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Recreating, Experiencing & Teaching our PastYour Subtitle text
C.S.S. Shenandoah Marines
The Last Confederate Leathernecks
“It was some six weeks after we left Melbourne before we took another prize, during which time we were organizing a company of marines and drilling the crew.”….
Affidavit of Wm. A Temple, 1865
November 6, 1865. On board the C.S.S. Shenandoah, now resting at anchor next to the H.M.H. Donegal, 20 Marines stood solemnly with the ship’s formation as the last flag of the Confederacy slowly lowered to the holystoned teak deck. Just days prior as the Confederate raider sailed north towards the River Mercy, and their subsequent surrender to the British, Marine sergeant, George P. Canning died from what he claimed were wounds received three years earlier during the battle of Shiloh, near Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee in 1862. For Canning, his long struggle had ended. He was buried at sea with the honors befitting a sergeant of the Confederate Marines. He would have been the 21st.
Like the rest of the crew of the C.S.S. Shenandoah, the Marines who now stood in formation were a calico lot, comprised of men from different nations, speaking different languages, holding different loyalties and enlisting from different sources, including several from captured Yankee whaling and merchant ships, who for reasons of their own shipped with the Shenandoah and chose to become Marines.
Lt. William Conway Whittle, the Shenandoah’s executive officer, developed the Marine Guard at the orders, or approval of Commander Waddell after the Confederate Raider sailed from Melbourne, Australia, February 1865, following a lengthy stay for repairs and provisions.
To their “surprise” Commander Waddell and Lt. Whittle discovered 42 men, mostly Americans with a few Australians tossed in, had slipped aboard during the ship’s stay and concealed themselves in the holds of the ship until the Shenandoah was far enough from land. They immediately signed shipping orders as Confederate sailors and Marines.
The new men more then made up for the 11 who deserted the Shenandoah in Melbourne. Now for the first time since the Confederate raider sailed away from Madeira and began her quest in October 1864, the ship could be run with a full crew. This additional manpower warranted the formation of a Marine Guard, being essential to maintain order and secure prisoners the Shenandoah hoped to receive as she sought out the whaling fleet of New England. The original guard carried a compliment of just five Marines, including the commanding NCO, Sgt. George P. Canning, who like the others slipped on board in Australia. Sgt. George P. Canning is an egnigma, he claimed to be an aide de camp to Confederate General Leonidas Polk, the Fighting Bishop, yet there is no mention of a George P. Canning listed as an aide de camp by General Polk. Still the Marine Guard was formed and Sgt. George P. Canning was its NCO.
After the War, Captain Waddell wrote in his war memoirs, C. S. S. Shenandoah: The Memoirs of Lieutenant Commanding James I. Waddell, he clothed his Marines “cap-a-pie” or head to foot using the talents of a shipboard tailor and the grey wool cloth shipped aboard to sew uniforms. According to his memoirs, he also employed the use of sky blue Union infantry trousers captured from the ship Harvest for the Marines. He does not mention the use of the dark blue wool, sack coats also confiscated at the same time as the trousers, so it is generally thought they were inappropriate for his tastes in Marine uniforms. Apparently, the Marine uniform frock coats were grey. A few days after the C.S.S. Shenandoah surrendered to the British in Liverpool, England, the Liverpool Mercury for Tuesday 9th Nov. 1865, wrote that the men (sailors & Marines) left the ship in “grey uniforms and wearing eccentric looking hats and capes.”
There were many shades of grey wool clothing used by the Confederates for clothing throughout the War, but imported English grey wool was in general a darker color, even carrying a hue of blue in the dyes. This color can be seen in several original imported Confederate jackets still dodging moths in museums about the South. Today, this color has been referred to as Tait gray, after Sir Peter Tait whose factory in Limerick, Ireland supplied both bulk wool cloth and ready-made uniforms to the Confederacy. Tait purchased his dark blue/grey wool cloth from Alexander Collie, an English entrepreneur who was also involved in building blockade-runners for Captain James Bulloch, the Confederate Naval purchasing officer in England. Bullock was a master at his business and purchased and outfitted four Confederate Raiders, including the C.S.S Alabama and the C.S.S. Shenandoah. In his wonderful two volume work, The Secret Service of the Confederate States in Europe, Bullock gives us a list of small arms and equipment for the famous raider, C.S.S. Alabama. "the necessary number of revolvers, short rifles with cutlass bayonets, ammunition, made-up clothing for 150 men, extra stores of all kinds..." There is no doubt that he used the identical list and contractors when he outfitted the Shenandoah. To support this, shortly after the Shenandoah's surrender in 1865, William A. Temple, a former Shenandoah sailor wrote: "There were also rifles, revolvers, cutlasses, &c., in abundance. Each man at his quarters during our cruise was armed with a rifle, cutlass and a revolver." The last Confederate Raider supported a well armed crew.
