Read The Victim: A Romance of the Real Jefferson Davis Page 27

  CHAPTER XII

  A LITTLE CLOUD

  The first aggressive act of the President of the Confederacy revealedhis alert and far-seeing mind. His keen eye was bent upon the sea, withan instinctive appreciation of the tremendous import of the longSouthern coast line.

  Without a ship afloat or a single navy yard, by a stroke of his pen hecreated a fleet destined to sweep the commerce of the North from everysea. His task was to create something out of nothing and how well he didit events swiftly bore their testimony.

  The United States Government was the only nation which had refused tojoin the agreement to abandon the use of letters of marque and reprisalfor destroying the unarmed vessels of commerce in time of war. Thisunfortunate piece of diplomacy gave Jefferson Davis the opportunity tostrike his first blow at the power and prestige of the North.

  He immediately issued a proclamation offering to issue such letters toany ship that would arm herself and enlist under the ensign of theConfederate navy. The response was quick and the ultimate result thelowering of the flag of the Union from practically every ship ofcommerce that sailed the ocean.

  Gideon Welles conferred with his Chief in Washington and Abraham Lincolnissued a proclamation which at the time created scarcely a ripple ofexcitement. And yet that order was the most important document whichcame from the White House during the entire four years of the war.

  When the test came sixteen captains, thirty-four commanders and onehundred and eleven midshipmen resigned and cast their fortunes with theSouth. Not one of them attempted to use his position to surrender aship.

  Small as it was, the entire navy of the United States was practicallyintact. It comprised ninety ships of war--forty-two of them ready foractive service. The majority of the vessels ready for war weresteam-propelled craft of the latest improved type.

  The United States had been one of the first world powers to realize thevalue of steam and rebuild its navy accordingly. In twenty years,practically a new navy had been constructed, ranking in effective powerthird only to England and France. Within the past five years, theGovernment had built the steam frigates, _Merrimac_, _Niagara_,_Colorado_, _Wabash_, _Minnesota_, and _Roanoke_. In addition to thesetwelve powerful steam sloops of war had been commissioned--the_Hartford_, _Brooklyn_, _Lancaster_, _Richmond_, _Narragansett_,_Dakota_, _Iroquois_, _Wyoming_, and _Seminole_. They were of thehighest type of construction and compared favorably with the best shipsof the world.

  These ships at the opening of the war were widely scattered, but theirhomeward bound streamers were all fluttering in the sky.

  President Lincoln in his proclamation ordered the most remarkableblockade in the history of the world. This document declared threethousand miles of Southern coast, from the Virginia Capes to the RioGrande, closed to the commerce of the world.

  The little fleet boldly sailed on its tremendous mission. The smoke ofits funnels made but a tiny smudge on the wide, shining Southern skies.But with swift and terrible swirl this cloud, no bigger than a man'shand, grew into a storm whose black shadow shrouded the Southland ingloom.