These
cases will be found quoted in full in the following volumes.
CRUISE OF
THE ALABAMA AND THE SUMTER.
CHAPTER I.
_The Question at issue--An unexpected point of attack--Captain
Semmes--The President's instructions--Creating a navy--From the old to
the new--An important mission--Appointed to the Sumter--True character
of the Confederate "pirate."_
The President of the American States in Confederation was gathering an
army for the defence of Southern liberty. Where valour is a national
inheritance, and an enthusiastic unanimity prevails, this will not prove
a difficult task. It is otherwise with the formation of a navy. Soldiers
of Southern blood had thrown up their commissions in a body; but sailors
love their ships as well as their country, and appear to owe some
allegiance to them likewise. Nevertheless, if Mr. Davis had not a great
choice of officers, he had eminent men to serve him, as the young
history of the South has abundantly shown. To obtain experienced and
trusty seamen was easier to him in such a crisis than to give them a
command. The Atlantic and the ports of America were ruled at that time
absolutely by President Lincoln. The South had not a voice upon the sea.
The merchants of New York and Boston looked upon the war as something
which concerned them very little. Not a dream of any damage possibly to
be inflicted on them, disturbed the serenity of their votes for the
invasion of the South.
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