Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/766

ing this period of peace he published "The Campaign of General Scott," and "Service Afloat and Ashore During the Mexican War. Holding himself in allegiance to the State of Alabama, of which he was a citizen, he resigned his commission as soon as that State seceded, and reporting to Mr. Davis at Montgomery, was at once entrusted with the important duty of visiting the North to purchase war material and engage mechanics for the manufacture of ordnance machinery, ammunition, etc. On this tour he inspected the Virginia State arsenal and Tredegar iron works with a view to their use for military purposes, witnessed the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, examined the machinery of the Washington arsenal, and visited the principal work shops in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. He purchased percussion caps at New York, had thousands of pounds of powder shipped South, and made contracts for artillery and machinery. With a nice sense of honor he never afterward betrayed the names of the thrifty Northerners who thus contributed to the military needs of the South. He was then commissioned commander and put in charge of the lighthouse bureau, and two weeks later was sent to New Orleans to fit out the cruiser Sumter, with which he cut through the river blockade and made a six months cruise, mainly in West India waters, taking eighteen prizes. This vessel he was compelled to abandon at Gibraltar, whence he proceeded to England, where the " 290 " was in preparation, and took command of the cruiser, then christened the Alabama, in charge of which he gained a world wide fame. His cruise on this vessel began in September, 1862, and ended in June, 1864, during which period he captured nearly seventy merchantmen and sunk one Federal gunboat. After the brave action with the Kearsarge, of Cherbourg, France, where the Alabama was sunk, he was rescued by the English yacht Deerhound and was presented with a sword by officers of the British army and navy, and a Confederate flag by a noble English