Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 35.djvu/257

Rh Chew, Missouri, and D. M. Scales, Tennessee; Irvine S. Bulloch, Georgia, sailing master; C. E. Lining, South Carolina, surgeon; Matthew O'Brien, Louisiana, chief engineer; W. B. Smith, Louisiana, paymaster; Orris A. Brown, Virginia, and John T. Mason, Virginia, passed midshipmen, all regular officers in the Confederate States Navy, and F. J. McNulty, Ireland, acting assistant surgeon, and C. H. Codd, Maryland, acting first assistant engineer; John Hutchinson, Scotland, acting second assistant engineer; E. Mugguffiny, Ireland, acting third assistant engineer; Acting Master's Mates John F. Minor, Virginia; C. E. Hunt, Virginia; Lodge Cotton, Maryland; George Harwood, England, acting boatswain; John L. Guy, England, acting gunner; H. Alcott, England, acting sailmaker; John O'Shea, Ireland, acting carpenter, were given the said acting appointments in the Confederate States Navy by proper authority. These twenty-three men were the officers who were transferred to the Sea King, all except myself and two engineers who joined from the Sea King, went out on the Laurel.

Captain Waddell read his commission and addressed both crews, calling for volunteers. Only nineteen men, including the small nucleus from the Laurel, volunteered, making, with the twenty-three officers, forty-two in all. Captain Wadell had the Confederate flag hoisted at the peak, received a bill of sale and christened the Sea King the C. S. S. Shenandoah. I do not know why the name Shenandoah was chosen, unless because of the constantly recurring conflicts, retreats and advances through the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, where the brave Stonewall Jackson always so discomforted the enemy, causing, it is said, one of the distinguished Federal generals to say of that valley that it must be made such a waste that a crow to fly over it would have to take its rations. The burning there of homes over defenseless women and children made the selection of the name not inappropriate for a cruiser, which was to lead a torchlight procession around the world and into every ocean.

Guns, carriages and their fittings, ammunition, of powder, shot and shell; stores of all kinds, all in boxes, were transferred from the Laurel to the Sea King. All was confusion and chaos. Everything had to be unpacked and stored for safety. No gun mounted, no breeching or tackle bolts driven, no portholes cut,