Notes and Queries

NOTES AND QUERIES Edited by Boyd B. Stutler 517 Main Street Charleston, West Virginia this department is designed as an open forum for researchers into Civil War themes and for readers of Civil War History in general. It is open for questions on, and discussion of, phases of the Great Conflict and its personnel. Also, we welcome notes on newly discovered or little known facts, or other sidelights of the war. Contributions are invited; all correspondence should be addressed to: Notes and Queries Editor, 517 Main Street, Charleston, West Virginia. QUERIES No. 72—British Salute to the Confederate Flag: We have always been told that no foreign nation ever "recognized" the Confederate States of America. Nevertheless, it appears that the British colony of Bermuda certainly did so on one occasion, as is set forth in the following quotation. This extract is from The Standard Guide to Bermuda, written by Euphemia Young Bell, and is from the 9th edition, dated 1946: During the American Civil War, it was said mat at St. George's Bermuda, a memorable event took place. The only international salute ever tendered die flag of die Confederate States of America was fired in die town of St. George. It was arranged between Captain Maffitt of the (Confederate) Frigate "Florida" and the military commandant at St. George's. A salute of 21 guns was exchanged between the "Florida" and die Forts of St. George, widi die Confederate flag flying at Fort George. The incident is sketched briefly in letters exchanged between Lieutenant J. N. Maffitt, CSN, and William Monro, Lieutenant Governor, in Official Records, Navies, Ser. I, Vol. II, pp. 650-653, and also in cruise report, p. 254, and in some detail in Edward Boykin's Sea Devil of the Confederacy (New York, 1959). The frigate "Florida," formerly the British ship "Oreto," was not just a blockade-runner, but was a well-armed Confederate navy cruiser un448 der the command of a commissioned officer. She had been on a cruise of several months, during which she had captured more than twenty Federal vessels. When she stopped at Bermuda to recoal in mid-July, 1863, there was a delay of several days, during which time the Bermuda officials rendered honors of a 21-gun salute. Query: The Bermuda incident is authentic, though it does not seem to be well known. Does it not represent a de facto recognition of the Confederacy as a nation by a foreign government and of the flag as the symbol of that government? Were there any other such incidents? Van Dyk MacBride ANSWERS No. 67—Davis' Proclamation Outlawing Union Officers: Dr. Chester D. Bradley, Co-Chairman and Curator of the Fort Monroe Casemate Museum, Fort Monroe, Virginia, sends an answer to the query of C. Melvin Broome (June, 1960) in reference to outlawing Union officers besides General Benjamin F. Butler by Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Major General David Hunter ( 1802-1886), while in command of the Union Department of the South, sanctioned the enlistment of a regiment of Negro soldiers, the 1st South Carolina Infantry . For this he was proclaimed a felon and ordered executed if captured. NOTES Centennial of Peace Convention To Be Commemorated: Acting under a joint resolution of the General Assembly, the Virginia Civil War Commission has under way elaborate plans to commemorate the "Peace Convention" of 1861, which was called by Virginia and was the last-ditch effort to preserve the Union and to prevent the Civil War. The commemoration will be staged at Washington, D.C., on February 4, 1961, and at Richmond the following day. All fifty states have been asked to recognize the Peace Convention as an effort by men of good will to keep the peace and to avert the horrors of war. The 1861 convention was called by Virginia, and all of the then thirtyfour states were invited to send representatives. The conference was held at Willard Hotel in Washington on February 4, with delegates from twenty-one states in attendance. The absence of delegates from the Deep South and from six Northern states hindered the deliberations and prevented full agreement on plans to settle the differences between the two sections. In spite of...