Later in the circumnavigational voyage of the C.S.S. Shenandoah, other Marine detachments were created for future boarding parties. These men performed admirably in their duties with the exception of Marine private H. Canning. Lt. Whittle called him in his journals, “the greatest pest of the ship,” and ordered the Marine triced up twice and even had him gagged. However, more marines achieved rank, including another sergeant, American John Park and two corporals, American George A. Gifford and David Alexander from Scotland. The rest remained privates.
When the last flag of the Confederacy touched the teak deck of the C.S.S. Shenandoah, the officers and crew certainly saluted open palmed, as was the custom. They stood there also apprehensive as to their futures. They were accused by the US government as pirates, and if the US had their way the Marines along with the entire crew of the C.S.S. Shenandoah would have danced the Irish jig the following morning. But it was not their fate.
“ However, about 6 o`clock last night a telegram was received from Government by Captain Paynter, of her Majesty’s ship Donegal, to whom the Shenandoah was surrendered, that the whole of the officers and crew, who were not British subjects were to be immediately paroled.” Liverpool Mercury Thursday 9th Nov. 1865.
As Captain Paynter of Her Majesty’s Ship Donegal assembled the officers and men of the Shenandoah on deck, Captain Waddell had secretly heard of the parole to be offered and the entrapment for all British subjects who broke the Neutrality Act by joining a foreign combatant ship. Those subjects could face prison or even be hanged. “While we were mustering and making preparations to go aft, Captain Waddell sent some of the marines among the men to tell them that they were all to be southerners when their names were called. I myself was told this by a marine by the name of John Ivors who told me that the captain had told him to tell all the crew.” Affidavit of Wm. A Temple, 1865.
Whether or not Captain Waddell had received a tip or even a “suggestion” to inform the crew of the Shenandoah of what was in the works, as Captain Paynter called the name of each man on the Shenandoah’s roll, every man who was a British subject answered “Southerner.” More than one Scotch, Irish, Canadian and English accent echoed across the silent decks in response to the question of nationality. All men, including the Marines who gave warning, were paroled and free to continue their lives.
Of the Marines on the C.S.S. Shenandoah, a few of them returned to their native Australia and are buried there. Others went home to the US and a nation torn by the long War. They picked up their lives and moved on. Only a few can be traced to their final resting. For the majority though, not much is known. Perhaps like most of the Shenandoah’s crew, they just went back to sea and the life they knew.
Websites I highly recommend:
Rawlinson, Roy, When Liverpool was Dixie: a Tribute to Commander James Dunwoody Bulloch Confederate States Navy.
September 2009.
http://www.csa-dixie.com/liverpool_dixie/shenandoah.htm
Papers relating to the foreign relations of the United States, 1926, Volume 1 http://books.google.com/books
The Patriot Files. 2009
http://www.patriotfiles.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=300
“The Cruise of the Shenandoah.” On Deck! The webzine of the
Navy & Marine Living History Association (NMLHA).
http://www.navyandmarine.org/ondeck/1862shenandoah.htm
CONFEDERATES IN BLUE "ENGLISH ARMY CLOTH" IN THE A.N.V. http://www.acws.co.uk/archives/military/anvblue.htm
Official records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. ; Series I - Volume 3: The Operation of the Cruisers (April 1, 1864 - December 30, 1865)
http://digital.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=moawar;cc=moawar;q1=pants;rgn=full%20text;idno=ofre0003;didno=ofre0003;view=image;seq=0855
Wilson, Harold S. Confederate industry: manufacturers and quartermasters in the Civil War.
