THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, February 10, 1997 TAG: 9702100049
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: COLUMN
SOURCE: GEORGE TUCKER
LENGTH: 88 lines
Priceless Confederate naval records stored for years in a shoe box in the attic of Norfolk's historic Taylor-Whittle House on Freemason Street revealed that the CSS Alabama, the South's ``Scourge of the Seas,'' lost her epic Civil War battle with the U.S. steam corvette Kearsarge off Cherbourg, France, because of faulty ammunition.
This disclosure is the crux of a fascinating article headed: ``She Died a Noble Death,'' written by Robert H. ``Bob'' Mason, editor of The Virginian-Pilot from 1960 to 1978. Mason is a Civil War naval authority who also served in the Naval Reserve during World War II. His article is featured in this month's issue of Naval History published by the Naval Institute in Annapolis, Md.
The revelation that the Alabama's ammunition had become defective during a 22-month voyage that wreaked havoc with federal shipping comes from letters by Cmdr. George Terry Sinclair, a Confederate naval agent in France, written to Flag Officer Samuel Barron, then commanding officer of Confederate naval forces in Europe with headquarters in Paris. Sinclair, who watched the battle from the heights above Cherbourg on June 19, 1864, was explicit in his statements that the Alabama's powder had been damaged during her long cruise. Even so, Capt. Raphael Semmes, the commanding officer of the Alabama, failed to mention this in his report.
In any event, the true reason for the loss of the Alabama did not surface until 1951, when Miss Edmonia Lee Whittle, who had inherited the papers from her father, Confederate Navy Capt. William C. Whittle, took them from a shoe box in which they had been stored in her attic and presented them to the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences (now the Chrysler Museum) for an exhibition of Confederate naval artifacts. Mason, who then edited the Sunday edition of The Pilot, was not long in realizing that the documents - particularly the Sinclair letters - were of primary historic importance.
His initial discovery was published in a story in The Pilot on July 8, 1951, headed: ``Letters Given Museum Shed New Light on Confederate Navy Activities Abroad.'' Illustrated with a cut of the battle and a map showing the maneuvers of the two ships before the Alabama was sent to her watery grave, Mason's feature article elicited great interest among Virginia Civil War buffs. Now, using the same material supplemented by considerable extra research, Mason has made his startling discovery a national historical property.
To return to Miss Whittle - no one knows how her father came into possession of the documents that cover a broad range of references to Confederate naval activities in Europe. According to Whittle's diary, which Miss Whittle included with her gift, however, he was then in Paris and was also an intimate friend of Barron, the recipient of Sinclair's Alabama-oriented letters. As such, he easily could have been entrusted with the papers to be returned to the Confederate naval archives in Richmond, but this is only conjecture.
After being held by the museum for several years, the papers were transferred to the Sargeant Memorial Room, the local history department of Kirn Memorial Library in downtown Norfolk. Since then, they have been microfilmed and are readily available to Civil War naval scholars all over the country.
In closing, something should be said concerning the history of the Alabama. Built for the Confederate government in Liverpool, England, she was commissioned off the Azores on Aug. 24, 1862, and placed under the command of Capt. Semmes. Until her destruction by the Kearsarge, she traveled 75,000 miles and captured 66 Union merchant ships worth $6.5 million.
Two human interest items concerning the gallant ship should also be included. 1) During her lifetime, the Alabama never entered a Confederate port. 2) Capt. Semmes survived the destruction of his ship and was spared imprisonment in a Union hoosegow when he was rescued from the English Channel by the Deerhound, an English yacht that had sailed out to watch the battle. The owner of the yacht plucked Semmes from the water and delivered him safely to England. ILLUSTRATION: Robert H. Mason has written a follow-up article about
the sinking of the CSS Alabama.
Courtesy of Culver Pictures
The sinking of the CSS Alabama, depicted here, is the focus of an
article by Robert H. ``Bob'' Mason, scholar and former Pilot editor.
TUCKER TO SPEAK
What: ``Finding Jane Austen,'' a talk by George Holbert Tucker
as part of the Second Tuesday Forum. Sponsored by the Portsmouth
Public Library, the forum is free and open to the public.
When: noon Tuesday.
Where: Commodore Theater, 300 block of High Street, Olde Towne
Portsmouth.
Information: 393-8501.