To
Col. Sam'l B. Lawrence,
A. Adjutant General,
Middle Department.
A report had reached us that the steamer "Harriet Deford," plying between the Patuxent river and Baltimore, had been captured by a gang of pirates, in Fair Haven bay, which is midway between the Patuxent river and the Severn river; the passengers were robbed and put ashore.
Richmond had fallen; Jefferson Davis was seeking to escape, and the theory, quickly arrived at, was that this steamer had been seized to furnish the means, perhaps, to run him to the Bahamas, or Bermuda.
The bay and its tributaries were alive with anxiety. In a very short time I was away in a tug. I put the guards below decks, in the coal-hole, where they were nearly smothered, until night came on.
Early in the evening we arrived at the mouth of Fair Haven bay. Our pilot did not know the harbor, but soon discovered he could not run his boat on the mere appearance of water. He ran us onto a bar, where we thumped and thumped, backed and poled off, and then ran onto another. We finally concluded to back off, go back to the Severn river and Annapolis, and wait for daylight.
When we arrived in the Severn, we found the shore and water full of alertness. We were hailed and threatened until our character was understood. To my delight I found there a large steamer, with two hundred men on, that Colonel Lawrence had sent down to support me. A landlubber feels better on a larger vessel, so I took my men on the steamer, and we started again for Fair Haven. We arrived there early in the morning.
My theory was that I could pick up some clue there to follow up, and events sustained me. I sauntered up from the dock towards a store. I met two men, and to my question, one of the men admitted he was pressed into service by the gang in the mouth of the Patuxent. He said the party had crossed the Potomac in a small sail boat, and compelled him to pilot them, to overhaul the "Harriet Deford." He said they steamed down the bay, after leaving Fair Haven. We held him, and at once ran on down the Chesapeake, to the mouth of the Potomac. We were then in Commodore Parker's territory, which he was covering clear across the bay with gunboats. Our duty was done, and we returned to Baltimore.
I learned afterwards that they ran the "Deford" into Mobjack bay, where she was burned, after first stripping her joiner work. I visited, and afterwards married, Aunt Mag, in the region of Mobjack bay, but never referred to the incident. I thought it might not bring up pleasant recollections. I have often wondered if some of the "Deford's" saloon trimmings might be in use in some of the houses there. Let us forget it.
The following account of the affair appeared in the New York papers under date April 6th, 1865, with big headline: "Another Pirate!"
"Baltimore, April 5th, 1865. A daring act of piracy was perpetrated at Fair Haven, Herring Bay, about fifty miles from this city, the Steamer Harriet Deford being seized by a company of Rebel soldiers in disguise. The Deford had scarcely left Fair Haven Wharf before a dozen or more of newly received passengers threw off their overcoats and drawing revolvers revealed to the astonished gaze of the passengers the uniforms of Rebel soldiers.