Part 21 (1/2)
In obedience to your order, a.s.signing me to the command of this s.h.i.+p, I will return by the first conveyance to England, where the joint energies of Commander Bullock and myself will be directed to the preparation of the s.h.i.+p for sea. I will take with me Lieutenant Kell, Surgeon Galt, and First Lieutenant of Marines Howell--Mr. Howell and Lieutenant Stribling having reached Na.s.sau a few days before me, in the British steamer _Bahama_, laden with arms, clothing, and stores for the Confederacy. At the earnest entreaty of Lieutenant-Commanding Maffitt, I have consented to permit Lieutenant Stribling to remain with him, as his first lieutenant on board the _Oreto_ (_Florida_)--the officers detailed for that vessel not yet having arrived. Mr. Stribling's place on board the _Alabama_ will be supplied by Mids.h.i.+pman Armstrong, promoted, whom I will recall from Gibraltar, where I left him in charge of the _Sumter_. It will, doubtless, be a matter of some delicacy, and tact, to get the _Alabama_ safely out of British waters, without suspicion, as Mr.
Adams, the Northern Envoy, and his numerous satellites in the shape of consuls and paid agents, are exceedingly vigilant in their espionage.
We cannot, of course, think of arming her in a British port; this must be done at some concerted rendezvous, to which her battery, and a large portion of her crew must be sent, in a neutral merchant-vessel. The _Alabama_ will be a fine s.h.i.+p, quite equal to encounter any of the enemy's steam-sloops, of the cla.s.s of the _Iroquois_, _Tuscarora_, and _Dacotah_, and I shall feel much more independent in her, upon the high seas, than I did in the little _Sumter_.
I think well of your suggestion of the East Indies, as a cruising ground, and I hope to be in the track of the enemy's commerce, in those seas, as early as October or November next; when I shall, doubtless, be able to lay other rich ”burnt offerings” upon the altar of our country's liberties.
Lieutenant Sinclair having informed me that you said, in a conversation with him, that I might dispose of the _Sumter_, either by laying her up, or selling her, as my judgment might approve, I will, unless I receive contrary orders from you, dispose of her by sale, upon my arrival in Europe. As the war is likely to continue for two or three years yet, it would be a useless expense to keep a vessel so comparatively worthless, so long at her anchors. I will cause to be sent to the _Alabama_, the _Sumter's_ chronometers, and other nautical instruments and charts, and the remainder of her officers and crew.
In conclusion, permit me to thank you for this new proof of your confidence, and for your kind intention to nominate me as one of the ”Captains,” under the new navy bill. I trust I shall prove myself worthy of these marks of your approbation.
I was delayed several very anxious weeks in Na.s.sau, waiting for an opportunity to return to Europe. The _Alabama_, I knew, was nearly ready for sea, and it was all-important that she should be gotten out of British waters, as speedily as possible, because of the espionage to which I have referred. But there was no European-bound vessel in Na.s.sau, and I was forced to wait. Lieutenant Sinclair having had a pa.s.sage offered him, in an English steamer of war, as far as Halifax, availed himself of the invitation, intending to take the mail-steamer from Halifax for England.
As he would probably arrive a week or two in advance of myself, I wrote to Captain Bullock by him, informing him of my having been appointed to the command of the _Alabama_, and requesting him to hurry that s.h.i.+p off to her rendezvous, without waiting for me. I could join her at her rendezvous. As the reader will hereafter see, this was done.
I pa.s.sed the time of my enforced delay at Na.s.sau, as comfortably as possible. The hotel was s.p.a.cious and airy, and the sea-breeze being pretty constant, we did not suffer much from the heat. I amused myself, watching from my windows, with the aid of an excellent gla.s.s, the movements of the blockade-runners. One of these vessels went out, and another returned, every two or three days; the returning vessel always bringing us late newspapers from the Confederacy. The fare of the hotel was excellent, particularly the fish and fruits, and the landlord was accommodating and obliging. With Maffitt, Kell, Galt, Stribling, and other Confederate officers, and some very pretty and musical Confederate ladies, whose husbands and brothers were engaged in the business of running the blockade, the time would have pa.s.sed pleasantly enough, but for the anxiety which I felt about my future movements.
Maffitt, in particular, was the life of our household. He knew everybody, and everybody knew him, and he pa.s.sed in and out of all the rooms, _sans ceremonie_, at all hours. Being a jaunty, handsome fellow, young enough, in appearance, to pa.s.s for the elder brother of his son, a mids.h.i.+pman who was to go with me to the _Alabama_, he was a great favorite with the ladies. He was equally at home, with men or women, it being all the same to him, whether he was wanted to play a game of billiards, take a hand at whist, or join in a duet with a young lady--except that he had the good taste always to prefer the lady. Social, gay, and convivial, he was much courted and flattered, and there was scarcely ever a dining or an evening party, at which he was not present. But this was the mere outside glitter of the metal. Beneath all this _bagatelle_ and _dolce far niente_, Maffitt was a remarkable man. At the first blast of war, like a true Southerner--he was a North Carolinian by birth--he relinquished a fine property in the city of Was.h.i.+ngton, which was afterward confiscated by the enemy, resigned his commission in the Federal Navy, and came South, to tender his services to his native State. Unlike many other naval men, he had the capacity to understand the nature of the Government under which he lived, and the honesty to give his allegiance, in a cross-fire of allegiances, where his judgment told him it was due.
