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Varina Davis, Jefferson Davis: Ex-President of the Confederate States of America, A Memoir by his Wife, Volume 2, Chapter 77: the Wreck of the Pacific.—the Mississippi Valley Society. (search)
ward among the terror-stricken crew, calm and selfpossessed, and called for volunteers to go with him to death for the sake of men he did not know, and to save the property of a company which had causelessly thrown him out of employment a few weeks before. Attracted by his daring, he was taken into the service of the Goodall & Nelsons Steamship line and given the old Pacific, plying from Seattle to San Francisco, with the hope of commanding a fine steamer then on the stocks, The North Pacific coast is at best a dangerous one, and in the last letter written before his death he said: This coast is dangerous, and I am never thoroughly asleep until I reach Seattle and leaving there, keep the same watch to San Francisco again. I have not felt robust this year, and in fact have not felt the spring of youth since my imprisonment. After she had cleared the harbor of Seattle, Thursday, November 4, I875, Captain Howell went to sleep, but in a few minutes afterward a sailing-vessel
Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 5. (ed. Reverend J. William Jones), The true story of the capture of Jefferson Davis. (search)
it was written invests it with a painful interest: Letter from Admiral Semmes. Mobile, Alabama, August 13th, 1877. Major W. T. Walthall: Dear sir: You are quite right as to the locus in quo of the Shenandoah. She was either in the North Pacific or Indian ocean at the time of the surrender. The news of the final catastrophe to our arms reached her in the latter ocean, when she struck her guns below in her hold, made the best of her way to England, and surrendered herself to the Bri statement given to a credulous world? Mr. Davis and his Cabinet were so extremely concerned for their personal safety that they took the one impossible way to secure it! The Shenandoah was then, and long had been, on the broad bosom of the Pacific ocean, hunted on all sides by Federal cruisers, and without a single friendly port in which to drop her anchor. Were these orders sent around the Horn, or overland from Texas? How long would it have taken them to find her and bring her to the coa
Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buell, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War: Volume 2., Canby's services in the New Mexican campaign. (search)
Sibley succeeded in his enterprise. The Confederacy would have controlled the Gulf of California alnd the two finest harbors on the Pacific coast with a coast-line of 1200 or 1500 miles. The conquest alone of this vast domain, in all probability,would have insured the recognition of the Confederacy by the European powers. Owing to the remoteness of this coast it would have been impossible for us to have effectually blockaded it. In fact the Confederates could have overpowered us in the Pacific Ocean, as all the advantages of position and materials would have been on their side. Finally, the current of gold, that, according to Mr. Lincoln, formed the life-blood of our financial credit, would have been diverted from Washington to Richmond. What then would have been the relative quotations of Green-backs and Graybacks? Unquestionably the Confederate paper would have been worth at least as much as ours, and the oceans would have swarmed with Alabamas. But it may be asked, to what ext
Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buell, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. Volume 4., The Confederate cruisers. (search)
ed to the United States. The last of the Confederate commerce-destroyers was the Sea King, or Shenandoah. Commander John M. Brooke, the Confederate ordnance officer at Richmond, devised the plan which was afterward adopted on her cruise. Brooke's service in the North Pacific Exploring Expedition of 1855 had familiarized him with the movements of the New Bedford whaling fleet, and it was against this fleet that the proposed cruise was to be made. The whalers generally cruised in the South Pacific in winter, going in the spring to Behring Strait, where they remained during the summer season, returning in October to the Sandwich Islands. As the Alabama and her consorts had nearly swept American commerce from the seas, the whaling fleet was the only remaining object of naval attack. The summer of 1864 was now nearly over, and it was evident to Bulloch that no ships specially fitted for war could safely be purchased in England. He therefore turned his attention to securing a mer
Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1., Chapter 4: seditious movements in Congress.--Secession in South Carolina, and its effects. (search)
e. venerable John J. Crittenden offered to the Senate a series of amendments of the Constitution, and Joint Resolutions, for the protection of Slavery and the interests of the slaveholders, which, embodied, are known in history as the, Crittenden Compromise. The amendments proposed were substantially as; follows:-- I. To re-establish, as a boundary between Free and Slave-labor States forever, the parallel of 36° 30‘ north latitude, running from the southern boundary of Missouri to the Pacific Ocean, and known as the Missouri Compromise line. North of that line there should be no Slavery; south of it, the system might flourish, and all interference with it by the Congress should be forbidden. Not only this, but the Congress, by law, should protect this) property of the slave-owners from interference by all the departments of the Territorial government, during its continuance as such. That such Territory should, when legally qualified, be admitted into the Union as a State, with o
Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1., Chapter 8: attitude of the Border Slave-labor States, and of the Free-labor States. (search)
e Legislature was ready to respond to these words by acts, but no occasion seemed to call for them at that time, and nothing was done until after the attack on Fort Sumter. Then the people of Wisconsin gave men and money freely to the great cause of American Nationality. Westward of the Mississippi River, and stretching away northward along its course from the borders of Missouri, were the young and vigorous States of Iowa and Minnesota; and across the continent, on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, was California. The hearts of the people of these States beat responsive to Union sentiments whenever uttered. Iowa had nearly seven hundred thousand inhabitants. Its Governor, Samuel J. Kirkwood, was thoroughly loyal, and spared no exertions in raising troops for the defense of the State against lawless insurgents that might come up from Missouri, and in aid of the National Government, Samuel J. Kirkwood. when the President called for them. In this emergency, the Governor said,
Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1., Chapter 10: Peace movements.--Convention of conspirators at Montgomery. (search)
ive. were yet ringing in the ears of the people, and his present attitude needed explanation. He thought it prudent not to attempt any explanation, and simply remarked: It is sufficient for me to say, that it may be deemed questionable if any good citizen can refuse to discharge any duty which may be assigned him by his country in her hour of need. At Milledgeville, in November, See page 54. Mr. Stephens's vision of his c country embraced the whole Republic, from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean, and from the region of ice to the region of perpetual bloom, with a population of more than thirty millions. At Montgomery, in February--ninety dayslater — he saw his country dwarfed to the insignificant area of six Cotton-producing States on the coast, with a population of four millions five hundred thousand, nearly one-half of whom were bond-slaves, and a seventh (Texas) just marching up to join the sad assemblage of recusants. After the election of Davis and Stephens, the Convent
Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 3., Chapter 16: career of the Anglo-Confederate pirates.--closing of the Port of Mobile — political affairs. (search)
ndment to the Constitution for the prohibition of slavery; a proffer of thanks to the soldiers and sailors who had helped to save their country; an expression of perfect confidence in Abraham Lincoln, the President of the United States, and an indorsement of his acts; a declaration that it was the duty of the Government to give equal protection to all persons in its service without regard to color; that foreign emigration should be encouraged; that a speedy completion of a railway to the Pacific Ocean was desirable; that the National faith in relation to the public debt must be kept inviolate; and that the Monroe Doctrine was wise and just. The Convention then nominated Abraham Lincoln for President, and Andrew Johnson, then Military Governor of Tennessee, for Vice-President. At about that time, the Democratic or Opposition party had postponed the assembling of a National Convention to nominate a candidate for the Presidency, which had been appointed for the 4th of July, until the
Admiral David D. Porter, The Naval History of the Civil War., chapter 48 (search)
s running out, and decided to shape his course for the Island of Martinique, where he had directed Captain Bullock to send him a coal-ship. On the 2d of November he captured the Levi Starbuck, a New Bedford whaler, bound on a voyage to the Pacific Ocean. Like all her class just starting out, she was filled with all sorts of stores and Yankee nicknacks; and although the Alabama had been filled up a dozen times since she started from the Azores with stores taken from her prizes, yet she had the applied the torch without compunction, and the career of the Golden Eagle was speedily terminated. The Alabama now crossed the equator and stationed herself in the great tollgate of commerce, through which traders from India, China, the Pacific Ocean and South America were continually passing, rejoicing as they reached these latitudes that the long, weary road was behind them, and that but a short and easy passage lay between them and their homes. It had never occurred to the American
G. S. Hillard, Life and Campaigns of George B. McClellan, Major-General , U. S. Army, Chapter 2: (search)
sance of great value, and, though performed under adverse circumstances, exhibits all the information necessary to determine the practicability of this portion of the route, and reflects the highest credit on the capacity and resources of that officer. In addition to his duties upon the railroad-survey, Captain McClellan had been directed by the Secretary of War to superintend the construction of the military road from Walla-Walla to Steilacoom. This road was built after he had left the Pacific region; but the contracts and arrangements were made by him before his departure. He returned( home in the spring of 1854. In the summer of that year he was sent on a secret expedition to the West Indies, the object of which was to select a harbor and procure a site suitable for a coaling-station. It was a service of some danger, as it exposed him to the influences of a tropical climate in the hottest season of the year. lie went out in a United States vessel under the command of Lieu
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