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| Navy Yard at Pensacola. |
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fifteen in number, bearing upon the bay, were, by Slemmer's orders, spiked in position, for he had neither time nor means to dismount them.
The arrangement for the Wyandot and Supply to anchor near Fort Pickens was not carried out; and, to the astonishment of Slemmer, he was informed that Commodore Armstrong had ordered both vessels away, the former to the south side of Cuba, and the latter to her final destination off Vera Cruz, with coals and stores for the Home Squadron there.
He remonstrated, but in vain.
That night Captain Berryman sent him some muskets which he had procured, with difficulty, from the Navy Yard, to arm his seamen; and Captain Walke assured him that he would afford him all the aid in his power, in defense of the fort.
On the morning of the 10th, about five hundred troops of Florida and Alabama, and a few from Mississippi, commanded by Colonel Lomax, of Florida, appeared at the Navy Yard, and demanded its immediate surrender to the authorities of the State.
Armstrong was powerless.
Of the sixty officers and men under his command, he afterward said, more than three-fourths of them were disloyal, and some were active traitors.
Commander Farrand was actually among the insurgents who demanded the surrender
of the post.
These disloyal men would have revolted, had the Commodore made the least resistance, and he was compelled to yield.
Lieutenant Renshaw, the Flag-officer, and one of the leading traitors there, immediately ordered the National standard to be pulled down.
When at a little less than half-mast it was allowed to fall suddenly to the ground, when a greater portion of the men present, led by Lieutenant J. R. Eggleston, of the Wyandot, greeted the dishonored banner with derisive shouts.
The command of the Navy Yard was then given to Captain V. M. Randolph, another naval officer who had abandoned his flag; and the post, with ordnance stores valued at one hundred and fifty-six thousand dollars, passed into the hands of the authorities of Florida.1 At the same time Colonel Lomax and some men took possession of Fort Barrancas, and restored the disabled guns; and another party was soon afterward thrown into Fort McRee.
Farrand, Renshaw, Randolph, and Eggleston had already sent their resignations to
1 When Colonel Lomax demanded the surrender of the Navy Yard, Commodore Armstrong said, that he had served his country faithfully all his life; that he loved the old flag, and had protected it in sunshine and in storm; that his heart was bleeding because of the distractions of his country; that he was a native of Kentucky, which had no navy, and, therefore, he knew not where he should go to make a livelihood in his declining years; that he had no adequate force to make resistance, and if he had, he would rather lose his own life than to destroy the lives of his countrymen. He then said that he “relinquished his authority to the representatives of the Sovereignty of Florida.” --Pensacola Observer, January 15, 1861.
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