in consideration of that friendly nation, part, it was thought on board the SumCommander Semmes generously allowed ter, by the exertions of the United to go on their way, politely taking a States consul at the port. A day's sailbond to the value of the ship, drawn in ing brought the privateer, after "overbis favor by the captain. Another day hauling a couple of Yankees" by the he captured and burnt the schooner Ar- way, "under the guns of Gibraltar the cade of Portland, Maine. On the 3d of impregnable," from which friendly shelDecember a large ship was overhauled, ter she appeared in no haste to depart. the Vigilant, bound to Sombrero Island Nearly a month afterwards the Tuscarora, for guano. Her crew, all blacks, says which had been for some time engaged in the Diary, "were terribly frightened on watching the Confederate steamer Nashseeing the Sumter. When the prize- ville, came to Gibraltar to keep a look crew boarded her the negroes could out on the Sumter. Then, toward the hardly be prevented from jumping over-end of February, came the diversion of board, and when they came aboard the the seizure of the paymaster of the SumSumter they acted as though their hour ter. He went over in a French steamer had come. Some of them verily believed to Tangier, on the opposite shore, when that they would have to walk a plank. he was taken possession of according to The Vigilant was stripped of everything a privilege of the State of Morocco, by we wanted and then fired. We took the United States Consul, who arrested from her a nine-pounder rifled gun, which is mounted on the forecastle in place of the one hove overboard in running the blockade of the Mississippi." The last day of the year the Sumter counted up as her trophies, the running of two blockades, escape from a fleet of gun-boats, ransacking the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean sea, the capture of sixteen valuable prizes, visits to the ports of seven nationalities, and frail bark as she was admitted to be, the passage of the Atlantic in mid-winter. him for piracy or treason, and sent him home to America a prisoner on board the national sloop-of-war Ino. These loyal policemen of the seas, in fact, began to be uncomfortably frequent about the resting place of the Sumter, which had also discovered that her boilers were worn out, quite unfit for sea; so one day, the 9th of April, the crew was paid off and discharged, and the valiant Sumter laid up "until after the expiration of the war." As part of the public history of this On the 4th of January, 1862, she ran redoubtable vessel we may cite the into Cadiz, boldly challenging the hospi- paragraph devoted to her depredations, talities of old Spain. But the Dons had and those of others, and the attempts made up their minds as to her character, made to capture her in the annual reand that of the pseudo government from port of Secretary Welles of the Navy which she professed to derive her com- Department. "It was natural," said he, mission, and had no civilities to expend "that apprehensions should prevail in upon her. Captain Semmes was imme- regard to armed cruisers, commissioned diately and peremptorily ordered to leave expressly by the rebel leaders, to deprethe port within twenty-four hours. He date upon our commerce. This robbery pleaded distress, and was allowed to re- of merchants and others engaged in main for repairs, and at the end of ten peaceful and lawful pursuits, by piratical days left this punctilious people utterly cruisers, is not inconsistent with the gendissatisfied, "unable to obtain what was eral conduct of those who have violated required-not a bucket of coal, the sale law and moral obligations to gratify inwas forbidden," and the loser by deser-ordinate ambition. Our extended comtion of seven of her crew, induced to de-merce presented inducements for pirat age. A LETTER FROM CAPTAIN SEMMES. 41 ical warfare, yet but few of our misguided just given, "would seem to show that, countrymen have prostituted themselves although it was penned ostensibly against to the purposes of plunder, though there- myself, it was, in fact, levelled at those to invited, and these few have been in European powers which had acknowconstant flight to escape the avenging ledged the Confederate States to be a power of our vigilant naval forces. Such lawful belligerent in the war which had of these cruisers as eluded the blockade been forced upon them. On no other and capture were soon wrecked, beach-supposition could it charge me with 'robed, or sunk, with the exception of one, bery' on the high seas, and with being a the steamer Sumter, which, by some piratical rover.' A pirate is hostis fatality, was permitted to pass the humani generis, and may be seized and Brooklyn, then blockading one of the summarily dealt with by any and all passes of the Mississippi, and, after a the nations of the earth; but the fact is, brief and feeble chase by the latter, was these officers of the defunct Federal allowed to proceed on her piratical voy- Union are so blinded by their venom An investigation of this whole oc- against the South that they have no currence was ordered by the Depart- longer the power to distinguish between ment. Soon the Niagara and the Pow- terms. Mr. Welles, also, in imitation of hatan, from the Gulf squadron, followed the dirty and mendacious Press of the in vigorous pursuit, the latter, though Yankee States, calls me a privateer. He long in commission, and with defective knows better than this. He knows that boilers and machinery, under her ener- a privateer is a vessel that bears a letter getic commander, tracking the piratical of marque, and that I am cruising under craft as far as Maranham. The Key- no such letter. He knows that I have stone State, Richmond, Iroquois, and been regularly commissioned as a shipSan Jacinto, were also in search