handed and unscrupulous means in carrying on their incessant warfare.
As an instance of their malignant and petty persecution, nothing was more contemptible than the enticing away of Captain Semmes' cabin-boy. When ready to leave New Orleans with the Sumter, Captain Semmes' relative—the Hon. Thomas J. Semmes—insisted upon his taking with him as his cabin-boy his negro diningroom servant—Ned—who had been raised in the family. Whilst lying in one of the Brazilian ports, Ned was in the habit of going to market every morning for the furnishing of the Captain's table. One morning the basket, with its contents, came on board, but without Ned. It was afterwards ascertained that the Consul, by making the most dazzling promises, had persuaded Ned not to return. As soon as Captain Semmes left port this poor, illiterate negro was abandoned by his rascally friend—the Consul—and left among utter strangers and thousands of miles away from home, penniless and to his own resources. The duped boy finally worked his way back to the United States and to Georgetown, D. C, where he was raised, and shortly afterwards died in a hovel from disease brought about by absolute want.
After the loss of the Alabama, Captain Semmes, having first taken a much-needed vacation and rest, returned home—running the blockade in a little New England schooner, which landed him at the mouth of the Rio Grande River, in a little town called Bagdad. From there he worked his way overland to Mobile, Ala. Here he spent a few days with his family, whom he had not seen in four years, and then proceeded to Richmond, where, upon reporting to Mr. Mallory, the Secretary of the Navy, he was placed in command of the James River Fleet, with the rank of Vice-Admiral. In the hurry of evacuating Richmond, no orders were given to Admiral Semmes and no provision made for his leaving. But when he discovered that he had been left behind he blew up his fleet, organized his officers and crews into a brigade, marched them to the railroad depot in Richmond, Va., where he found an old, dismantled engine which he soon had sufficiently repaired to pull a train of cars, upon which he loaded his men, and was thus enabled to leave the city. He