http://books.google.com/books?id=Hmweh1VtxUAC&pg=PA166&lpg=PA166&dq=alexander+collie+manchester&source=bl&ots=cgifRuGa-p&sig=VDyouaLhg-3g9ALAWXlKn6nXZOI&hl=en&ei=Oor7So3MLoi-sgPq7tmCAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CBEQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=alexander%20collie%20manchester&f=false
Turner, Andrew. “English Cloth on Cooke’s Foot Cavalry:
English Uniforms and the 27th NCT”
http://www.libertyrifles.org/research/englishcloth.html
Hartzler, Daniel D. “A band of brothers: photographic epilogue to Marylanders in the Confederacy.”
http://books.google.com/books?id=JchNaB-ep9sC&pg=PA164&lpg=PA164&dq=shenandoah+marine+uniform&source=bl&ots=AlHSE8V3uk&sig=fhQMUJ8gV4fEPp3osxdTULpgPTU&hl=en&ei=sUfySpnnKZHWsQPE2vQC&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CBAQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=shenandoah%20marine%20uniform&f=false
“The CSS SHENANDOAH Cruise by one of her Officers, Dr. McNulty.” Confederate Navy Research Center, Mobile, Alabama,
http://www.csnavy.org/mcnulty,shenandoah.htm
Merseyside Maritime Museum
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/archive/
Foenander, Terry. “Shipping Articles of the ‘CSS Shenandoah’.”
http://www.tfoenander.com/shenandoahshippingarticles.htm
Books I highly recommend:
Baldwin, John. Powers, Ron. The Last Flag Down. Random House Inc. New York. 2007.
Bulloch, James D. The Secret Service of the Confederate States in Europe. Sagamore Press. 1959.
Chaffin, Tom. Sea of Gray: The Around-the-World Odyssey of the Confederate Raider Shenandoah. Hill & Wang. New York. 2007.
Field, Ron. Hook, Richard. American Civil War Marines 1861-65
Osprey Publishing Ltd 2004.
Whittle, William C. Jr. The Voyage of the CSS Shenandoah: A Memorable Cruise. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa. 2005.
Waddell, James I. C. S. S. Shenandoah: The Memoirs of Lieutenant Commanding James I. Waddell. Blue Jacket Books. 1996.
“It was some six weeks after we left Melbourne before we took another prize, during which time we were organizing a company of marines and drilling the crew.”….
Affidavit of Wm. A Temple, 1865
November 6, 1865. On board the C.S.S. Shenandoah, now resting at anchor next to the H.M.H. Donegal, 20 Marines stood solemnly with the ship’s formation as the last flag of the Confederacy slowly lowered to the holystoned teak deck. Just days prior as the Confederate raider sailed north towards the River Mercy, and their subsequent surrender to the British, Marine sergeant, George P. Canning died from what he claimed were wounds received three years earlier during the battle of Shiloh, near Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee in 1862. For Canning, his long struggle had ended. He was buried at sea with the honors befitting a sergeant of the Confederate Marines. He would have been the 21st.
Like the rest of the crew of the C.S.S. Shenandoah, the Marines who now stood in formation were a calico lot, comprised of men from different nations, speaking different languages, holding different loyalties and enlisting from different sources, including several from captured Yankee whaling and merchant ships, who for reasons of their own shipped with the Shenandoah and chose to become Marines.
Lt. William Conway Whittle, the Shenandoah’s executive officer, developed the Marine Guard at the orders, or approval of Commander Waddell after the Confederate Raider sailed from Melbourne, Australia, February 1865, following a lengthy stay for repairs and provisions.
To their “surprise” Commander Waddell and Lt. Whittle discovered 42 men, mostly Americans with a few Australians tossed in, had slipped aboard during the ship’s stay and concealed themselves in the holds of the ship until the Shenandoah was far enough from land. They immediately signed shipping orders as Confederate sailors and Marines.
The new men more then made up for the 11 who deserted the Shenandoah in Melbourne. Now for the first time since the Confederate raider sailed away from Madeira and began her quest in October 1864, the ship could be run with a full crew. This additional manpower warranted the formation of a Marine Guard, being essential to maintain order and secure prisoners the Shenandoah hoped to receive as she sought out the whaling fleet of New England. The original guard carried a compliment of just five Marines, including the commanding NCO, Sgt. George P. Canning, who like the others slipped on board in Australia. Sgt. George P. Canning is an egnigma, he claimed to be an aide de camp to Confederate General Leonidas Polk, the Fighting Bishop, yet there is no mention of a George P. Canning listed as an aide de camp by General Polk. Still the Marine Guard was formed and Sgt. George P. Canning was its NCO.