of her of-war of the Confederate States. If at different points and periods. Although he and his deluded associates insist a piratical rover, without license from upon calling the citizens of the Confedany recognized or acknowledged gov- erate States rebels,' under the idea that ernment, and avowedly engaged in the those States still form a part of the old robbery and plunder of our citizens, I Yankee concern, then he might characregret to say this vessel has been re- terize me as a rebel man-of-war. But if ceived and her wants supplied, against I am this, so were all the ships of the the remonstrance of our Consuls, by American colonies commissioned by the public authorities in many foreign ports Virginian George Washington. Mr. where her character was well known." Welles tells the President and Congress, that by 'some fatality,' I ran the blockade of New Orleans, and that he has ordered the whole affair to be investigated. With the blind rage of a baffled mad man, quem Deus vult perdere, etc., he will no doubt endeavor to crush the harmless and inoffensive commander of the Brooklyn, who, poor man, did his best. He says, also, that he has had six of his largest and fastest steamers in pursuit of me, and that the commander of one of them was so energetic as to perform the wonderful feat of tracking ine as far as Maranham, in Brazil. This. Captain Semmes who appears to have received this public document on his arrival at Cadiz, wrote from that place a trenchant and very peculiar letter to the London Times, which, as it throws considerable light upon the spirit or frame of mind in which its writer regarded and conducted the extraordinary service in which he was engaged, we may here present to the reader. The closing paragraph," says he, "of the above elegant extract from an American State paper," alluding to the passage from Mr. Welles' report which we have "If the universal Yankee nation I suppose, is one of those daring acts is one of those daring acts- Island of Martinique, in the face of one the officer being in command of a heavy of the fastest and finest of his Yankee frigate which called forth the pane- ships, the Iroquois, and which is more gyric of the Yankee navy, which we find than twice my force. Poor Captain Palin a subsequent part of Mr. Welles' re- mer, I fear that he, too, will be immoport, for, after praising his clerks, this lated on the altar of the 'Universal Yanofficer goes on to remark: To the kee Nation,' because he did not catch patriotic officers of the navy, and the the Sumter, though, from all we can brave men who, in various scenes of learn, he had fits on the occasion. This naval action, have served under them, honorable captain is indeed a fit reprethe Department and the Government sentative of the honor of Yankee Doodlejustly owe an acknowledgement even dom, for he violated the sovereignty of more earnest and emphatic,' than that France, and his own solemn pledge at they owe to his clerks! Oh! for a the same time, given to the commanding James to pourtray these 'scenes of naval French naval officer present, by causing action,' confined to a predatory warfare blue lights (brought all the way, no on the Potomac river, directed chiefly doubt, from New London, Conn.), to be against women and children; to the cap- burnt on board a Yankee schooner in ture of a sandbag battery at Hatteras; the harbor, to signal to him my departo the masterly movement of the great ture. But I only allude to this en pasDupont, the greatest naval commander sant, as France is abundantly able to of the age,' in Yankee hyperbole, who take care of her own honor,not only knows how to use gunpowder, but, with Yankee thrift, to turn an honest penny by selling it to the Government; When Mr. Welles learns, too, that on and to the pursuit of the piratical Sumter, away ever so far, even to the shores of Brazil, by the gallant Porter, who probably for this fact-so little material has Mr. Welles for heroes-will be made a flag officer.' I feel honored to have been thus pursued by six frigates, and if one of them caught Messrs. Mason and Slidell, instead of catching me, why that is John Bull's affair, and not mine. But I am fleeing from these ships, says Mr. Welles. Soft, Mr. Welles! He would have me fall into a Yankee trap he has set for me, and rush to the encounter of his six frigates, the least of which is twice my size, and of more than twice my weight of metal. He dares not send a ship of equal force to meet me, and if he did dare do so, being safely ensconced himself in his arm-chair, I venture to say that the officer would not dare to find me. But I have to inform Mr. Welles that by the same fatality,' I have run another blockade. I have lately steamed out of the port of St. Pierre, in the my way hither I burnt three more Yankee ships, and liberated a fourth, only because she had an English cargo on board, he will probably send six more of his doughty war-ships after me--that is to say, if he can spare them from burning corn-cribs and frightening women and children along our Southern coast. He will take especial care, too, to put plenty of men and guns on board of them, for otherwise I might not be in such constant flight to escape the avenging power of our vigilant naval forces.' A word or two more and I have done. What can wise Mr. Welles mean when he objects to the 'robbery of merchants and others engaged in peaceful commerce and lawful pursuits?' Does he not know that all property, with rare exceptions, captured on the high seas, is property belonging to 'merchants and others engaged in peaceful commerce and lawful pursuits? Why this senseless diatribe, then, about robbery and piracy, and private property Welles! The fact is, that this Northern horde of the Alani, which is bearing down upon the sunny fields of the South, in imitation of their ancient prototypes, has (while Mr. Welles is singing this hypocritical song) set all the rules of civilized warfare at defiance, and captured private property on the land as well as on the sea. The gallant Dupont laid his unscrupulous hands upon all the cotton he could find at Beaufort-a few bales only, as it happened and, first and last, many brilliant achievements in the way of stealing negroes and robbing and burning private residences, have been accomplished by these Northmen amid the various scenes of naval action,' in which they have flourished. But I grow tired of the subject, and I fear I have already trespassed too much upon your space and patience. I am reminded, too, of the old adage, that he who meddles with pitch shall be defiled,' and so I will take leave of Mr. Gideon Welles and his scurrilous report. and peaceful commerce, and lawful pur- เ 6 THE UPPER POTOMAC AND BAT “LE OF BALL'S BLUFF, VA., OCTOBER 21, 1861. SHORTLY after the battle of Bull Run, General Banks, the successor of General Paterson, in the Department of the Shenandoah, withdrew the Union troops from Harper's Ferry, by a ford above the burnt bridge, over the Potomac to the Maryland side of the river. This movement was made on Sunday, the 28th of July. The Union troops then in possession of the Maryland Heights, where the battery of Major Doubleday, of Fort Sumter memory, fully commanded the opposite town and its neighboring defences, were encamped along the river in the neighborhood at Sandy Hook, and other localities suffi ciently near to keep up a military supervision of the enemy, should they attempt any hostile movements. The policy of evacuating Harper's Ferry was obvious, in view of the outlying enemy in Virginia, and the necessity of organizing the newly-arrived regiments of volunteers, who came to take the place of the now rapidly departing three months' militia men. The service on the river, indeed, was well calculated to afford the new troops a practical experience of the art of war, since their camps were constantly liable to attack, and there were frequent minor conflicts with the enemy, keeping the division always on the alert. Among other skirmishes with the foe, there was a spirited attack by Captain Bush of Lockport, N. Y., at the head of a detachment of the New York 28th Volunteers, mostly composed of firemen, on the 5th of August, upon a squad of rebel cavalry, on the Virginia side, opposite Point of Rocks, when five of the enemy were killed, three wounded, and nine taken prisoners, with the capture of twenty horses. A week later a detachment of a hundred men of the New York 19th Volunteers, under Captain Kennedy, left the camp at Sandy Hook to attack a body of rebel cavalry which had made their appearance at Loudon county. Captain Kennedy crossed the river shortly after midnight, and reached Lovettsville, some seven miles distant through a rocky pass, about daylight. Disappointed in finding the enemy at that place, they were returning, when word was brought to them that Stewart's cavalry had reoccupied the town. Upon hearing this, they turned back, charged upon the town, and drove the enemy before them. On the 15th of September there was an attack by about 450 of the enemy upon the right of the pickets of Colonel John W. Geary, about three miles above Darnestown, opposite Pritchard's Mills. This officer, to whom the command of the troops, immediately opposite Harper's Ferry, was assigned, was an eminent citizen of Pennsylvania, whose military zeal had been displayed in the Mexican war, in command, on the field, of a regiment of volunteers from that State. He was wounded at Chapultepec, and distinguished himself in the attack upon the capital. On the conclusion of the war he became a resident of California, and was elected the first mayor of San Francisco. His subsequent appointment by President Buchanan as Governor of Kansas, will be remembered among the attempts to introduce order * Berlin, Md., correspondence of the New York Tribune, August 9, 1861. in that unsettled country. On the opening of the present war, Colonel Geary left his retirement in Pennsylvania to raise a regiment for the war. This he readily accomplished, and at the head of the 28th Regiment of State Volunteers, his command speedily proved one of the most important acquisitions of the service. "The affair above Darneston, says Colonel Geary, in his dispatch to General McClellan, "was a spirited one, lasting about two hours. The enemy was driven from every house and breastwork which they occupied. Eight or ten of them are said to be killed, and a number wounded. Our loss was one killed. Our victory was complete. The troops behaved admirably. Our cannon were indispensable, and rendered good service in this action.' Early in October there was something of greater importance in his command for Colonel Geary to communicate. On the 8th of the month Major J. P. Gould, of the 13th Massachusetts Volunteers, was sent across the river to seize a quantity of wheat held by the rebels at the mills, a few miles above Harper's Ferry. His arrival on the Virginia shore appears to have been the signal for the concentration of a body of the enemy in the neighborhood. Colonel Geary was called upon for reinforcements, which he promptly supplied, crossing himself on the 14th, aiding in the removal of the wheat, and holding the enemy in check. The troops under his command on the Virginia side, were four companies of his own 28th Pennsylvania regiment, three companies of the 13th Massachusetts, and three of the 3d Wisconsin, in all about 600 men. He had with him also two pieces of cannon under command of Captain Tompkins of the Rhode Island battery, and two pieces of the 9th New York battery under Lieutenant Martin. Major Gould was placed in command of the troops left on the Maryland side, 100 men of the Massachusetts regiment, and four pieces |