Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 27.djvu/232

 224 Southern Historical Society Papers.

Incidentally, Dr. Green told of the court martialing of Commo- dore Craven, referred to above by Mr. Newton.

The Stonewall, shortly after the incident at Lisbon, started across the Atlantic, intending to touch at Bermuda. High winds, however, carried the vessel out of her course, and she finally anchored at Nassau early in May. Here the officers and crew were plunged into inexpressible sadness, hearing there for the first time that President Davis was in chains, President Lincoln had been assassinated, Gen- eral Lee had surrendered at Appomattox, and the whole Confederate government had been crushed.

It was with a sad heart that Captain Page headed for Havana, where he hoped to obtain from the Confederate agent at that place money with which to pay off his men. The agent professed to have no funds. In despair Captain Page called on the Spanish Captain- General, to whom he told his story. The Captain-General listened with evident sympathy, and when Captain Page offered to leave his ship and her belongings in the Spanish official's custody as a pledge for $15,000 necessary to pay off the men, the Captain-General said: "Why, I will let you have a hundred thousand dollars." Captain . Page refused, however, to take more than the sum he had named. Captain Page abandoned ship on May 20, 1865.

Subsequently the vessel passed into the possession of the United States government, which sold her to the Japanese government. The Stonewall made the long journey to the Orient, but shortly afterwards foundered off the coast of Japan in a gale.

Of the officers on the Stonewall, three are now living Dr. Green and Mr. Virginius Newton, of this city, and the master, W. W. Wilkinson, whose home is at Charleston, S. C.

LIEUTENANT DAVIDSON'S ACCOUNT.

The meeting of the City of Richmond and the Stonewall at Quib- eron, is thus told by Lieutenant Hunter Davidson, who had charge of the crew of the City of Richmond, in a letter dated February 6, 1865, and printed in " The Secret Service of the Confederate States in Europe."

" 1 left Cherbourg i8th January, and carried out instructions on the way to Quiberon, where we found a snug anchorage on the 2oth, and laid quietly, permitting no communication with the shore until the morning of the 24th at 10 o'clock, when the Stonewa/l hove in sight, to the rapturous delight of all who were in the secret."