[11] General Johnston's Narrative page 374. It appears from the same distinguished authority that of all that gallant array not more than 5,000 were ever reassembled; and a large portion of these continued without arms to the end of the war.
CHAPTER XIII.
Cruise of the Chickamauga.—Mr. Mallory's inefficiency.—Troubles in Bermuda.—The three Weeks.—End of the Cruise.
In the latter part of September, 1864, I was ordered to the command of the "Chickamauga," a double screw steamer converted into a so-called man of war. She was one of those vessels before alluded to in this narrative, as partly owned by the Confederate Government, and was taken possession of by the government authorities with scant regard for the rights of the other owners, who had no alternative but to accept inadequate compensation for their share of the vessel. Her battery consisted of a twelve-pounder rifled gun forward, a sixty-four pounder amidships, and a thirty-two pounder rifle aft, all on pivots. She was more substantially built than most of the blockade-runners, and was very swift, but altogether unfit for a cruiser, as she could only keep the sea while her supply of coal lasted. She was schooner rigged, with very short masts, and her sails were chiefly serviceable to steady her in a sea-way. Under all sail and off the wind, without steam, she could not make more than three knots with a stiff breeze; by the wind under the same circumstances, she had not even steerage way. Captain J. T. Wood, of the Confederate Navy, had just returned from a "raid" along the Northern coast, and the incompetent Secretary of the Navy conceived, no doubt, that he had hit upon a happy idea when it occurred to his muddled brain, to send these vessels out to harass the coasting trade and fisheries of the North.[12] As a mere question of policy, it would have been far better to have kept them employed carrying out cotton and bringing in the supplies of which the army was so sorely in need. The attack upon Fort Fisher was probably precipitated by these expeditions, which could in no wise affect the real issues of the war. But Mr. Mallory was from first to last an incubus upon the country. I do not impugn his patriotism, nor his private character, but his official imbecility, which wrought much damage to the cause, is a legitimate object for censure.
At this period Atlanta had been captured, and a large portion of Georgia was practically severed from the Confederacy. It was becoming more and more difficult to provision the troops. The Subsistence Department of the Confederate Government has been often censured for its alleged mismanagement. I have personal knowledge of an instance where it resented the interference of a subordinate. Major Magruder, General Whiting's chief Commissary, had effected what he believed to be a mutually beneficial arrangement with the farmers of western North Carolina. He was to furnish salt and transportation, (the former a very rare and costly commodity at that time, and the latter difficult to be obtained); and in return, they were to supply his department with the cured bacon. The arrangement, when reported to the Department at Richmond, was cancelled, and the Major, a very zealous and competent officer, was ordered elsewhere. Surely there must have been grave mismanagement somewhere; for, several months after the period of which I now write, and when the army of Northern Virginia was almost reduced to starvation in February, 1865, there were stored "in the principal railroad depots between Charlotte, Danville and Weldon inclusive, rations for 60,000 men for more than four months," and these provisions were for the exclusive use of the army in Virginia. The fact was ascertained by taking account of those stores, which was done by order of General Johnston, "and the very zealous and efficient officer, Major Charles Carrington, who was at the head of the service of collecting provisions in North Carolina for the army, was increasing the quantity rapidly." "The officers of the commissariat in North Carolina, upon whom the army in Virginia depended for subsistence, were instructed by the Commissary General just then, to permit none of the provisions they collected to be used by the troops serving in it."[13]
We sailed in the Chickamauga on the night of October 29th, with a motley crew, and passed through the blockading fleet without receiving any damage from numerous shots. We had a fine view of several of our pursuers for a few moments, as they burned their signal blue light; and had not crossed the bar two hours before the commanding officer of the fleet received information of the fact. Our rockets had diverted the pursuit to the misfortune of the blockade-runner "Lady Stirling," which was captured; and from some of her crew, as we subsequently learned, the fact of our departure was ascertained. If we could have foreseen such an event, we might have tried the range of our after pivot gun with very good effect upon the blockader following in our wake; but although our crew was at quarters, and we were prepared to fight our way to sea, we wished to avoid an encounter by which nothing was to be gained; our chief object being to injure the enemy's commerce. Nearly all of the officers of the Chickamauga had resigned from the United States Navy, and I have no doubt they contrasted (as I could not help doing) next morning, our spar deck encumbered with coal bags, and begrimed with dirt, and the ragged tatterdemalions leaning over the bulwarks, or stretched along the decks in the agonies of sea-sickness, with the cleanliness, order and discipline, to which we had been accustomed under the "Stars and Stripes." The condition below decks was even worse; the crew sleeping upon the coal which was stowed in the hold; and the officers upon the softest plank they could find in the contracted cabin. In addition to a complement of officers for a frigate, the Secretary of the Navy had ordered six pilots to the vessel. As three of them held their "branches" for the approaches to Norfolk, Mr. Mallory must have expected to hear that we had passed under the guns of Fortress Monroe, laid Norfolk under contribution, and captured the Gosport Navy-yard.
The scene upon our decks, when the sun rose the morning after our passage through the fleet, was demoralizing; and I am sure some of us felt as if we were indeed "pirates," although we were bound to deny the "soft impeachment," when brought against us by the Northern press. The exertions of the executive officer, Dozier, seconded by his zealous subordinates, brought some degree of order out of this "chaotic" mass after a while.
Our first prize was the "Mark L. Potter," from Bangor for Key West, with a cargo of lumber. As there was no alternative but to destroy her, the officers and crew were transferred to the Chickamauga, and she was set on fire. This capture was made on Sunday the 30th. The next morning at 7.30 a. m., when about one hundred and fifty miles off the Capes of Delaware, we sighted a square-rigged vessel, which changed her course in the effort to escape, as soon as she discovered that we were steering for her. At 9.30 we overhauled her and brought her to. It proved to be the barque "Emma L. Hall," loaded with a cargo of sugar and molasses. She was set on fire at 11.15 a. m. Hasty work was made of this prize, as a full rigged ship hove in sight while we were transferring the crew, and such stores as we needed, from the Emma L. Hall. The stranger bore north by west when discovered, and was standing almost directly toward us, with studding-sails and royals set to the favorable breeze, a cloud of snowy canvas from her graceful hull to the trucks of her tapering royalmasts. She approached within five or six miles, when her studding-sails were suddenly hauled down, and she was brought close to the wind in an effort to escape from us. We soon overhauled her, and at 1.15 were near enough to throw a shot across her bow, and to show the Confederate flag at our peak. The summons was replied to by their hoisting the Stars and Stripes, and heaving to. Our prize was the clipper ship "Shooting Star," bound from New York to Panama, with a cargo of coal for the U. S. Pacific squadron. While we were making preparations for burning her, another square rigged vessel hove in sight, steering toward us. It proved to be the barque "Albion Lincoln," bound for Havana, partly in ballast; and as her cargo consisted only of a small lot of potatoes and onions, I determined to bond her, and to put the prisoners, now numbering sixty (the wife of the captain of the Shooting Star among them) on board of her. In truth, I was relieved from an awkward dilemma by the opportune capture of the Albion Lincoln; for there was absolutely no place for a female on board the Chickamauga. I do not doubt, however, that the redoubtable Mrs. Drinkwater would have accommodated herself to the circumstances by turning me out of my own cabin. Heavens! what a tongue she wielded! The young officers of the Chickamauga relieved each other in boat duty to and fro; and she routed every one of them ignominiously.