Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1079

Rh in the Confederate navy. He commanded the steamer Sea Bird, flagship of Commodore Lynch, when that vessel was sunk at Elizabeth City, N. J., and, with the entire crew, was captured by Federal Admiral Rowan. After being exchanged he was detailed as one of the officers of the Canadian expedition for the relief of the prisoners at Johnson's island, and, upon the failure of that enterprise through betrayal he ran the blockade with the celebrated Capt. John Wilkinson. Upon the request of the latter, Lieutenant McCarrick was detailed for several trips, after which he served at Wilmington and other points until the close of the war. Subsequently he served with the Old Dominion steamship company, in command of several of its vessels, until his death. James W. McCarrick was educated at Mount St. Mary's college and Georgetown college, leaving the latter institution early in 1861 to enlist with the Norfolk Juniors of the Twelfth Virginia regiment, commanded by Gen. William Mahone. He was one of twenty-five volunteers from that company who manned one of the guns which repelled the attack of the Federal steamer Monticello upon the Confederate batteries at Sewell's Point. At this fight he recalls that it was with difficulty that they prevented some men of Colquitt's Georgia command, in their anxiety for trophies of the war, from gathering unexploded shells as they fell. Soon afterward receiving an appointment as master's mate in the North Carolina navy, he was assigned to the steamer Winslow at Hatteras inlet, and participated in the capture of merchant vessels along the coast of North Carolina. After being transferred to the Confederate navy his first action was upon the Sea Bird under Commodore Lynch, in cutting out a Federal schooner from under the guns of the Federal fleet in Hampton Roads, and successfully bringing her into Norfolk, though pursued by four Federal gunboats. Still with the Sea Bird, he participated in the actions at Roanoke island, where a few improvised gunboats held Burnside's fleet in check all day. He had charge here of a small Parrott gun taken from the Federal gunboat Fanny. In the subsequent engagement at Elizabeth City, he was wounded and captured on the sunken steamer Sea Bird, by Captain Flusser, of the Federal fleet, and while being hospitably entertained by the Federal officers, was shown the base of a rifled shell from his Parrott gun, which had disabled one gunboat and afterward done damage on the boat on which he was held as a prisoner. This fragment he was permitted to carry away, and still has in his possession. Subsequently, when with the Tuscaloosa, he met the English captain who commanded the Federal vessel from which the Parrott gun was captured, but that versatile sailor was then engaged in running the Federal blockades. Being paroled under the "Wool cartel," he returned to Norfolk, and from the naval hospital witnessed the Virginia or Merrimac, going down to the attack upon the Cumberland and Congress, attended by a number of small gunboats. Upon one of these was his friend, Midshipman Charles Mallory, whom McCarrick hailed and begged that he bring back a Federal officer for whom he might be exchanged. It happened that Mr. Mallory was one of the officers detailed to remove the prisoners from the Congress, and he did bring back an officer in safety, for whom McCarrick was exchanged later. He was then