B

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE CONFEDERATE STATES MARINE CORPS.

Y act of Congress of the Confederate States, March 16th, 1861, the establishment of a corps of marines was provided for, and subsequent legislation of May 20th enlarged its numbers and elevated the rank of its principal officers. It was, in fact, organized under the second act, whose provisions were that it should consist of: "1 colonel, 1 lieut. col., 1 major, 1 quartermaster with rank of major, 1 adjutant with rank of major, 1 serg.-major, 1 quartermaster-sergeant, 10 captains, 10 first lieutenants, 20 second lieutenants, 40 sergeants, 40 corporals and 840 privates, 10 drummers, 10 fifers and 2 musicians."

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The pay and emoluments were the same as those of the army, except that the paymaster and adjutant received the same as the quartermaster, and seamen's rations were allowed to enlisted men. Enlistments were for three years or the war; recruits to receive a bounty of $50 and re-enlisted men $40. An act of Sept. 24th, 1862, authorized the addition of 20 sergeants, 20 corporals, 20 drummers, 20 fifers and two principal musicians; and by an act of Oct. 2d, 1862, men enrolled for the army were permitted to choose service in the marine corps or the navy.

Previous to the war the U. S. marine corps was an exceptionally fine and well-disciplined body of men, and from it came the nucleus of the corresponding establishment of the Confederate service. Its headquarters were at the Washington navy-yard, and the following officers resigned and tendered their swords to the Confederate Government :

Maj. Henry B. Tyler, of Va., adjutant of the corps; Capt. and Brevet Maj. Geo. H. Terret, of Va.; Capt. Robert Tansill, 1 of Va.; Capt. Algernon S.

1 Capt. Tansill was on duty on the U. S. frigate Congress, at Monte Video, when the inaugural address of President Lincoln was received there. On May 17th, 1861, he tendered his resignation; and in his letter, after stating that he had read the address, and that it seemed to him that if the policy therein announced was carried out civil war must ensue, added:

"In entering the public service I took an oath to support the Constitution, which necessarily gives me a right to interpret it. Our institutions, according to my understanding, are founded upon the principles and right of self-govern

1

ment. The States forming the Confederacy did not relinquish that right, and I believe each State has a clear and unquestionable right to secede whenever the people thereof think proper, and the Federal government has no legal or moral authority to use physical force to keep them in the Union.

"Entertaining these views, I cannot conscientiously join in a war against any of the States which have already seceded, or may hereafter secede, either North or South, for the purpose of coercing them back into the Union. Such a war, in my opinion, would not only certainly

Taylor, of Va.; Capt. John D. Simms, of Va.; First Lieut. Israel Greene, of Va.; First Lieut. John K. H. Tatnall, of Ga.; First Lieut, Julius E. Meire, of Md.; First Lieut. Geo. P. Turner, of Va.; First Lieut. Thos. S. Wilson, of Mo.; First Lieut. Andrew J. Hays, of Ala.; First Lieut. Adam N. Baker: Second Lieut. George Holmes, of Fla.; Second Lieut. Calvin L. Sayre, of Ala.; Second Lieut. Henry L. Ingraham, of So. Car., and Second Lieut. Baker K. Howell, of Miss.

Most of these officers arrived in Richmond by the time that the seat of the Confederate government was transferred from Montgomery to that city; and, with the exception of Capt. Tansill and Lieut. Turner, they thenceforth served in the C. S. marine corps. They met at Richmond, in May 1861, more than a hundred men of their former command in the Federal service, who fully shared in their enthusiasm for the Confederate cause and had left their comfortable berths under the old flag to risk their lives and fortunes in the yet untested possibilities of the success of the South.

There had been no concert of action by which so many of the former men and officers of the U. S. marine corps were assembled at Richmond, but it was not an unfortunate accident for the Confederacy that they did come together at that time. They formed the skeleton of the organization that it was desired to establish, and brought it into order and being with a celerity that would have been impossible to unskilled hands. The organization of the corps, which had begun at Montgomery, was completed at Richmond. Col. Lloyd J. Beall,' a

and permanently destroy the Confederacy, but, if successful, establish an unlimited despotism on the ruins of our liberty. No personal consideration or advantage, however great, can induce me to aid in a cause which my heart tells me is wrong, and I prefer to endure the most terrible hardships rather than to prosper in the destruction of the freedom of my country. And believing, sir, that it would be disingenuous in me to retain my commission until the government might require my services in such a contest and then decline to serve. I consider it but prudent and just to now tender my resignation as a captain in the United States marine corps."

The action of the Navy Department in the case of Capt. Tansill was one of the many incidents of the war that Northern historians, conscious that they could not be glossed over by apologetic casuistry, chose to pass by without mention. Although his sole offence consisted in his expression, in his letter of resignation, of the reasons that prompted him to the step, upon his arrival in New York, on August the 234, 1861, he was arrested by the order of Secretary Welles, and placed in imprisonment in Fort Lafayette. No hearing or trial was ever granted him; but on the day after sending him to prison, Mr. Welles forwarded him, not an acceptance of his resignation, but the information that, by direction of the President, his name had been stricken from the roll of the U. S. marine corps. Fort Lafayette, Capt. Tansill was transferred to Fort Warren, Boston harbor, and was not released until Jan. 10th, 1862, when he was formally exchanged. The gross injustice done him was recognized in an act of the Confederate Congress of April 11th, 1863, which provided that officers of the navy and marine corps who resigned from the navy and marine corps of the United States in consequence of secession, and

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who were arrested and imprisoned in consequence of such resignation, and who subsequently joined the navy and marine corps of the Confederate States," should receive "leave of absence, pay for and during the term of such imprisonment, and up to the time of their appointment in the navy and marine corps of the Confederate States."