After the War, Captain Waddell wrote in his war memoirs, C. S. S. Shenandoah: The Memoirs of Lieutenant Commanding James I. Waddell, he clothed his Marines “cap-a-pie” or head to foot using the talents of a shipboard tailor and the grey wool cloth shipped aboard to sew uniforms. According to his memoirs, he also employed the use of sky blue Union infantry trousers captured from the ship Harvest for the Marines. He does not mention the use of the dark blue wool, sack coats also confiscated at the same time as the trousers, so it is generally thought they were inappropriate for his tastes in Marine uniforms. Apparently, the Marine uniform frock coats were grey. A few days after the C.S.S. Shenandoah surrendered to the British in Liverpool, England, the Liverpool Mercury for Tuesday 9th Nov. 1865, wrote that the men (sailors & Marines) left the ship in “grey uniforms and wearing eccentric looking hats and capes.”
There were many shades of grey wool clothing used by the Confederates for clothing throughout the War, but imported English grey wool was in general a darker color, even carrying a hue of blue in the dyes. This color can be seen in several original imported Confederate jackets still dodging moths in museums about the South. Today, this color has been referred to as Tait gray, after Sir Peter Tait whose factory in Limerick, Ireland supplied both bulk wool cloth and ready-made uniforms to the Confederacy. Tait purchased his dark blue/grey wool cloth from Alexander Collie, an English entrepreneur who was also involved in building blockade-runners for Captain James Bulloch, the Confederate Naval purchasing officer in England. Bullock was a master at his business and purchased and outfitted four Confederate Raiders, including the C.S.S Alabama and the C.S.S. Shenandoah. In his wonderful two volume work, The Secret Service of the Confederate States in Europe, Bullock gives us a list of small arms and equipment for the famous raider, C.S.S. Alabama. "the necessary number of revolvers, short rifles with cutlass bayonets, ammunition, made-up clothing for 150 men, extra stores of all kinds..." There is no doubt that he used the identical list and contractors when he outfitted the Shenandoah. To support this, shortly after the Shenandoah's surrender in 1865, William A. Temple, a former Shenandoah sailor wrote: "There were also rifles, revolvers, cutlasses, &c., in abundance. Each man at his quarters during our cruise was armed with a rifle, cutlass and a revolver." The last Confederate Raider supported a well armed crew.
Later in the circumnavigational voyage of the C.S.S. Shenandoah, other Marine detachments were created for future boarding parties. These men performed admirably in their duties with the exception of Marine private H. Canning. Lt. Whittle called him in his journals, “the greatest pest of the ship,” and ordered the Marine triced up twice and even had him gagged. However, more marines achieved rank, including another sergeant, American John Park and two corporals, American George A. Gifford and David Alexander from Scotland. The rest remained privates.
When the last flag of the Confederacy touched the teak deck of the C.S.S. Shenandoah, the officers and crew certainly saluted open palmed, as was the custom. They stood there also apprehensive as to their futures. They were accused by the US government as pirates, and if the US had their way the Marines along with the entire crew of the C.S.S. Shenandoah would have danced the Irish jig the following morning. But it was not their fate.
“ However, about 6 o`clock last night a telegram was received from Government by Captain Paynter, of her Majesty’s ship Donegal, to whom the Shenandoah was surrendered, that the whole of the officers and crew, who were not British subjects were to be immediately paroled.” Liverpool Mercury Thursday 9th Nov. 1865.
As Captain Paynter of Her Majesty’s Ship Donegal assembled the officers and men of the Shenandoah on deck, Captain Waddell had secretly heard of the parole to be offered and the entrapment for all British subjects who broke the Neutrality Act by joining a foreign combatant ship. Those subjects could face prison or even be hanged. “While we were mustering and making preparations to go aft, Captain Waddell sent some of the marines among the men to tell them that they were all to be southerners when their names were called. I myself was told this by a marine by the name of John Ivors who told me that the captain had told him to tell all the crew.” Affidavit of Wm. A Temple, 1865.
Whether or not Captain Waddell had received a tip or even a “suggestion” to inform the crew of the Shenandoah of what was in the works, as Captain Paynter called the name of each man on the Shenandoah’s roll, every man who was a British subject answered “Southerner.” More than one Scotch, Irish, Canadian and English accent echoed across the silent decks in response to the question of nationality. All men, including the Marines who gave warning, were paroled and free to continue their lives.
