Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 35.djvu/250

236 sailing master, respectively. Upon the secession of Virginia he resigned and tendered his services to Governor Letcher and was commissioned a lieutenant in the State navy, and later in the Confederate States Navy.

In 1861 he was stationed at a naval battery at West Point, York River, Va., and there reported to General Magruder at Yorktown to drill soldiers at the navy guns covering the Williamsburg Road. Later he was ordered on similar duty at a naval battery on Spratley's farm, on James River, and thence to Charleston, S. C., as the third lieutenant of the C. S. S. Nashville, and made her cruise to England and back to Beaufort, N. C., where he was left in command of the vessel until her purchasers could send a crew to her. Upon the capture of Newberne by the Federals he ran the ship through the blockade and into Georgetown, S. C., and there delivered her to her purchasers.

He was, in March, 1862, ordered to New Orleans as third lieutenant of the Confederate States Steamer Louisiana and commanded her bow division in the desperate fight with Farragut's fleet in passing Forts Jackson and St. Philip. After this conflict, when the Louisiana was destroyed to prevent her falling into the enemy's hands, he was captured and sent to Fort Warren, at Boston. He was exchanged in August, 1862, and ordered as first lieutenant of the gunboat Chattahoochee, on the Chattahoochee River. Later he was ordered abroad to join a Confederate vessel. While awaiting her, he was selected to take dispatches from the Confederate commissioners in England and France, and Captain Bulloch, in charge of equipping cruisers, to the Richmond government. These dispatches were taken through the blockade and delivered, and he was sent back to the commissioners with return dispatches.

In October, 1864, he was ordered as executive officer of the C. S. S. Shenandoah, and after her unique cruise surrendered to the British Government in Liverpool, Eng., in November, 1865. In December, 1865, he went to Buenos Ayres, and remained in the Argentine Confederation until 1867, when he returned to his home in Virginia.

In 1868 he was appointed captain of one of the Bay Line steamers between Baltimore and Norfolk and Portsmouth. He