" This letter gives a good idea of the business-like qualities
brought by Mr. Davis to his high office. "At the arsenal at Washington,"
he writes, "you will find an artificer named Wright, who has brought the
cap-making machine to its present state of efficiency, and who might
furnish a cap-machine, and accompany it, to explain its operations."
Throughout the letter, which is full of minute instructions and weighty
commissions, Mr. Davis shows the fullest confidence in the loyalty and
fitness of the man in whom he placed trust.
Captain Semmes was engaged in the performance of these immediate duties,
when a confidential communication from Mr. S.R. Mallory, of the Navy
department, gave him warning of two or more steamers, of a class desired
for present service, which might be purchased at or near New
York--"steamers of speed, light draught, and strength sufficient for at
least one heavy gun."
"The steamers are designed to navigate the waters and enter the bays and
inlets of the coast from Charleston to the St. Mary's, and from Key West
to the Rio Grande, for coast defences;" and Captain Semmes' judgment
will need no further guide when he is told that "their speed should be
sufficient to give them at all times the ability to engage or to evade
an engagement, and that an 8 or 10-inch gun, with, perhaps, two 32, or,
if not, two of smaller calibre, should constitute their battery."
The Captain's appointment as Commander in the Navy of the Confederate
States, and taking of the oaths, followed in April.
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