Of the Marines on the C.S.S. Shenandoah, a few of them returned to their native Australia and are buried there. Others went home to the US and a nation torn by the long War. They picked up their lives and moved on. Only a few can be traced to their final resting. For the majority though, not much is known. Perhaps like most of the Shenandoah’s crew, they just went back to sea and the life they knew.
Websites I highly recommend:
Rawlinson, Roy, When Liverpool was Dixie: a Tribute to Commander James Dunwoody Bulloch Confederate States Navy.
September 2009.
http://www.csa-dixie.com/liverpool_dixie/shenandoah.htm
Papers relating to the foreign relations of the United States, 1926, Volume 1 http://books.google.com/books
The Patriot Files. 2009
http://www.patriotfiles.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=300
“The Cruise of the Shenandoah.” On Deck! The webzine of the
Navy & Marine Living History Association (NMLHA).
http://www.navyandmarine.org/ondeck/1862shenandoah.htm
CONFEDERATES IN BLUE "ENGLISH ARMY CLOTH" IN THE A.N.V. http://www.acws.co.uk/archives/military/anvblue.htm
Official records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. ; Series I - Volume 3: The Operation of the Cruisers (April 1, 1864 - December 30, 1865)
http://digital.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=moawar;cc=moawar;q1=pants;rgn=full%20text;idno=ofre0003;didno=ofre0003;view=image;seq=0855
Wilson, Harold S. Confederate industry: manufacturers and quartermasters in the Civil War.
http://books.google.com/books?id=Hmweh1VtxUAC&pg=PA166&lpg=PA166&dq=alexander+collie+manchester&source=bl&ots=cgifRuGa-p&sig=VDyouaLhg-3g9ALAWXlKn6nXZOI&hl=en&ei=Oor7So3MLoi-sgPq7tmCAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CBEQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=alexander%20collie%20manchester&f=false
Turner, Andrew. “English Cloth on Cooke’s Foot Cavalry:
English Uniforms and the 27th NCT”
http://www.libertyrifles.org/research/englishcloth.html
Hartzler, Daniel D. “A band of brothers: photographic epilogue to Marylanders in the Confederacy.”
http://books.google.com/books?id=JchNaB-ep9sC&pg=PA164&lpg=PA164&dq=shenandoah+marine+uniform&source=bl&ots=AlHSE8V3uk&sig=fhQMUJ8gV4fEPp3osxdTULpgPTU&hl=en&ei=sUfySpnnKZHWsQPE2vQC&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CBAQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=shenandoah%20marine%20uniform&f=false
“The CSS SHENANDOAH Cruise by one of her Officers, Dr. McNulty.” Confederate Navy Research Center, Mobile, Alabama,
http://www.csnavy.org/mcnulty,shenandoah.htm
Merseyside Maritime Museum
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/archive/
Foenander, Terry. “Shipping Articles of the ‘CSS Shenandoah’.”
http://www.tfoenander.com/shenandoahshippingarticles.htm
Books I highly recommend:
Baldwin, John. Powers, Ron. The Last Flag Down. Random House Inc. New York. 2007.
Bulloch, James D. The Secret Service of the Confederate States in Europe. Sagamore Press. 1959.
Chaffin, Tom. Sea of Gray: The Around-the-World Odyssey of the Confederate Raider Shenandoah. Hill & Wang. New York. 2007.
Field, Ron. Hook, Richard. American Civil War Marines 1861-65
Osprey Publishing Ltd 2004.
Whittle, William C. Jr. The Voyage of the CSS Shenandoah: A Memorable Cruise. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa. 2005.
Waddell, James I. C. S. S. Shenandoah: The Memoirs of Lieutenant Commanding James I. Waddell. Blue Jacket Books. 1996.
The Journey of the C.S.S Shenandoah
Over the years much has been much written about the last Confederate Cruiser, the C.S.S. Shenandoah. In fact, there are great resources online and in book stores that will provide many hours of wonderful reading, and this short piece will pale in comparison to the resources listed below for your further study. The story C.S.S. Shenandoah, its officers and crew, is fascinating.
