James Russell Soley, Professor U. S. Navy, Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 7.1, The blockade and the cruisers
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

[189] the two vessels, and the latter proceeded by way of St. Thomas to Hampton Roads. Here the Florida was sunk, according to the official declaration of the United States Government, through ‘an unforeseen accident,’ after a collision with an army transport.

The capture of the Florida was as gross and deliberate a violation of the rights of neutrals as was ever committed in any age or country. It is idle to attempt to apologize for it or to explain it; the circumstances were such that the question does not admit of discussion. All that can be said is that it was the independent act of an officer, and that it was disavowed by the Government. In the words of the Secretary of State, it ‘was an unauthorized, unlawful, and indefensible exercise of the naval force of the United States within a foreign country, in defiance of its established and duly recognized Government.’ That the action of Collins met with approval and satisfaction throughout the country, in spite of the official utterances, is not to be wondered at, considering that communities in general know little of international law, and in a case of this kind do not stop to reason about principles. Moreover, the slight regard which, during nearly four years, neutrals had shown for their obligations toward the United States, and the use of their own territories which they had permitted to the Southern cruisers, had aroused in this country a just indignation and a deep-seated sense of wrong and outrage. Collins refers to the previous conduct of Brazil by way of justification. He says in his report: ‘I thought it probable the Brazilian authorities would forbear to interfere, as they had done at Fernando de Noronha, when the rebel steamer Alabama was permitted to take into the anchorage three American ships, and to take coal from the Cora [Louisa] Hatch within musket-shot of the fort; and afterward, within easy range of their guns, to set on fire ’