He was a perfect master of his profession, not only in its practical, but in its more scientific branches, and could handle his s.h.i.+p like a toy.
Brave, cool, and full of resource, he was equal to any and every emergency that could present itself in a sailor's life. He made a brilliant cruise in the _Florida_, and became more famous as a skilful blockade-runner than any other man in the war. This man, whose character I have not at all overdrawn, was pursued by the Yankee, after his resignation, with a vindictiveness and malignity peculiarly Puritan--to his honor be it said.
With Maury, Buchanan, and other men of that stamp, who have been denounced with equal bitterness, his fame will survive the filth thrown upon it by a people who seem to be incapable of understanding or appreciating n.o.ble qualities in an enemy, and devoid of any other standard by which to try men's characters, than their own sectional prejudices. We should rather pity than contemn men who have shown, both during and since the war, so little magnanimity as our late enemies have done. The savage is full of prejudices, because he is full of ignorance. His intellectual horizon is necessarily limited; he sees but little, and judges only by what he sees.
His own little world is _the_ world, and he tries all the rest of mankind by that standard. Cruel in war, he is revengeful and implacable in peace.
Better things are ordinarily expected of civilized men. Education and civilization generally dispel these savage traits. They refine and soften men, and implant in their bosoms the n.o.ble virtues of generosity and magnanimity. The New England Puritan seems to have been, so far as we may judge him by the traits which have been developed in him during and since the war, an exception to this rule. With all his pretensions to learning, and amid all the appliances of civilization by which he has surrounded himself, he is still the same old Plymouth Rock man, that his ancestor was, three centuries ago. He is the same gloomy, saturnine fanatic; he has the same impatience of other men's opinions, and is the same vindictive tyrant that he was when he expelled Roger Williams from his dominions. The c.o.c.katrice's egg has hatched a savage, in short, that refuses to be civilized.
The _Oreto_ was in court whilst I was in Na.s.sau; the Attorney-General of the colony having libelled her for a breach of the British Foreign Enlistment Act. After a long and tedious trial, during which it was proved that she had left England unarmed, and unprovided with a warlike crew, she was released, very much to the gratification of my friend, Maffitt, who had been anxiously awaiting the result of the trial. This energetic officer throwing himself and Stribling on board of her, with such other officers and men as he could gather on short notice, ran the blockade of the enemy's cruisers, the following night, and the next morning found himself on the high seas, with just five firemen, and fourteen deck hands!
His hope was to get his armament on board, and after otherwise preparing his s.h.i.+p for sea, to recruit his crew from the neutral sailors always to be found on board the enemy's merchant-s.h.i.+ps.
Arriving at Green Key, the rendezvous, which had been concerted between himself, and our agent at Na.s.sau, Mr. J. B. Lafitte, he was joined by a schooner, on board which his battery and stores had been s.h.i.+pped, and forthwith set himself at work to arm and equip his s.h.i.+p. So short-handed was he, that he was obliged to strip off his own coat, and in company with his officers and men, a.s.sist at the stay-tackles, in hoisting in his heavy guns. The work was especially laborious, under the ardent rays of an August sun, but they toiled on, and at the end of five days of incessant labor, which well-nigh exhausted all their energies, they were enabled to dismiss their tender, and steam out upon the ocean, and put their s.h.i.+p in commission. The English flag, which the _Oreto_ had worn, was hauled down, and amid the cheers of the crews of the two vessels, the Confederate States flag was hoisted to the peak of the _Florida_.
A number of the men by this time, were unwell. Their sickness was attributed to the severity of the labor they had undergone, in the excessive heats that were prevailing. The Captain's steward died, and was buried on the afternoon on which the s.h.i.+p was commissioned. At sunset of that day, Captain Maffitt called Lieutenant Stribling into his cabin, and imparted to him the startling intelligence that the yellow fever was on board! The sick, now constantly increasing in number, were separated from the well, and the quarter-deck became a hospital. There being no surgeon on board, Maffitt was compelled to a.s.sume the duties of this officer, in addition to his own, already onerous. He devoted himself with untiring zeal to the welfare of his stricken crew, without intermission, by night or by day. On the fifth day after leaving Green Key, the _Florida_ found herself off the little island of Anguila. By this time the epidemic had reduced her working crew to one fireman, and four deck hands.