Originally christened the Sea King, the sleek, 230 foot, 1160 ton sailing ship slid into the cold waters of Scotland in August 1863. She was a new design: iron and teak, with auxiliary steam power guaranteed to hit speeds in excess of 9 knots. Visiting the area, Captain James D. Bulloch, CSN, spotted the Sea King anchored on the River Clyde. He must have felt his heart skip a beat. Bulloch knew what he was looking for in a commerce raider, but he also knew that after Robert E. Lee’s defeat at Gettysburg and the ever-tightening US blockade of Confederate ports, the prospects of his new nation reaching independence diminished with each day. Immediately, he set out to acquire the Sea King.
By the fall of 1863, James Bullock was the master of his trade. He arrived in Liverpool on the 4th of June 1861, undaunted by the Herculean task given him: to build and supply a navy for his new government, The Confederate States of America. England at that time was THE world power the Confederacy worked hard trying to get the recognition they needed to establish their new nation on the world stage. But the US government worked equally as hard, and had spies and master politicians nearly equal their Confederate counterparts. Before the war’s end, Captain Bulloch, despite the best efforts of the US government, provided the Confederate Cause with three of the most famous commerce raiders in history: C.S.S. Florida, C.S.S. Alabama and the C.S.S. Shenandoah. Bulloch also had built 33 blockade runners, and several ironclads. He also purchased numerous arms, clothing, wool cloth and other military supplies for the South. He was the Confederate States’ man in England and no one knew his trade better.
By August of the following year, just a few months after the raider C.S.S. Alabama was destroyed by the U.S.S. Kearsarge, James Bullock purchased the Sea King. He may not have known it then, but would be the last ship of consequence he would purchase for the Confederate States of America.
To command the Sea King, he chose Lieutenant James Waddell, CSN, already with twenty years' service in the United States Navy before he joined the Confederacy. At 40, he was the oldest officer on board. To complete the officer corps, Bulloch selected a group of highly experienced young officers to sail the Shenandoah, including Lt. William Conway Whittle, CSN, as the Executive officer. Like Waddell, Whittle was also a capable former US Naval officer. At 24, he was the younger of the two. With this age difference came conflicting ideas of how to govern a ship that caused friction between the two during the voyage.
On October 8, in a bit of cloak-n-dagger, the Sea King with Lt. Whittle on board, posing as WC Brown, sailed down the Themes and away from London on a trading voyage for Bombay, India, a port she had no intention of reaching. Instead the Sea King rendezvoused off the island of Madeira with the steamer Laurel. On board the Laurel were the Confederate officers and what was hoped to be the crew for the raider. Also on board the Laurel were naval guns, ammunition, small arms, rifles, wool cloth, grey Confederate Navy uniforms and stores that had been purchased earlier to refit the CSS Alabama, now resting on the bottom of the ocean off France. The demise of the C.S.S. Alabama also served the Shenandoah in other ways: several sailors and officers from her were now among the officers and crew waiting to sail on the C.S.S. Shenandoah. Irvine Bulloch, James Bulloch’s brother and master navigator of the Alabama was one of those men.
After the supplies and guns were hoisted and transferred from the Laurel to the Sea King, Captain Waddell took command and rechristened her the C.S.S. Shenandoah. Immediately the cruise almost ended before it started: only 25 men agreed to ship over and serve the Confederate Navy. The C.S.S. Shenandoah needed 109. Lieutenant Commanding Waddell wanted to wait until more crew could be found, but his young officers voted differently, took off their frocks and worked side by side with the men to get under the sail that would take them around the world and into immortality.
The CSS Shenandoah sailed south, taking her first prizes and sinking all American merchant ships on her way to rounding the Cape of Good Hope. After several severe storms in the Indian Ocean, Lt. Whittle, the executive officer, discovered problems with the propeller that needed extensive repairs. On January 25, 1865, the CSS Shenandoah dropped anchor in the harbor of Melbourne, Australia. Almost immediately conspiracy swept the decks of the Confederate cruiser. Eighteen men would eventually desert the ship, most coerced in joining the raider from the ships captured and sank at sea to date. There were also constant threats of Northern sympathizers, including a botched sea mine that failed to detonate feet from the C.S.S Shenandoah. The governor, unsure of his place in history, surrounded the Shenandoah with police while it was in dry dock, only to be sent packing by Commander Waddell and Lt. Whittle. But the Australians themselves, embraced the Confederates and hailed them as conquering heroes, the officers of the Shenandoah later reflected that the best time of their lives was given to them by the women of Melbourne, and when she sailed a month or so later, 40 “stowaways” stepped forth to complete the crew of the C.S.S. Shenandoah.
