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Jefferson Davis, privateer.
[from the Savannah News, December 1, 1908.]
Thrilling story of the exploits of a Confederate privateer.
She performed services Invaluable to the South at a critical part of the Civil war.
The Confederate privateer,
Jefferson Davis, previously the condemned slave
brig Echo, and which is said to have been owned at one time by
J. R. Gilmore, better known as ‘
Edmund Kirke,’ whose death recently occurred in New York, has a history which inspires younger generations, who know of the chivalric deeds of the
Southerner in the 60's only through listening to the war tales told by the gray-haired around the fireside, or through the reading of a few disconnected portions of the inside history of the hosts who saw their last banner furled at
Appomattox, and wended their ways homeward to begin life over again after having revolutionized the wars of the world.
On bloody battlefields and on the high seas the soldiers and sailors of the
Confederacy covered themselves with glory, their fighting qualities giving to the world a story of self-sacrificing greatness unprecedented in the history of nations, to marvel at and to hand down to oncoming generations, but few of the adventures of the warrior of the
South, which were not buried with the gray-clad hero, are more thrilling than those of the crew of the privateer named after the
President of the
Confederacy.
The Jefferson Davis was 230 tons register and rated at 1 1/2, was a full-rigged brig, and carried four waist-guns, two eighteen-pounders and two twelve-pounders, and one long eighteen-pounder of old English make, amidships.
Starting out upon a privateering expedition in 1861, she was in command of
Captain Lewis M. Coxeter, who will be remembered by the older citizens of
Savannah as the commander of steam-packets plying between
Charleston,
Savannah and
Jacksonville.
Soon after leaving
Charleston the
Davis reaped a rich harvest in capturing Federal vessels with an estimated value of over $225,000. When the
Davis captured the
John Welsh, off Hatteras,
Captain
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Coxeter, after the work of transferring the stores had been completed, mustered all hands aft, and said to them:
‘Boys, if you molest the crew of that brig or their things to the value of a rope yarn, I will punish you to the utmost of my power.’
Turning to his officers, he said: ‘Gentlemen, I desire that you do everything in your power to make the stay of these gentlemen as agreeable as possible,’ concluding with an invitation to the captured officers to dine with him in his cabin.
A prize crew in charge of Prize Master Stevens was then put in charge of the captured vessel and ordered to put in at the nearest Southern port.
On the same day the schooner
Enchantress, from
Boston, was captured off
Montauk, and placed in charge of a former
Savannah pilot,
Wallace Smith.
She was ordered South.
On the following
Sunday the
Jefferson Davis captured the schooner S.
J.
Waring, of
Brookhaven, L. I., with a valuable cargo.
Montague Amiel, a Charleston pilot, was placed in charge, with a mate, second mate and two men.
William Tillman, a negro cook, two seamen and a passenger,
Bryce McKinnon, were left aboard, and late in the afternoon the captured prize was headed south.
On the night of July 16, 1861, when the
S. J. Waring was fifty miles south of
Charleston, and when the prize captain and mate were asleep in their berths, the second mate at the wheel and the others dozing or asleep,
William Tillman, the negro cook, carried out a preconcerted plan, killing the three with a hatchet and throwing their bodies overboard.
After retaking the vessel, the steward was in command, and shortly afterwards the
S. J. Waring was carried up to the
Battery in New York harbor by the pilot-boat
Jane.
After having captured a good number of Federal ships and retained their crews as prisoners of war, the
Davis, on July 9, took the ship
Mary Goodell, bound for
Buenos Ayres, and on account of the fact that the ship was useless to them, and not desiring to destroy life and property as a ruthless conqueror,
Captain Coxeter placed his prisoners aboard and allowed the
Mary Goodell to go free.
The havoc made by the
Jefferson Davis on the
Atlantic coast, the privateer having captured prizes which amounted to over $200,000, caused the greatest consternation and excitement in Northern ports.
Immediately upon learning of her career, the government at
Washington ordered a fleet composed of the
Jackson, Crawford and
Varina, in command of
Captain Howard, to search for the
Davis and destroy her, and it is a fact that the
Davis turned the tables in
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capturing the ship
Crawfordand burning her, after having taken aboard the crew of twenty-two persons.
The career of the
Davis was ended off the coast of
Florida on August 16, when, as the ship was making an effort to sail into the port of
St. Augustine, she struck.
A small boat was sent ashore for help and the prisoners were landed, and the
Confederate officers were greeted by the citizens of
St. Augustine with the most enthusiastic demonstrations, the ladies throwing open their houses and giving them reception after reception, sumptuously providing for them and affording them every comfort possible.
During the voyage of the
Davis a conspiracy existed among the prisoners and a portion of the crew to kill the commander and to take the vessel into New York.
After the return of the privateer to Confederate shores, the conspiracy was disclosed, and, upon the arrival at
Charleston, the suspected ones were arrested and given a trial, only one of the men proving to be guilty of the charge.
Wallace Smith, and three others of the crew of the
Davis, who were captured by the
Federals, were convicted in the United States Circuit Court at
Philadelphia upon an indictment of piracy.
A message was then sent to the government at
Washington by the Confederate government that if the seamen were executed, the
Confederate authorities would likewise execute several prominent prisoners of war then in the hands of the
Confederates, and the lives of the seamen were thus saved.
The career of the
Jefferson Davis reads like romance when the very interesting details of captures are told by those who remember when the
Davis was as much feared along the
Atlantic coast as the
Alabama was a terror in other waters.
Captain Coxeter, of the
Jefferson Davis, after the wreck of his vessel, went into the blockade-running service and commanded the steamers
Autonica and
Beauregard.
In his last trip to
Charleston, in command of the
Beauregard, he was fired at fifteen times by the
Federal blockaders.
He was very successful in the service, but, owing to ill-health, was compelled to resign.
