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In 1861 the Nashville, then used as a freight and passenger steamer, was seized in the port of Charleston, S. C, by the Confederate authorities and soon fitted out for the purpose of taking Messrs. Mason and Slidell to Europe. She was a side-wheel, brig-rigged steamer, of about twelve or fourteen hundred tons, and was, therefore, deemed by them too large a vessel to run the blockade. That purpose was accordingly abandoned. Captain R. B. Pegram, then in command of the Nashville, fitted her with two small guns and made her ready for sea, with a full crew of officers and men. The following is a list of her officers: Captain, R. B. Pegram; First Lieutenant, Charles M. Fauntleroy; Second Lieutenant, John W. Bennett; Third Lieutenant, William C. Whittle; Master, John M. Ingram; Surgeon, John L. Ancrum; Paymaster, Richard Taylor; Chief Engineer, James Hood; Assistant, Murphy, and two others, and the following midshipmen: W. R. Dalton, William H. Sinclair, Clarence Cary, J. W. Pegram, W. P. Hamilton, Thomas and  McClintock.

On the night of October 21, 1861, she ran out of Charleston, and touched at Bermuda. After stopping there a few days for coal, she headed across the Atlantic, and on November 19th, captured in the entrance of the British Channel the ship Harvey Birch, an American merchantman in command of Captain Nelson. She was boarded by an officer and boat's crew who carried away all that was valuable, and burned the ship. On the 21st she arrived at Southampton, Eng.

The Nashville enjoyed the distinction of being the first war vessel to fly the flag of the Confederate States in the waters of England. Here we remained until the latter part of January,