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Browsing named entities in a specific section of Thomas C. DeLeon, Four years in Rebel capitals: an inside view of life in the southern confederacy, from birth to death.. Search the whole document.

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Pickett (search for this): chapter 31
w trusty men and picked officers; glide silently out from Richmond, where his duties as colonel of cavalry on the President's staff chained him most of the time. Soon would come an echo from the frontier, telling of quick, sharp struggle; victorious boarding and a Federal gunboat or two given to the flames. I have already alluded to his dashing raid upon the fishery fleet; but his cunning capture of the gunboats in the Rappahannock, or his cool and daring attack on the Underwriter, during Pickett's movement on Newberne, would alone give him undying reputation. The United States had a navy in her waters that would class as the third maritime power of the world; and this she rapidly increased by every appliance of money, skill and energy. She bought and built ships and spent vast sums and labor in experiments in ordnance, armoring and machinery. As result of this, the Federal navy, at the end of the second year of the war, numbered some 390 vessels of all grades, carrying a fra
Pendergrast (search for this): chapter 31
the ship's side; she filled rapidly-careened --went down by the bows — her flag still flying-her men still at quarters! On past her-scarce checked in her deadly-slow course-moved the Virginia. Then she closed on the Congress, and one terrific broadside after another raked the frigate; till, trembling like a cardhouse, she hauled down her colors and raised the white flag. The Beaufort ranged alongside and received the flag of the Congress, and her captain, William R. Smith, and Lieutenant Pendergrast as prisoners of war. These officers left their side-arms on the Beaufort and returned to the Congress; whennotwithstand-ing the white flag — a hot fire was opened from shore upon the Beaufort, and she was compelled to withdraw. Lieutenant Robert Minor was then sent in a boat from the Virginia to fire the frigate; but was badly wounded by a Minie-ball, from under the white flag; and Captain Buchanan was seriously hit in the leg by the same volley. Then it was determined to burn the
Montgomery (search for this): chapter 31
rs of the Union. Mr. Mallory took charge of the Navy Department in March, 1861. At this time the question of iron-clads had attention of naval builders on both sides of the Atlantic; and deeming them indispensable to naval warfare, the Secretary's first movement was a strong memoir to Congress, urging immediate and heavy appropriations for their construction at New Orleans and Mobile. With a treasury empty and immovably averse to anything like decisive action, the astute lawgivers of Montgomery hesitated and doubted. The most that could be forced from them were small appropriations for the fitting out of privateers. The first venture, the Sumter, was bought, equipped and put into commission at the end of April; and in the course of a few weeks she ran out of New Orleans, in command of Raphael Semmes, and the stars and bars were floating solitary, but defiant, over the seas. The history of her cruise, the terror she spread among the enemy's shipping, and the paralysis she se
Robert Minor (search for this): chapter 31
dside after another raked the frigate; till, trembling like a cardhouse, she hauled down her colors and raised the white flag. The Beaufort ranged alongside and received the flag of the Congress, and her captain, William R. Smith, and Lieutenant Pendergrast as prisoners of war. These officers left their side-arms on the Beaufort and returned to the Congress; whennotwithstand-ing the white flag — a hot fire was opened from shore upon the Beaufort, and she was compelled to withdraw. Lieutenant Robert Minor was then sent in a boat from the Virginia to fire the frigate; but was badly wounded by a Minie-ball, from under the white flag; and Captain Buchanan was seriously hit in the leg by the same volley. Then it was determined to burn the Congress with hot shot. There is no room for comment here; and no denial of these facts has ever been made, or attempted. Meanwhile, the frigates Minnesota, St. Lawrence and Roanoke had advanced and opened fire on the Virginia; but upon her app
Merrimac (search for this): chapter 31
cruisers the parole of Pirate Semmes what iron-clads might have done Treasury and Navy the Merrimac Virginia fight in Hampton Roads the white-flag Violation those wonderful wooden shells othtreat-stimulated the Government. A meager appropriation was passed for the construction of the Merrimac; or rather for an iron-clad ship upon the hull of the half-destroyed frigate of that name. Hadven in the case of these, energy and capital were divided and distracted. On completion of the Merrimac, there were in the course of construction at New Orleans, two mailed vessels of a different claess at the trying moment, or to fall a prey to superior force of the enemy. The plan of the Merrimac was unique, in the submersion of her projecting eaves; presenting a continuous angling coat of mail even below the water-surface. She was built upon the razeed hull of the old Merrimac, of four-and-a-half-inch iron, transverse plates; and carried an armament of seven-inch rifled Brooke guns, m