It was now no longer possible to keep the sea, and Maffitt evading the blockade of the enemy--a happy chance having drawn them off in chase--ran his s.h.i.+p into the port of Cardenas, in the island of Cuba. Here he was received kindly by the authorities and citizens, but as the yellow fever was epidemic on sh.o.r.e, no medical aid could be obtained. Stribling was now dispatched to Havana for a surgeon, and to s.h.i.+p a few men, if possible.
Helpless and sad, the suffering little crew awaited his return. One by one, the officers were attacked by the disease, until Maffitt was left almost alone, to nurse, and administer remedies to the patients. But things were not yet at their worst. On the 13th of August, Maffitt was himself attacked. On the afternoon of that day he sent for his clerk, and when the young gentleman had entered his cabin, said to him: ”I've written directions in regard to the sick, and certain orders in relation to the vessel; also some private letters, which you will please take charge of.”
Upon the clerk's asking him why this was done, he informed him that ”he had all the symptoms of yellow fever, and as he was already much broken down, he might not survive the attack.” He had made all the necessary preparations for his own treatment, giving minute written directions to those around him how to proceed, and immediately betook himself to his bed--the fever already flus.h.i.+ng his cheeks, and parching his veins. There was now, indeed, nothing but wailing and woe on board the little _Florida_.
In two or three days Stribling returned from Havana, bringing with him twelve men; and on the day after his return, Dr. Barrett, of Georgia, hearing of their helpless condition, volunteered his services, and became surgeon of the s.h.i.+p. On the 22d, young Laurens, the captain's son--whilst his father was unconscious--breathed his last; black vomit having a.s.sailed him, in twenty-four hours after he had been taken down with the fever; so virulent had the disease now become. He was a fine, brave, promising lad, greatly beloved, and deeply regretted by all. On the 23d, the Third a.s.sistant Engineer died. The sick were now sent to the hospital on sh.o.r.e, and nearly all of them died. Dr. Gilliard, surgeon of a Spanish gun-boat in the harbor, now visited the Captain, and was exceedingly kind to him. On the 24th, a consultation of physicians was held, and it was decided that Maffitt's case was hopeless. But it so happened that the disease just then had reached its crisis, and a favorable change had taken place. The patient had not spoken for three days, and greatly to the surprise of all present, after one of the physicians had given his opinion, he opened his eyes, now beaming with intelligence, and said in a languid voice: ”You are all mistaken--I have got too much to do, and have no time to die.”
He convalesced from that moment. On the 28th, Major Helm, our agent in Havana, telegraphed that, for certain reasons, the Captain-General desired that the _Florida_ would come round to Havana, and remain until the health of her crew should be restored. The Captain-General probably feared that in an undefended port like Cardenas, some violence might be committed upon the _Florida_ by the Federal cruisers, in violation of Spanish neutrality.
Accordingly, on the 30th the _Florida_ got under way, and proceeded for Havana, where she arrived the next day. The reader naturally wonders, no doubt, where the Federal cruisers were, all this time. Maffitt remained here only a day, finding it impossible, owing to the stringent orders of neutrality that were being enforced, to do anything in the way of increasing his crew, or refitting his s.h.i.+p. Getting his s.h.i.+p under way, again on the 1st of September, he now resolved to run into Mobile. At two P. M. on the 4th of that month Fort Morgan was made, when it was found that three of the enemy's cruisers lay between the _Florida_ and the bar.
Maffitt was a.s.sisted on deck, being too weak yet to move without a.s.sistance. Having determined that his s.h.i.+p should not fall into the hands of the enemy, he had made suitable preparations for blowing her up, if it should become necessary. He now hoisted the English ensign and pennant, and stood boldly on. His very boldness staggered the enemy. He must certainly be, they thought, an English gunboat. The _Oneida_, the flag-s.h.i.+p of Commander Preble, the commanding officer of the blockading squadron, attempted to throw herself in the _Florida's_ path, first having hailed her and commanded her to stop. But the latter held on her course so determinedly, that the former, to prevent being run down, was obliged to stop, herself, and reverse her engine.
Preble, now undeceived as to the possibility of the _Florida's_ being an Englishman, opened fire upon her, as did the other two s.h.i.+ps. The _Oneida's_ broadside, delivered from a distance of a few yards only, cut away the _Florida's_ hammocks, smashed her boats, and shattered some of her spars. The three enemy's vessels now grouped themselves around the daring little craft, and fired broadside after broadside at her, during the chase which ensued. One eleven-inch sh.e.l.l entering the _Florida's_ side, only a few inches above the water-line, pa.s.sed entirely through her, before the fuse had time to explode it. If the enemy had been a little farther off, the _Florida_ must have been torn in pieces by the explosion.
Another sh.e.l.l entered the cabin. The fore-topmast and fore-gaff were shot away. In short, when it is recollected that she was nearly two hours under this tremendous fire, the wonder is that she escaped with a whole spar, or a whole timber.