Sailing east and then north they eventually found the Yankee whalers, along with other Yankee merchant ships, burning them and paroling them as Captain Waddell saw fit. Under Captain Waddell’s orders, the C.S.S. Shenandoah had sailed north past the Aleutian Islands and into the Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean. In the process of carrying out their orders, the officers, Marines and crew of the Shenandoah learned of Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. At the same time they also read in a confiscated San Francisco newspaper Confederate President Jefferson Davis's statement that the war was not lost, and the South only needed to step up its efforts. The CSS Shenandoah refused to give up, indeed stepped up its efforts and captured 21 more ships, the final 11 captured in one day. All in the freezing waters off Alaska! They did not know it at the time, but they had fired the final shots of the War between the North and the South.
On August 2, the Shenandoah signaled the British barque Barracouta and learned of the Confederate collapse, including the surrender of all Confederate armies and the capture of Jefferson Davis. Immediately, Captain Waddell ordered all guns to be placed into the ship holds. Their war was over, but their fears had just begun. To be captured now would surely lead them all to the gallows and hanged as pirates.
Captain Waddell, for all his dark moods during the voyage, gave the only order he could have given. The Shenandoah finished their circumnavigation of the earth and eventually sailed up the River Mercy to Liverpool. There, on November 6, 1865, the last resistance of the war, the CSS Shenandoah, lowered the Confederate battle ensign and surrendered to British authorities. It is an important flag, having been the only one of its kind to circumnavigate the globe. It can be seen at the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia.
The British, being British, did the only sensible thing they could do and released the officers and crew, determining that because of the lack of credible communication, the CSS Shenandoah had acted in good faith and were fighting the good fight.
The CSS Shenandoah had completed her mission, sailing nearly 50,000 miles during the 12 months and 17 days she was at sea.
She sank or captured 38 ships valued at the time at nearly $1,400,000. She destroyed the Yankee whaling fleet in the process. Captain Waddell took close to a thousand prisoners, without a single war casualty among his crew or his captives. The CSS Shenandoah set sailing records that still stand today.
Originally christened the Sea King, the sleek, 230 foot, 1160 ton sailing ship slid into the cold waters of Scotland in August 1863. She was a new design: iron and teak, with auxiliary steam power guaranteed to hit speeds in excess of 9 knots. Visiting the area, Captain James D. Bulloch, CSN, spotted the Sea King anchored on the River Clyde. He must have felt his heart skip a beat. Bulloch knew what he was looking for in a commerce raider, but he also knew that after Robert E. Lee’s defeat at Gettysburg and the ever-tightening US blockade of Confederate ports, the prospects of his new nation reaching independence diminished with each day. Immediately, he set out to acquire the Sea King.
By the fall of 1863, James Bullock was the master of his trade. He arrived in Liverpool on the 4th of June 1861, undaunted by the Herculean task given him: to build and supply a navy for his new government, The Confederate States of America. England at that time was THE world power the Confederacy worked hard trying to get the recognition they needed to establish their new nation on the world stage. But the US government worked equally as hard, and had spies and master politicians nearly equal their Confederate counterparts. Before the war’s end, Captain Bulloch, despite the best efforts of the US government, provided the Confederate Cause with three of the most famous commerce raiders in history: C.S.S. Florida, C.S.S. Alabama and the C.S.S. Shenandoah. Bulloch also had built 33 blockade runners, and several ironclads. He also purchased numerous arms, clothing, wool cloth and other military supplies for the South. He was the Confederate States’ man in England and no one knew his trade better.
By August of the following year, just a few months after the raider C.S.S. Alabama was destroyed by the U.S.S. Kearsarge, James Bullock purchased the Sea King. He may not have known it then, but would be the last ship of consequence he would purchase for the Confederate States of America.
To command the Sea King, he chose Lieutenant James Waddell, CSN, already with twenty years' service in the United States Navy before he joined the Confederacy. At 40, he was the oldest officer on board. To complete the officer corps, Bulloch selected a group of highly experienced young officers to sail the Shenandoah, including Lt. William Conway Whittle, CSN, as the Executive officer. Like Waddell, Whittle was also a capable former US Naval officer. At 24, he was the younger of the two. With this age difference came conflicting ideas of how to govern a ship that caused friction between the two during the voyage.