1 Algernon S. Taylor had been an officer of the U. S. army, and in 1838 was transferred to the marine corps as a second lieutenant. He rose to the rank of captain in that corps, and on April 26th, 1861, he offered his resignation to the Secretary of the Navy. It was not accepted, bat he was dismissed from the service. Going to Richmond, Capt. Taylor offered his services to Gen. Lee, and was commissioned a colonel of infantry in the Provisional army of Va. He was ordered by Gen. Lee to establish a school of instruction and mustering-in depot at Culpepper C H., and after the amalgamation of the army of Virginia with the Confederate States forces, he was requested by Secretary Mallory to take charge of the quartermaster's and commissary's departments of the marine corps, with the rank of major. He remained in that position until the evacuation of Richmond, when he was ordered to send all his books and papers by his assistant, Lieut. Venable, to Danville, where they were destroyed. Maj. Taylor joined Lee's retreating army, and surrendered at Appomattox C. H.

2 Colonel Beall, now approaching_fourscore years. is a resident of Richmond. His books and papers were destroved by fire about the close of the war, and in that disaster were lost many of the most valuable records of the corps. "The corps," he says, in a letter to the author. "was composed of enlisted men, many of whom were old soldiers and commissioned officers, a

former officer of the U. S. army, was appointed commandant with the rank of colonel. A commission as paymaster, with the rank of major, was issued to Richard Taylor Allison, who had held similar rank and office in the U. S. navy.'

Other commissions issued at Richmond, made Henry B. Tyler lieut. colonel of the corps; Geo. H. Terret, major; Capt. Greene, who captured John Brown, at Harper's Ferry, when the U. S. marines attacked his fortress in the engine-house at the arsenal, was made adjutant, with the rank of major; Lieut. Taylor became quartermaster, with the rank of major; and Simms, Tatnall, Holmes, Meire, Wilson and Hays, were appointed captains. Sayre and Howell were made lieutenants, and the lists of that rank were subsequently filled up by appointments made from time to time. Capts. Thom and Van Benthuysen, and all the lieutenants, except Sayre and Howell, were appointed from civil life, or from the army and navy, while the other officers, with the exception of Col. Beall, came from the U. S. marine service.

The corps remained in and around Richmond, practically unbroken, until the summer of 1862. It was engaged in the battle with the Federal iron-clads Monitor, Naugatuck and Galena, at Drewry's Bluff, on May 15th, when its service at the guns assisted the artillerists of the army and navy in the repulse of those vessels. Major Terrett commanded the corps on that occasion, and soon after detachments from it were ordered to other stations, and to vessels preparing for sea, or for the coast defence. Because of the great lack of trained seamen in the Confederacy, the veteran marines were of inestimable value on board the ships to which they were attached, and they were made use of in numerous capacities that embraced the duties of sailors. One squad of marines that fought at Drewry's Bluff had previously formed a part of the ship's company of the Virginia, and had helped work her guns in the battles in Hampton Roads. They were under the command of Capt. R. Thom, and remained with the ship until she was destroyed. Other detachments served on the Sumter and the

The corps

number of whom had seen service before in the
U. S marine corps and elsewhere.
was thoroughly trained and disciplined, and in
all encounters with the enemy the officers and
men were conspicuous for their courage and
good conduct."

1 Richard Taylor Allison is a native of Jefferson county, Ky., and removed to Baltimore in 1845. In 1849 he was appointed paymaster in the U. S. navy by his uncle, President Taylor. He served first in the Pacific squadron and on the coast of California; then in the Japan expedition, under Com. Perry, and next in the squadron in the Chinese waters. Returning home in 1856, he was assigned to duty as inspector of provisions at Washington, and afterwards was appointed paymaster at the Washington navy-yard. He occupied that position on April 20th, 1861, when he tendered his resignation to Secretary Welles, being moved to that action by the occurrences of the previous day in Baltimore, and wrote to Gen. Geo. H. Stewart,

commanding the Maryland troops in Baltimore, proffering his services. At the same time he informed President Davis of what he had done. Owing to the interruption of railway travel north of Baltimore, no officer could be immediately obtained to relieve him at the Washington navy-yard; and, in compliance with the request of Secretary Welles, he remained on duty as paymaster until May 1st. His successor took charge on that date, and he did not discover until the end of the war that the Navy Department had not accepted his resignation, but had dismissed him from the service. As soon as he was relieved he went to Richmond and telegraphed thence to President Davis, who summoned him to Montgomery and appointed him paymaster of the marine corps. He served in that capacity until the close of hostilities and surrendered with Gen. Johnston's army at Greensboro', N. C. Since then he has resided in Baltimore, where he was honored with the position of clerk of the Superior Court.