The CSS Tallahassee: A Factor in Anglo-American Relations, 1864-1866

THECSS TALLAHASSEE: A Factor in Anglo-American Relations, 1864-1866 Mary Elizabeth Thomas It was August 1864, the fourth year of the War Between the States. Neutral nations which had granted belligerent status to the Confederate States of America were now questioning its ability to survive. Federal troops had advanced far into the Confederacy; the USS Kearsarge had recendy sunk the CSS Alabama; and United States ships were tightening the blockade of Confederate ports. Such was the situation when on the night of August 6 a new Confederate raider slipped past the United States ships at Wilmington, North Carolina and took a northward course. Not for long was it unnoticed. The Tattahassee, as the new ship was named, made a sudden and spectacular entrance on the war scene on August 11. Boldly operating off New York harbor, it inflicted damage so extensive as to create near havoc with the shipping of the area. Ships still in port were detained in order to avoid a probable encounter with this new and fast Confederate raider operating somewhere off Sandyhook. Estimates as to the number of ships actually captured, destroyed, or damaged by the Tallahassee within six days ranged at that time from thirtytwo to fifty-four, indicating perhaps the tremendous tension which it had created.' The location of the Tallahassee did not become known until August 18, when it arrived at the British colony of Nova Scotia, and the United States Consul at Halifax reported to Washington its presence in that harbor.2 Thereupon the Tallahassee became an object of international interest. Throughout the Civil War in North America, Great Britain had undertaken officially to maintain the strictest neutrality, a position sometimes made difficult by the belligerents' ships of war. Although overshadowed in history by the famous Alabama, this new Confederate, during its brief career late in the war, troubled Anglo-American relations, and raised questions in Britain as to obligations of a neutral nation and its colonies. 1 Official records give the following credits to the Talfohassee for the period Aug. 11-24: ships burned, 16; ships scuttled, 10; ships bonded, 5; ships released, 2: total, 33. OH, Ser. I, III, 703-704. 2 Lord Lyons to Earl Russell, no. 611, Washington, Aug. 19, 1864, Foreign Office 5/1094. 148 When Lord Lyons, the British Minister in Washington, sent his government an account of this new Confederate raider, he emphasized that within less than one week it supposedly had put fifty-four ships out of action. Moreover, according to United States newspapers, it was then in a British colonial port, Halifax, and coaling, presumably in order to continue its depredations on northern shipping. The people of the United States, wrote Lyons, were shocked by the success of the TaUahassee and had reacted vehemently against the inefficiency of their navy department. More important from the British point of view were the resentment and reproaches against Great Britain, regarded as sympathetic with the Confederate States. In fact, Secretary of State William H. Seward made plain to Lyons his displeasure because the TaUahassee had been permitted to call at Halifax, especially as a merchant there, a Mr. Keith, had recently ordered from New York a compass and some 3,000 barrels of pork—supplies Seward believed could be intended for no place except the Confederacy. Lyons found Seward convinced of Keith's role as a Confederate agent, and insistent upon the urgency of so warning officials in Nova Scotia. Lyons finally yielded to the pressure, and by coded telegram conveyed to the Nova Scotia executive Seward's information about Keith's purchases. In doing so, Lyons also observed to the colonial official that the United States government appeared to be quite disturbed by the visit of the TaUahassee to Halifax, a port which could serve as a coaling station for the raider.3 The arrival of the TaUahassee in the Nova Scotian port placed the executive of that British colony directly between the two North American belligerents. Shortly after the arrival of the Confederate ship, its captain, John Taylor Wood, called upon Lieutenant Governor Richard Graves MacDonnell who granted permission for the TaUahassee to take on a "reasonable" quantity of coal within the twenty...