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Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buell, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War: The Opening Battles. Volume 1., The first fight of iron-clads. (search)
een promoted, and should have succeeded him. He had fitted out the ship and armed her, and had commanded during the second day's fight. However, the department thought otherwise, and selected Commodore Josiah Tattnall; The explosion on the burning Congress. except Lieutenant Jones he was the best man. He had distinguished himself in the wars of 1812 and with Mexico. No one stood higher as an accomplished and chivalrous officer. While in command of the United States squadron in the East Indies, he was present as a neutral at the desperate fight at the Peiho Forts, below Pekin, between the English fleet and the Chinese, when the former lost nearly one-half of a force of twelve hundred engaged. Seeing his old friend Sir James Hope hard pressed and in need of assistance, having had four vessels sunk under him, he had his barge manned, and with his flag-lieutenant, S. D. Trenchard, pulled alongside the flag-ship, through the midst of a tremendous fire, in which his coxswain was ki
John James Geer, Beyond the lines: A Yankee prisoner loose in Dixie, Chapter 17: (search)
iculty or disaster occurred. Servants found masters, and masters hired servants; all gained homes, and, at night, scarcely an idler was to be seen. To state that sudden emancipation would create disorder and distress to those you mean to serve, is not reason, but the plea of all men adverse to abolition. On the 1st of August, 1834, the government of Great Britain emancipated the slaves in all her colonies, of which she had twenty, viz., seventeen in the West Indies, and three in the East Indies. The numerical superiority of the negroes in the West was great. In Jamaica, there were three hundred and thirty-one thousand slaves, and only thirty-seven thousand whites. Even by the clumsy apprenticeship system, where the stimulus of the whip was removed without being replaced by the stimulus of wages, the negroes were a little improved. They knew they would not be lashed if they did not work, and that if they did work they would not be paid for it. Yet, under such disadvantage
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Army Life in a Black Regiment, Chapter 4: up the St. John's. (search)
the matter with Major-General Hunter, then commanding the Department. Hilton Head, in those days, seemed always like some foreign military station in the tropics. The long, low, white buildings, with piazzas and verandas on the waterside; the general impression of heat and lassitude, existence appearing to pulsate only with the sea-breeze; the sandy, almost impassable streets; and the firm, level beach, on which everybody walked who could get there: all these suggested Jamaica or the East Indies. Then the Headquarters at the end of the beach, the Zouave sentinels, the successive anterooms, the lounging aids, the good-natured and easy General,--easy by habit and energetic by impulse,--all had a certain air of Southern languor, rather picturesque, but perhaps not altogether bracing. General Hunter received us, that day, with his usual kindliness; there was a good deal of pleasant chat; Miles O'Reilly was called in to read his latest verses; and then we came to the matter in hand
Varina Davis, Jefferson Davis: Ex-President of the Confederate States of America, A Memoir by his Wife, Volume 2, Chapter 82: the East India fleet. (search)
Chapter 82: the East India fleet. Of course, in the long years after the war, there were many recitations of Mr. Davis's shortcomings, given by one or other of those who thought a mistake had been made when he was asked to preside over the Confederate States. One of these is his alleged failure to purchase the E. I. fleet, which was revamped in 1889 and given to the journals of the day. Judge Roman, in his book entitled Military operations of General Beauregard, states that: While journeying from Charleston to Montgomery, General Beauregard met Mr. W. L. Trenholm, whose father, George A. Trenholm, was a partner in the great firm of John Frazer & Co., of Charleston and Liverpool. This gentleman, as he informed General Beauregard, was the bearer of important propositions from the English branch of their house to the Confederate Government, for the purchase of ten large and powerful steamers, just built in England for the East Indian Company, which, no longer needing the
Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events, Diary from December 17, 1860 - April 30, 1864 (ed. Frank Moore), 1861, December (search)
for the return to the State of ex-Governor Morehead and other political prisoners, and affirming that the President's Message foreshadows the impossibility of preserving or reconstructing the Union. They were referred to the Committee on Federal Relations.--Secretary Cameron's policy of emancipation and arming the slaves was condemned by the Louisville papers. At Philadelphia, Pa., the marines and sailors of the United States steamer Hartford, recently arrived at that place from the East Indies, marched to Independence Hall this morning and presented to the city a splendid flag made during the voyage home of silk purchased in Canton. The flag was raised at noon from the flag-staff, amid great enthusiasm. Salutes were fired at the Navy Yard and from the Hartford at the same time.--Philadelphia Inquirer, Dec. 9. This afternoon at 2 o'clock, the new side-wheel U. S steamer built at the Navy Yard, Brooklyn, N. Y., and named the Octarora, was launched. This vessel is construc
Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events, Diary from December 17, 1860 - April 30, 1864 (ed. Frank Moore), 1863, December (search)
from doing more damage. Gregg's Yankee cavalry pursued, but did not overtake him. General Rosser was forced to swim Bull Run. His loss was very slight, if any. The enemy, while in pursuit, destroyed two tanneries and a lot of leather at Sperryville, Rappahannock County; also, two tanneries, a flour-mill and some government workshops at Luray, in Page County. They also committed many other excesses, including the taking away of negroes, and shot a confederate named Smedley, at Washington, Rappahannock County, after he had surrendered.--Richmond Papers. The rebel privateer Alabama captured the American ships Sonora and Highlander, both lying at anchor at a point about ten miles east of the North Sands light-ship, near Singapore, East-Indies. Captain Semmes ordered the captains of both ships on board the Alabama, examined their papers, and allowing them to take a small quantity of clothing, burned their ships, and sent them adrift in their boats without any water or provisions.
Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buell, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. Volume 4., The Confederate cruisers. (search)
and also with a general authority to fit out ships of war. In March, 1863, he purchased on the Clyde the Japan, a new iron screw steamer. She was an excellent vessel, although built for the merchant service, but she was seriously defective as a commerce-destroyer, from the lack of auxiliary sail-power, a defect which Bulloch, in his contracts and purchases, had uniformly avoided. The Japan cleared from Greenock on the 1st of April, 1863, in ballast, as a merchant vessel, bound for the East Indies. A shipping firm of Liverpool was employed as the intermediary to cover all the transactions. One member of the firm was the ostensible owner, and the Japan was registered in his name as a British vessel, and remained so for three months, though engaged during this time in active hostilities against the United States. Another member of the firm shipped the crew, and took charge of a small steamer which cleared about the same time from Newhaven, with a cargo of guns and ammunition. The
Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buell, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. Volume 4., chapter 12.91 (search)
s and men, received every attention while on board the Alabama. As the reader will see, this was quite in contrast with the treatment received by us from the Kearsarge upon the sinking of the Alabama.--J. McI. K. See also pages 620 and 621.--editors. We paroled the officers and crew of the Hatteras at Kingston, Jamaica, and after repairing a few shot-holes and coaling ship, we passed on to our work in the South Atlantic, taking our position at the cross-roads of the homeward-bound East India and Pacific trade. After a few weeks of good work in that locality and along the coast of Brazil, we crossed over to the Cape of Good Hope, where we played hide and seek with the United States steamer Vanderbilt, whose commander, Charles H. Baldwin, had explained to Sir Baldwin Walker, the English Admiral of the station at Simon's Town, that he did not intend to fire a gun at the Alabama, but to run her down and sink her. We were not disposed to try issues with the Vanderbilt; so one nig
Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1., Chapter 24: the called session of Congress.--foreign relations.--benevolent organizations.--the opposing armies. (search)
on the 15th of April, electrified the women of the land; and individuals and small groups might be seen every day, in thousands and tens of thousands of house-holds — women and children — with busy fingers preparing lint and bandages for wounds, and hospital garments for the sick and maimed, and shelters for the heads and necks of the soldiers, when marching in the hot sun, known as havelocks. The name of havelock was derived from Sir Henry Havelock, an eminent English commander in the East Indies during the rebellion of the Sepoys, in 1857, who caused his soldiers to be furnished with these protectors against the heat of the sun. They were made of white cotton cloth, and covered the military cap and the neck with a cape. Our soldiers soon discarded them, as being more uncomfortable, by the exclusion of air, than any rays of the sun to which they were exposed. They had been sent to the army by thousands. The movement was spontaneous and universal. The necessity for some systemat
Admiral David D. Porter, The Naval History of the Civil War., Chapter 3: closing of Southern ports.--increase of the Navy.--list of vessels and their stations.--purchased vessels.--vessels constructing, etc. (search)
p 13 Nov. 15. Relief Storeship. 2 Oct. 12. From coast of Brazil: Name. Class. No. of Guns. Date of Arrival. Congress Frigate 50 August 12. Seminole Steam Sloop 5 July 6. The following had not arrived, Dec., 1861. From East Indies: Name. Class. No. of Guns.   John Adams Sloop 20   Hartford Steam Sloop 16   Dacotah Steam Sloop 6   The following were to remain abroad: Name. Class. No. of Guns. Where Stationed. Saratoga Sloop 18 Coast of Africa. Pulaski Steamer 1 Coast of Brazil. Saginaw Steamer 3 East Indies. Add to these the vessels on the Pacific coast, the steam frigate Niagara, returning from Japan, and four tenders and storeships, and there was a total of 42 vessels, carrying 555 guns and about 7,600 men, in commission on the 4th of March, 1861. Without awaiting the arrival of vessels from our foreign squadrons, the department early directed such as were dismantled and in ordinary at the different yards, and which c
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