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30 The Great christmas riot november–December 1863 on the second sunday in november the first hint of winter arrived, the wind blowing hard and cold from the northeast. four sailors from the Savannah chose that night to desert. about ten o’clock Bosun’s Mate Martin hurried aboard and told the officer of the deck that several women in town had heard some of his shipmates talking about taking over their picket boat and fleeing to the enemy.1 The boat had departed two hours earlier with the four seamen and Master’s Mate sam Brockington, a thirty-two-year-old Brunswick, Georgia, native who had transferred from the army.2 Brockington carried a revolver, but the men were all armed with carbines. The deck officer called out the marines, who manned a boat and pulled down the river to stop the desertion. They were too late. as soon as the picket boat reached the obstructions the sailors leveled their carbines at Brockington, took him prisoner, and carried him down to fort Pulaski. Weeks later the yankees let him send a few sentences to savannah , reporting himself a prisoner of war at hilton head. he’d soon be with the Atlanta’s officers in fort Warren.3 When hunter reported the desertion to the Bureau of orders and Detail, Mitchell lectured him on the importance of carefully choosing his officers and men for picket duty, and pointedly reminded him of the order that two officers, not one, be in each picket boat, an order issued specifically to stop these desertions. hunter retorted that those were precisely the procedures he had followed—for as long as he could. But the navy Department had taken his most capable officers, sending them to the James river squadron, to the naval academy, to europe, to charleston , and they’d taken his most reliable men. he reminded Mitchell that his command had been so depleted by transfers that his only real gunboat, the Isondiga, was laid up for want of a crew. so short was he that when a master’s mate com- Great christmas riot / 267 manding the Firefly resigned, he had to draft a civilian pilot from the Isondiga to captain her.4 Between richmond’s transfers and river fevers, two officers per picket boat was a luxury his squadron could no longer afford. hunter’s relentless complaining got some results—three new officers. one, lieutenant Thomas K. Porter, had been a lieutenant in the old navy. The past two and a half years he’d served in the field as an army officer. hunter also got lieutenant sidney Mcadam (lieutenant armstrong’s replacement aboard the Isondiga), just seven months in the service, from the ironclad Missouri,5 and commander fairfax’s boy Julian, an acting master who’d been accompanying his father as an aide for a year and more. They were far from enough, and within weeks the squadron lost Paul Jones, who followed oscar Johnston to richmond. Jones would captain the Nansemond on the James, then the ironclad Raleigh at Wilmington.6 The opportunity to command , so long sought, was a mixed blessing. Jones had fallen in love with Mary Willis, and now he hated leaving savannah.7 oscar Johnston was an outstanding professional, and the squadron regretted his loss. Paul Jones, henry Graves, and Thomas Wragg were just a few who had sung Johnston’s praise. his selection to serve on the naval academy faculty was a tribute to his professionalism, and to his skills as an instructor. his abilities, and Paul Jones’s gregarious bonhomie, would both be hard to replace. hunter complained bitterly of this latest theft of his officers, charging the navy Department with looting the savannah squadron. he forcefully pushed orders and Detail to return oscar Johnston or, as a last resort, to send a “competent and worthy” officer to replace him. Mitchell lost patience. he was trying to supply the besieged charleston and Wilmington squadrons, where needs were critical. richmond was under constant threat itself. he had reached his limit with hunter’s complaining and fired back a heated response. your letter charges the Department with having made a “clean sweep of reliable and competent officers” of your command, and requests that lieutenant Johnston be replaced by “an officer competent and worthy of the position ” he held. This is certainly an implied, if not a direct charge that his successor, lieutenant Dalton, is incompetent and unworthy of the position, and that all other...

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