McIntosh (search for this): chapter 31
or the far graver disaster of the closing of the whole river and the blockade of the trans-Mississippi. For had the Louisiana been furnished with two companion ships of equal strength-or even had she been completely finished and not had been compelled to succumb to accidents within, while she braved the terrific fire from without — the Federal fleet might have been crushed like egg-shells; the splendid exertions of Hollins and Kennon in the past would not have been nullified; the blood of McIntosh and Huger would not have been useless sacrifice; and the homes of the smiling city and the pure vicinage of her noble daughters might not have been polluted by the presence of the commandant, who crawled in after the victorious fleet. Norfolk, however, had comeinto southern possession, by the secession of Virginia; and the vast resources of her navy-yard-only partly crippled by the haste of the Federal retreat-stimulated the Government. A meager appropriation was passed for the constru
McClellan (search for this): chapter 31
aste of the Federal retreat-stimulated the Government. A meager appropriation was passed for the construction of the Merrimac; or rather for an iron-clad ship upon the hull of the half-destroyed frigate of that name. Had the whole amount necessary for her completion been given, the vessel would have been ready weeks before she was, under the dribblet system adopted. Then, indeed, it would be hard to overestimate her value; damage to shipping in Hampton Roads; or her ultimate effect upon McClellan's campaign. No appropriation for an object of vital import could be shaken free from its bonds of red tape; and this one was saddled with an incubus, in the bill for the construction of one hundred gunboats. The scheme to build that number of wooden vessels of small size seemed equally short-sighted and impracticable. They could only be built on inland rivers and creeks, to prevent attacks by the enemy's heavier vessels; and hence they were necessarily small and ineffective. The int
S. R. Mallory (search for this): chapter 31
Who the southern sailors were regular and provisional Navy-bills popular estimate of Mr. Mallory iron-clads vs. cruisers the parole of Pirate Semmes what iron-clads might have done Treabordinate officers, for shore duty in its work-shops and navy-yards. The acceptability of Mr. Mallory to the people, at the outset of his career, has been noted. They believed that his long expethe counsel and aid of some of the most efficient of the scientific sailors of the Union. Mr. Mallory took charge of the Navy Department in March, 1861. At this time the question of iron-clads hned against. The old adage about giving a bad name, however, was more than illustrated in Mr. Mallory's case. He had no doubt been unfortunate; but that he really was guilty of one-half the erro result of circumstance, every accident, every inefficiency of a subordinate was visited upon Mr. Mallory's head. Public censure always makes the meat it feeds on; and the secretary soon became the
Maffitt (search for this): chapter 31
r in service, whose long career gained him nothing but respect under the northern-nothing but glory under the southern flag. If Raphael Semmes be a pirate, then was the northern recognition of belligerents but an active lie! Then was Robert E. Lee a marauder-Wade Hampton but a bushwhacker, and Joseph E. Johnston but a guerrilla! When the Sumter began her work, she was soon followed by the Florida --a vessel somewhat better, but still of the same class. Under the dashing and efficient Maffitt, the Florida, too, wrought daring destruction. Her record, like that of her rival, is too familiar for repetition; ag is the later substitution of the Alabama for the worn-out Sumter. During the long war, these three vessels-and but two of them at one time — were the only cruisers the Confederacy had afloat; until just before its close, the Shenandoah went out to strike fresh terror to the heart and pocket of New England. Then, also, that stronghanded and cool-headed amphiboid, Colonel
Lynch (search for this): chapter 31
contracted limits of a razeed tug, or an armed pilot boat. But once there he made the best of it; and how well he wrought in the new sphere, the names of Hollins, Lynch, Buchanan and Tucker still attest. At the time the first Army Bill was passed by Congress, a law was also made securing to resigned naval officers the same ranBarney, and the Yorktown, Captain Tucker, down from Richmond; while he went out with the Raleigh and Beaufort --two of the smallest class of gunboats, saved by Captain Lynch from Roanoke Island. This combined force-four of the vessels being frail wooden shells, formerly used as river passenger boats-carried only twenty-seven guns.ly dying, not from the blow of an enemy, but from the fault of those who sent her forth unfinished and incomplete! Those trying times recall the conduct of Captain Lynch and his squadron of shells; and of the veteran Cooke in the batteries, on the dark day that lost Roanoke Island. Nor may we lose sight of the splendid conduct
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