Diary of Gideon Welles: Tuesday, March 29, 1864

Not long at Cabinet-meeting. Chase still feels that he did not make a good case in the matter of the Princeton. He inquired with assumed nonchalance how I got on with Lee and Butler in the matter of permits. I told him the whole subject of trade belonged to the Treasury, and I gave myself no further concern about it than to stop abuse through naval officers. He denied that he had anything to do with matters of trade within the Rebel lines. I replied that General Butler gave permits for trade and quoted the trade regulations for his authority, and when I referred the matter to him for explanation, he had taken no exception. Chase seemed stumped. Said the regulations had not been officially promulgated. I told him that I knew not whether they were or not, but if they had been I asked if they authorized the proposed trade. He said they did not.

Told Mr. Wilson he must look into Johnson's case, for I did not like it should be longer suspended.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 548

Diary of Gideon Welles: Tuesday, March 22, 1864

At the Cabinet-meeting Chase manifested a little disturbance of mind at my letter respecting the Ann Hamilton and the Princeton, sent in reply to his somewhat arrogant letter to me. Seward asked him if he had any gold to sell. He said no, if S. wanted to make money he had better get a permit from General Butler to carry in military supplies, and then persuade me to let the vessel pass the blockade. He then made a wholly perverted statement; confounded the two cases; said he never looked behind the military permit, which was sufficient for the Treasury. "But," said I, “General Butler explicitly states that this trading permit to a Baltimorean to trade in North Carolina was based on your 52, 53, and 55 trade regulations, and I should like to know if they will bear that construction.” “Ah,” said he, “the permit was before the regulations were promulgated.” “No,” I replied, “they were distinctly and particularly cited as his authority.”

Chase did not pursue the subject, but tried to pass it off as a joke. His jokes are always clumsy; he is destitute of wit. It was obvious that he was nettled and felt himself in the wrong.

Seward said the Chesapeake had arrived from Halifax under convoy of the revenue cutter [Miami]. This whole thing is ludicrous. A convoy was no more wanted than if the vessel had been in Long Island Sound. But Seward applied to me for a gunboat. I declined and turned him over to the Treasury, if an armed vessel was required to bring the prisoners, which was a part of the case. It is a simple business, but an ostentatious parade and announcement may glorify the State Department.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 544-5

Arrival of New Orleans Prisoners at Ft. Warren

The U. S. steamer Rhode Island, Commander Trenchard, arrived at Boston On Friday, having on board the rebel naval officers who were captured by our ships in the action on the Mississippi, below New Orleans.  The following are the leading officers:

COMMANDER J. K. MITCHELL.  He is about 50 years of age.  Was an old United States Navy officer.  He commanded the naval forces at Forts Jackson and Phillip, and was compelled to surrender.

COMMANDER BEVERLY KENNON.  A native of Norfolk, Virginia.  Entered the navy in 1844, and resigned in 1861.  His father was killed by the bursting of the famous Stockton gun “Peacemaker,” on board the steamship Princeton in 1842.

LIEUTENANT WARLEY.  A native of South Carolina.  He entered the United States Navy in 1840, and resigned in 1861.

LIEUTENANT WHITTLE – Is a son of Commodore W. O. Whittle, and grandson of Commodore Arthur Lincoln, United States Navy.  Both he and his father resigned from the United States Navy in 1861, and joined the Rebels.  He was attached to the Pirate Nashville, until quite recently.  He was with her in England and commanded her when she ran out of Beaufort, N. C., where it surrendered to the United States forces.  He is only 22 years of age.  He is a Virginian.

DOCTOR GRAFTON – As from Arkansas and was in the United States Navy two years.

LIEUTENANT W. H. WARD – Is from Norfolk, Va.  He entered the United States Navy in 1849, and on his return from his last cruise to China in 1861, resigned his commission.  He was locked up in Fort Warren for safe keeping where he remained 5 months.  He was released three months since, and is now on his way to this old place of residence.

COMMANDER McINTOSH.  He resigned [from] the United States Navy in 1861.  One of his arms was shot off in the recent engagement below New Orleans, and otherwise badly wounded.

LIEUTENANT JOHN WILKINSON. – A native of Norfolk, Va., entered the United States Navy in 1839 and resigned in 1861, and entered the rebel service.  He commanded the steamer Tennessee before the siege, and came below the forts with a flag of truce, when he was met by Commander De Camp of the United States sloop-of-war Iroquois, who entertained him in the cabin of the gunboat Winona, also under a flag of truce, conveying the Captain of the French steamer Milan to the forts.  Looking back upon that incident once cannot but feel [that] De Camp’s words on that occasion were prophetic.  Said Wilkinson to De Camp, “John you can’t go past the forts.”  De camp replied, slapping Wilkinson on the shoulder, “By ___ John, we will!”  And they did.

LIEUT. T. B. HUGER.  Was an old United States officer, and was in the steamer Iroquois.  He is a South Carolinian.

These are the principal rebels now sojourning in Fort Warren, who were engaged in the recent naval fight below New Orleans.  It will be seen that their absence makes a pretty appalling gap in the Confederate Navy.  All of them are deserters from the United States Navy.  There came also with this party quite a formidable list of lesser lights recently in the same service, who were compelled to share the fortunes of their leaders.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 31, 1862, p. 2