A School History of the United States

by John Bach McMaster

%457. The Commerce Destroyers.%—While the North was thus busy destroying the trade of the South, the South was busy destroying the enormous trade of the North. When the war opened, our merchant ships were to be seen in every port of the world, and against these were sent a class of armed vessels known as "commerce destroyers," whose business it was to cruise along the great highways of ocean commerce, keep a sharp lookout for our merchantmen, and burn all they could find. The first of these commerce destroyers to get to sea was the Sumter, which ran the blockade at the mouth of the Mississippi in June, 1861, and within a week had taken seven merchantmen. So important was it to capture her that seven cruisers were sent in pursuit. But she escaped them all till January, 1862, when she was shut up in the port of Gibraltar and was sold to prevent capture.

%458. The Trent Affair, 1861.%—One of the vessels sent in pursuit of the Sumter was the _San Jacinto, _commanded by Captain Wilkes. While at Havana, he heard that two commissioners of the Confederate government, James M. Mason and John Slidell, sent out as commissioners to Great Britain and France, were to sail for England in the British mail steamer Trent; and, deciding to capture them, he took his station in the Bermuda Channel, and (November 8, 1861) as the Trent came steaming along, he stopped and boarded her, and carried off Mason and Slidell and their secretaries. This he had no right to do. It was exactly the sort of thing the United States had protested against ever since 1790, and had been one of the causes of war with Great Britain in 1812. The commissioners were therefore released, placed on board another English vessel, and taken to England. The conduct of Great Britain in this matter was most insulting and warlike, and nothing but the justice of her demand prevented war.[1]

[Footnote 1: Harris's The Trent Affair.]

%459. The Famous Cruisers Florida, Alabama, Shenandoah.%—The loss of the Sumter was soon made good by the appearance on the sea of a fleet of commerce destroyers all built and purchased in England with the full knowledge of the English government. The first of these, the Florida, was built at Liverpool, was armed at an uninhabited island in the Bahamas, and after roving the sea for more than a year was captured by the United States cruiser Wachusett in the neutral harbor of Bahia in Brazil. Her capture was a shameful violation of neutral waters, and it was ordered that she be returned to Brazil; but she was sunk by "an unforeseen accident" in Hampton Roads.[1]

[Footnote 1: Bullock's Secret Service of the Confederate States in
Europe, Vol. I., pp. 152-224.]

The next to get afloat was the Alabama. She was built at Liverpool with the knowledge of the English government, and became in time one of the most famous and successful of all the commerce destroyers. During two years she cruised unharmed in the North Atlantic, in the Gulf of Mexico, in the Caribbean Sea, along the coast of South America, and even in the Indian Ocean, destroying in her career sixty-six merchant vessels. At last she was found in the harbor of Cherbourg (France) by the Kearsarge, to which Captain Semmes of the Alabama sent a challenge to fight. Captain Winslow accepted it; and June 19, 1864, after a short and gallant engagement, the Alabama was sunk in the English Channel.[1]

[Footnote 1: Ibid., Vol. I., pp. 225-294. Battles and Leaders of the
Civil War, Vol. IV., pp. 600-625.]

The Shenandoah, another cruiser, was purchased in England and armed at a barren island near Madeira. Thence she went to Australia, and cruising northward in the Pacific to Bering Strait, destroyed the China-bound clippers and the whaling fleet. At last, hearing of the downfall of the Confederacy, she went back to England.[1]

[Footnote 1: Bullock's Secret Service of the Confederate States in
Europe, Vol. II., pp. 131-163.]

%460. The Ironclads.%—To blockade the coast and cut off trade was most important, but not all that was needed. Here and there were seaports which must be captured and forts which must be destroyed, bays and sounds, and great rivers coming down from the interior, which it was very desirable to secure control of. The Confederates were fully aware of this, and as soon as they could, placed on the waters of their rivers and harbors vessels new to naval warfare, called ironclad rams. These were steamboats cut down and made suitable for naval purposes, and then covered over with iron rails or thick iron plates. The most famous of them was the Merrimac.