Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

[366]

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

The Sabine.1

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. At 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 Headquarters 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

April 12, 1861.

Worden's message was delivered to Captain Adams, and Fort Pickens was re-enforced that night.²

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