CHAP. I. Mississippi, towards the end of June; and continued her cruise, mainly in the Caribbean Sea, and along the South American coast, capturing and burning American merchantmen, until the following January. A number of war ships were sent in pursuit, but they failed to find her till she sailed for European waters, and entered the harbor of Cadiz for repairs. From there she went to Gibraltar, where, unable immediately to obtain coal, she was delayed until three United States vessels arrived and maintained a watch from neighboring ports with a view to her capture; and this circumstance with others compelled her abandonment and sale, after having Sumter." made in all some eighteen captures, of which number she bonded two and burned seven. Other privateers extemporized during the first year of the war, while they became a serious annoyance to American commerce, generally had a shorter career. Of those captured only the Savannah requires special mention. She was a schooner of fifty-three tons burthen with one pivot gun, and was fitted out as a privateer at Charleston, from which port she sailed on her cruise on the 2d of June, 1861. She captured a merchant brig on the following day about fifty miles east of Charleston, and the same afternoon gave chase to another vessel, which she supposed would fall an easy prey. She soon discovered that she had made a serious mistake; the stranger proved to be the United States brig-of-war Perry, which in turn overhauled and captured the Savannah about nightfall. The privateersmen, thirteen in number, were taken off their vessel and sent to New-York. They were given in charge of the United States marshal, and Raphael Semmes, "Cruise of the Alabama and Vol. I., p. 254. 1861. A. F. Warburton, "Trial of the Officers and Crew of the Privateer Savan nah." CHAP. I. placed in confinement; and on the 16th of July the Grand Jury of the United States Circuit Court indicted them for the crime of robbery on the high seas. The capture of the prisoners of course came to the knowledge of the rebel Government at Richmond, through the reports printed in the Northern newspapers, coupled with rumors of their probable trial and execution as pirates, under the President's proclamation. On the strength of these reports, Jefferson Davis, some ten days before the actual indictment, wrote a letter to President Lincoln, which he transmitted by flag of truce through the military lines. In this letter he gave notice that, as a measure of retaliation for the alleged treatment of the privateersmen, he had caused certain Union prisoners taken by the rebel forces to be placed in strict confinement, and that the Confederate Government "will deal out to the prisoners held by it the same treatment and the same fate as shall be experienced by those captured in the Savannah." When, a short time afterwards, the battle of Bull Run occurred, in which the Confederates captured a number of Union colonels and other officers, this intention of the Richmond authorities to make summary retaliation was further manifested by a rigorous treatment of the new captives. Davis to Lincoln, July 6, 1861. MS. 1861. President Lincoln made no reply to the letter of Mr. Davis. The indicted prisoners were brought into court, and on July 23d pleaded not guilty. An array of eminent counsel appeared for both the prosecution and the defense; but on account of the illness of Justice Nelson of the United States Supreme Court, sitting with the District CHAP. I. Judge, the trial was finally postponed till the third Monday of October. Before that date the operations of the war, both military and naval, were expanded to such a degree, and the number of prisoners captured, of other privateersmen, as well as of the land forces, had already become so considerable as to compel a radical change of practice in their treatment and disposition. It grew evident that even if the crime of piracy could be legally proven against these offenders, their wholesale punishment by execution could not be thought of, particularly by an Executive whose humane impulses were so active as those of President Lincoln. When the Savannah prisoners were brought to trial in October, after long and exhaustive arguments of opposing counsel, the jury failed to agree, Warburton, and was discharged by the court. The prisoners were remanded to custody; but in January of the following year negotiations were begun for a general exchange, and though some delay occurred, the arrangement was brought into effectual operation in August, 1862, at which time the Savannah privateersmen, together with some seventy or eighty others, were exchanged; and the question of their legal status was not thereafter raised. Among the earliest needs which the actual beginning of the blockade pointed out was the possession of suitable harbors, on the coast of the insurrectionary States, which might be used as coal depots and as points of rendezvous or harbors of refuge for the blockading fleet. The Navy Department convened a board of competent officers early in July to study this problem. Meanwhile another opportunity for a successful naval exploit "Trial," etc. 1862. Annual Cyclopa pp. 712-714. dia, 1862, СНАР. І. 1861. presented itself, which was promptly taken advantage of, the success of which, amid the gloom of recent disasters, was hailed with eager joy by the people of the North. The sea front of the State of North Carolina has a double coast; and behind the outer one, which is a mere narrow belt of sand not more than two miles wide, there expand the great inland waters of Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds. There are but few practicable entrances through this outer sandbank or false coast; in latter times Hatteras Inlet had become the most important. Here the rebels had built two forts and armed them with guns brought from the Norfolk navy yard: Fort Hatteras, nearest the inlet, with fifteen guns, and Fort Clark, half a mile to the north, with seven guns. The blockading fleet soon discovered that this was a point of the utmost importance; that the light rebel privateers could lie here securely in wait for passing prizes, dart out and seize them, and quickly retire beyond pursuit; also, that an unfrequented point like this offered special opportunities for the comparatively safe and easy entrance of blockade runners. An expedition for its capture was therefore organized, as soon as the necessary vessels could be collected in Hampton Roads. On the 26th of August, Flag-Officer Silas H. Stringham sailed from Fort Monroe in command of five war steamers and two transports, carrying about eight hundred troops under command of Major-General Benjamin F. Butler. After a little more than a day's sail, the fleet appeared before Hatteras Inlet, and on the two days following both forts were captured by the attacking vessels, with a comparatively short and easy bombardment, the delay having been occasioned by unfavorable winds. The casualties were slight: in the forts, twelve or fifteen were killed or died of wounds, and thirty-five wounded remained; on the fleet, there was not a single loss of life. The garrisons, comprising seven hundred and fifty men, were formally surrendered on August 29. CHAP. I. Stringham, Sept. 2, 1861, Report, in "Message and Documents," 1861-62. Part III., pp. 46-48. ler, Report, 1861. W. R. Also But Aug. 30, Vol. IV., pp. 581-587. Stringham to Welles, sept. 2, 1861. and Docu "Message ments," 1861-62. Part III., p. 53. Wool to Gen. Scott, W. R. IV., p. 580. The original design was to block up the entrance by sinking vessels, but upon examination both commanders united in the more prudent determination to hold and utilize the place. "This inlet," reported Stringham, "I consider the key to all the ports south of Hatteras, and only second in importance to Fort Monroe and Hampton Roads." Major-General John E. Wool, who had been sent (August 17) to take command at Fort Monroe, joined in this opinion. General Butler 2 Vol. immediately returned to Washington to report the joint victory, and upon his representations the President and Cabinet at once decided and ordered measures to hold possession of the captured forts. What was still more to the point, cheering evidence soon came of the existence of a friendly sentiment among the scattered residents of Hatteras Island and points on the neighboring mainland. The officer sent to command Fort Clark, under date of September 11, expressed his belief in the loyalty of the people on Pamlico Sound, and "that troops could be raised here for the purpose of suppressing rebellion in North Carolina, upon the assurance that they would not be called on to go out of the State," which was the occasion of the fol Hawkins to Wool, Sept. 11, 1861. W. R. Vol. IV., p. 609. |