Resolution of Congress Voting a Medal to Commander Ingraham.
Resolved unanimously by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled: That the President of the United States be, and he is hereby, requested to cause to be made a medal, with suitable devices, and presented to Commander Duncan N. Ingraham, of the navy of the United States, as a testimonial of the high sense entertained by Congress of his gallant and judicious conduct on the second of July, eighteen hundred and fifty-three, in extending protection to Martin Coszta, by rescuing him from illegal seizure and imprisonment on board the Austrian war brig Hussar.
Approved August 4, 1854.
Commander Ingraham to Commodore Stringham.
United States ship St. Louis,
Smyrna, July 6th, 1853.
To
Commodore Silas H. Stringham,
Commander-in-Chief of the United States Naval Forces in the Mediterranean.
Sir: It becomes my duty to report to you an affair at this place in which I have taken upon myself to compromise the American flag.
I arrived here upon the 23d of June, and soon after anchoring was informed that an American had been kidnapped by the Austrian Consul upon the Turkish soil and sent on board an Austrian brig-of-war.
I sent for the American Consul and informed him of what I had heard. He told me the man was a Hungarian refugee (named Martin Coszta), who had a certificate of intention to become a citizen of the United States, and came here in an American vessel, but that he did not consider him under his protection, having to his knowledge no passport.
The Consul and myself then went on board the brig, and requested to see the commander, but were told he was not on board. We then went to the Austrian Consul, and demanded to see Coszta, which after some demur was granted.