Depredations by the piratical Rebel Tallahassee continue. We have sixteen vessels in pursuit, and yet I feel no confidence in their capturing her. It is so easy to elude the pursuit of the most vigilant — and many in command are not vigilant — that it will not surprise me if she escapes. Should that be the case, the Navy Department will alone be held responsible. I am already censured in some of the papers for not having vessels, two or three, cruising at the time she appeared. Had that been the case we could not have communicated with them when we received intelligence, but, being in port, several were at once dispatched in pursuit. I find I have become very indifferent to the senseless complaints of the few loud grumblers.
From Mobile Bay the news continues favorable. Had Farragut's preliminary dispatch of the 5th to-day. Have just written a congratulatory letter to him. These letters are difficult to pen. They must be brief and comprehensive, satisfactory to the Navy, the Government, and country, and not discreditable to the Department.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 105-6
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