On October 8, in a bit of cloak-n-dagger, the Sea King with Lt. Whittle on board, posing as WC Brown, sailed down the Themes and away from London on a trading voyage for Bombay, India, a port she had no intention of reaching. Instead the Sea King rendezvoused off the island of Madeira with the steamer Laurel. On board the Laurel were the Confederate officers and what was hoped to be the crew for the raider. Also on board the Laurel were naval guns, ammunition, small arms, rifles, wool cloth, grey Confederate Navy uniforms and stores that had been purchased earlier to refit the CSS Alabama, now resting on the bottom of the ocean off France. The demise of the C.S.S. Alabama also served the Shenandoah in other ways: several sailors and officers from her were now among the officers and crew waiting to sail on the C.S.S. Shenandoah. Irvine Bulloch, James Bulloch’s brother and master navigator of the Alabama was one of those men.
After the supplies and guns were hoisted and transferred from the Laurel to the Sea King, Captain Waddell took command and rechristened her the C.S.S. Shenandoah. Immediately the cruise almost ended before it started: only 25 men agreed to ship over and serve the Confederate Navy. The C.S.S. Shenandoah needed 109. Lieutenant Commanding Waddell wanted to wait until more crew could be found, but his young officers voted differently, took off their frocks and worked side by side with the men to get under the sail that would take them around the world and into immortality.
The CSS Shenandoah sailed south, taking her first prizes and sinking all American merchant ships on her way to rounding the Cape of Good Hope. After several severe storms in the Indian Ocean, Lt. Whittle, the executive officer, discovered problems with the propeller that needed extensive repairs. On January 25, 1865, the CSS Shenandoah dropped anchor in the harbor of Melbourne, Australia. Almost immediately conspiracy swept the decks of the Confederate cruiser. Eighteen men would eventually desert the ship, most coerced in joining the raider from the ships captured and sank at sea to date. There were also constant threats of Northern sympathizers, including a botched sea mine that failed to detonate feet from the C.S.S Shenandoah. The governor, unsure of his place in history, surrounded the Shenandoah with police while it was in dry dock, only to be sent packing by Commander Waddell and Lt. Whittle. But the Australians themselves, embraced the Confederates and hailed them as conquering heroes, the officers of the Shenandoah later reflected that the best time of their lives was given to them by the women of Melbourne, and when she sailed a month or so later, 40 “stowaways” stepped forth to complete the crew of the C.S.S. Shenandoah.
Sailing east and then north they eventually found the Yankee whalers, along with other Yankee merchant ships, burning them and paroling them as Captain Waddell saw fit. Under Captain Waddell’s orders, the C.S.S. Shenandoah had sailed north past the Aleutian Islands and into the Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean. In the process of carrying out their orders, the officers, Marines and crew of the Shenandoah learned of Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. At the same time they also read in a confiscated San Francisco newspaper Confederate President Jefferson Davis's statement that the war was not lost, and the South only needed to step up its efforts. The CSS Shenandoah refused to give up, indeed stepped up its efforts and captured 21 more ships, the final 11 captured in one day. All in the freezing waters off Alaska! They did not know it at the time, but they had fired the final shots of the War between the North and the South.
On August 2, the Shenandoah signaled the British barque Barracouta and learned of the Confederate collapse, including the surrender of all Confederate armies and the capture of Jefferson Davis. Immediately, Captain Waddell ordered all guns to be placed into the ship holds. Their war was over, but their fears had just begun. To be captured now would surely lead them all to the gallows and hanged as pirates.
Captain Waddell, for all his dark moods during the voyage, gave the only order he could have given. The Shenandoah finished their circumnavigation of the earth and eventually sailed up the River Mercy to Liverpool. There, on November 6, 1865, the last resistance of the war, the CSS Shenandoah, lowered the Confederate battle ensign and surrendered to British authorities. It is an important flag, having been the only one of its kind to circumnavigate the globe. It can be seen at the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia.
The British, being British, did the only sensible thing they could do and released the officers and crew, determining that because of the lack of credible communication, the CSS Shenandoah had acted in good faith and were fighting the good fight.
The CSS Shenandoah had completed her mission, sailing nearly 50,000 miles during the 12 months and 17 days she was at sea.
She sank or captured 38 ships valued at the time at nearly $1,400,000. She destroyed the Yankee whaling fleet in the process. Captain Waddell took close to a thousand prisoners, without a single war casualty among his crew or his captives. The CSS Shenandoah set sailing records that still stand today.
