A Confederate Biography. Dwight Hughes

      

      Naval Institute Press

      291 Wood Road

      Annapolis, MD 21402

      © 2015 by Dwight Sturtevant Hughes

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

       Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Hughes, Dwight Sturtevant, author.

       A Confederate biography: the cruise of the CSS Shenandoah / Dwight Sturtevant Hughes.

       1 online resource.

       Summary: “From October 1864 to November 1865, the officers of the CSS Shenandoah carried the Confederacy and the conflict of the Civil War around the globe through extreme weather, alien surroundings, and the people they encountered. Her officers were the descendants of Deep South plantation aristocracy and Old Dominion first families: a nephew of Robert E. Lee, a grandnephew of founder George Mason, and descendants of one of George Washington’s generals and of an aid to Washington. One was even an uncle of a young Theodore Roosevelt and another was son-in-law to Raphael Semmes. Shenandoah’s mission — commerce raiding (guerre de course) — was a central component of U.S. naval and maritime heritage, a profitable business, and a watery form of guerrilla warfare. These Americans stood in defense of their country as they understood it, pursuing a difficult and dangerous mission in which they succeeded spectacularly after it no longer mattered. This is a biography of a ship and a cruise, and a microcosm of the Confederate-American experience”—Provided by publisher.

       Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

       ISBN 978-1-61251-842-8 (epub)

      1. Shenandoah (Cruiser) 2. United States—History—Civil War, 1861–1865—Naval operations, Confederate. 3. Confederate States of America. Navy—Officers—Biography. 4. Sailors—Confederate States of America—Biography. 5. Confederate States of America—History. 6. Voyages around the world—History—19th century. 7. Privateering—Bering Sea—History—19th century. 8. Bering Sea—History, Naval. 9. Ocean travel—History—19th century. I. Title.

       E599.S5

       973.7’57—dc23

      2015036156

       Print editions meet the requirements of ANSI/NISO z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).

      23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

      First printing

       To my loving wife, Judi, the light of my life. She encouraged me to begin this book many years ago while I was undergoing cancer treatments and inspired me throughout.

       If I take wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.

      Psalm 139:9–10 (KJV)

       Contents

      Cruise of the CSS Shenandoah

      Plans of the CSS Shenandoah

Preface

Introduction

1 “Otro Alabama”

2 “Do . . . the Greatest Injury”

3 “None but Fiends Could”

4 “Now Came the Trouble”

      5 “Oh, It’s a Grand Sight”

      6 “Running Her Easting Down”

      7 The Queen of the Delphine

      8 End of the International Road

      9 The War Down Under

      10 Charley the Cook

      11 “On the Bright Blue Sea”

      12 “The Abomination of Isolation”

      13 “Upon a Stone Altar”

      14 The World on Fire

      15 Invading the North

      16 High Tide of the Confederacy

      17 “The Darkest Day”

      18 “A Feeling Approaching Panic”

      19 “Having Done My Duty”

      Epilogue

      Notes

      Selected Bibliography

      Index

       Cruise of the CSS Shenandoah

      19 October 1864–6 November 1865

       CSS Shenandoah Sail Plan

      From Builder’s Plans, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich J. M. Caiella

       American Confederate Cruiser Shenandoah ex–Sea King No. 42 Later the Sultan of Zanzibar’s Yacht

      The CSS Shenandoah was an auxiliary screw steamer with 200 horsepower vertical reciprocating engines by A&J Inglis and a design speed of nine knots.

      From Builder’s Plans, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich J. M. Caiella

       Preface

      The officers of the CSS Shenandoah, along with those who sent them and those who confronted them, left an abundance of first-person accounts. This embarrassment of riches in primary sources generated a daunting, but rewarding, task of editing. And so, this tale can be told almost exclusively by those who lived it. The accounts are concentrated in four personal cruise journals, two memoirs, exhaustive official documentation of postwar claims against Great Britain for supporting Confederate commerce raiders, the ever-useful Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies, and contemporary newspapers. Collectively, these sources provide virtually every contemporary word written by those involved in or concerned about the events described.

      The author has attempted to edit, condense, collate, paraphrase, and quote their words into a consistent narrative,