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[Illustration: RAPHAEL SEMMES.]
Two Volumes in One.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for theSouthern District of New York.
The following account of the cruise of the two Confederate Statessteamers—Sumter and Alabama—is taken from the private journals andother papers of Captain Semmes. It has been found necessary occasionallyto adopt a narrative form, but the endeavour has been throughout toadhere as closely as possible to that officer's own words.
Information has also been most kindly afforded by other officers of thetwo vessels, and especially Lieutenant R.F. Armstrong, and Master's MateG. Townley Fullam, from whose private journals and other papers muchvaluable assistance has been obtained.
A good deal of controversy has arisen respecting the legality of thecourse pursued by the Alabama, in the case of certain vessels claimingto carry a neutral cargo. In all these cases, however, great care wastaken by Captain Semmes to enter in his journal full particulars of theclaims, and of the grounds on which it was refused admission. Thesecases will be found quoted in full in the following volumes.
The Question at issue—An unexpected point of attack—CaptainSemmes—The President's instructions—Creating a navy—From the old tothe new—An important mission—Appointed to the Sumter—True characterof the Confederate "pirate."
The President of the American States in Confederation was gathering anarmy for the defence of Southern liberty. Where valour is a nationalinheritance, and an enthusiastic unanimity prevails, this will not provea difficult task. It is otherwise with the formation of a navy. Soldiersof Southern blood had thrown up their commissions in a body; but sailorslove their ships as well as their country, and appear to owe someallegiance to them likewise. Nevertheless, if Mr. Davis had not a greatchoice of officers, he had eminent men to serve him, as the younghistory of the South has abundantly shown. To obtain experienced andtrusty seamen was easier to him in such a crisis than to give them acommand. The Atlantic and the ports of America were ruled at that timeabsolutely by President Lincoln. The South had not a voice upon the sea.The merchants of New York and Boston looked upon the war as somethingwhich concerned them very little. Not a dream of any damage possibly tobe inflicted on them, disturbed the serenity of their votes for theinvasion of the South. Their fleets entered harbour proudly; theirmarine swam the ocean unmolested. Though there was war imminent, theinsurance offices were content to maintain their terms upon a peacestandard. What, indeed, was to be feared? The South had not a singlevessel. Here and there a packet-steamer might be caught up and armed,but what would they avail against such fleet and powerful ships as theBrooklyn, the Powhattan, and dozens of ot