting hold of a pistol, and mounted with it to the maintop, from which place he held a parley with the Captain on deck, threatening his life if he should go below for arms. Captain Stront, however, not intimidated, went into the cabin, procured a revolver, and called upon the gentleman to descend. To this at first he paid no attention, but when two shots were fired at him, one of which took effect in his shoulder, the order was obeyed.

* Mr. Tassara, Spanish Minister at Washington, to Mr.

Seward, August 9, 1861.

Leaving Cienfuegos on the 7th of July, the Sumter continued her cruise among the West India Islands, "without having fallen in with anything" for ten days, when she put in at St. Anne's, Curacoa, where she remained for a week taking in large supplies of coals and provisions. Her officers and crew were meanwhile hospitably entertained by the inhabitants. "Our intercourse with the citizens of this place," says the sailor in the intercepted letter just quoted, "was very pleasant, and we left with regret." The authorities of the port were even zealous in their devotion to the interests of the privateer. When one of her crew deserted they ordered his arrest, and not succeeding at once in finding him, they promised to continue the search and hold the runaway in custody, "to be surrendered to the pirate captain on his return homeward to the Island." On the 25th, the second day out from the Dutch island, the Sumter captured off Laguayra, the schooner Abby Bradford of Boston, and carried her into Porto Cabello. The government of Venezuela, having resolved to prohibit the admission of all vessels bearing the Confederate flag into its ports, except in cases of distress, the captured vessel was not received there, and was sent to New Orleans with a prize crew. She was recaptured on her route to Berwicks' Bay, on the 13th of August, by the United States steamer Powhatan.

The Sumter, unable to gain admission into the harbor at Porto Cabello, continued her voyage on the Spanish main, and presently fell in with and captured the bark Joseph Maxwell of Philadelphia, laden with some 600 barrels of flour. She returned with this prize to Porto Cabello, but the authorities still refusing an entrance to either vessel, a portion of the crew of the Maxwell was landed, and the vessel sent to Cienfuegos, where she was handed over to the American

*Mr. Seward to Mr. Pike, Minister at the Hague, August 15, 1861.

Consul. The mate and crew were carried by the Sumter to Port of Spain, in the British Island of Trinidad. Previously to setting them free at that port Captain Semmes called the mate to his room, and informed him that his object in bringing him and the crew to that place was to ascertain whether any punishment had been inflicted on the crew of the Savannah, because if there had been he would have strung every man of them up to the yard-arm the moment he went outside of the Bocas, and that he would hang every captain and crew he took afterward.

The Sumter arrived at Trinidad on the 30th of July, landed her eight prisoners in a destitute condition, and remained till the 5th of August taking in supplies of coal and other necessary outfits. The officers and crew were civilly received, as private gentlemen, by the authorities of the island and the officers of the British war vessel Cadmus, Captain Hillyar," the most friendly intercourse exists between the two commanders and their officers," says an officer of the Sumter, in his account of the cruise, "the English here treat us more like princes than plain Republican Americans" -and it was further reported to the Secretary of State at Washington, by Mr. Francis Bernard, a loyal American on the island, that the English flag had heen hoisted on the Government flag-staff in honor of the arrival of the privateer. These circumstances were made a subject of remonstrance to the British Government, as a violation of the rights and dignities of the United States, when they were in part explained, and in part justified, as within the rules of the Queen's Proclamation. The hoisting of the flag was represented by Lord John Russell, in the absence of positive information on the subject, as probably intended "to show the national

* A mercantile letter from Port of Spain, August 1, 1861. New York Tribune, September 3, 1861.

+ Cruise of the Sumter, from the private journal of one of her officers. The Cornhill Magazine, August, 1862.

THE SUMTER AT GUIANA.

character of the island, and not in acknowledgment of the arrival of the Sumter." The law officers of the Crown saw no illegality in the aid rendered to the vessel. Mr. Seward, in his review of the case, considered the explanations unsatisfactory, and protested against the conclusions of Her Majesty's Government as an encouragement to piracy, tending to the universal derangement of commerce, and opposed to the common interest of all civilized countries.**

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ity from any lawful source whatever. The United States regard the vessel as piratical, and the persons by whom she is manned and navigated as pirates.' The matter was adjusted by fresh instructions sent to the colonial authorities of the Netherlands in October, enjoining them not to admit, unless in case of shelter from stress, the vessels of war and privateers of the two belligerent parties, unless for twice twenty-four hours, and not to permit them when they are steamers, to provide themselves with a quantity of coal more than sufficient for a run of twenty-four hours. With this substantial abridgement of the rights of hospitality to the rebel vessels, so bountifully extended by the Dutch colonists, the Government at Washington rested content. "Felicitate the government of the Netherlands," wrote Mr. Seward at the end of the discussion to the Minister at the Hague, "as we felicitate ourselves on the renewed auguries of good and cordial relations between friends too old to be alienated thoughtlessly, or from mere impatience." +

Leaving Trinidad, the Sumter, after some ten days' voyaging, arrived off the harbor of the French port of Cayenne, when, being denied admission, she sailed to Paramaribo, in Dutch Guiana. There the hospitalities which had been extended to the privateering vessel at Curacoa, were abundantly renewed. These attentions were not long after brought to the notice of the Government of the Netherlands by Mr. Seward, and the Minister at the Hague, Mr. Pike, who had been already engaged in a voluminous discussion with Baron Von Zuylen, the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, on the questions growing out of Leaving Dutch Guiana on the 30th of the liberal reception of the Sumter at August, the Sumter sailed along the Curacoa, the Dutch Government hav-coast of South America southwardly, ing forbidden the use of its ports to privateers of any flag. The Baron considered the Sumter a ship of war, and holding the Confederate States as belligerents, maintained the vessel was en titled to the right of hospitality; moreover, she appeared as a vessel in distress. To these positions, especially, the former, Mr. Seward, lustily objected. "The United States," he wrote, "unreservedly claim to determine for themselves absolutely the character of the Sumter, she being a vessel fitted out, owned, armed, sailed and directed by American citizens, who owe allegiance to the United States, and who neither have nor car, in their piratical purposes and pursuits, have any political author

Earl Russell to Mr. Adams, October 4, 1861. Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams, October 29, 1861.

and on the 5th of September took refuge for ten days in the port of San Juan de Maranham, in Brazil. The Confederate steamer, in her wanderings, seemed to have a predilection for visiting a variety of nations-a circumstance to be accounted for on the principle that a rogue is under the necessity of frequently changing his locality. The Gulf was now quite too well watched for her operations. Various ships of the United States navy-the Niagara, Key Stone State, Powhatan, Iroquois--and others had been sent out on her track, but by want of concert and good management on their part, or by a special good luck of the craft of which they were in pursuit, though always on the eve of being

* Mr. Seward to Mr. Pike, October 17, 1861. Mr. Seward to Mr. Pike, November 23, 1861

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