Cruise of CSS TALLAHASSEE
6-23 AUGUST 1864
CRUISE OF CSS TALLAHASSEE
One of the more successful efforts of the Confederacy during the Civil War was their campaign against Union commercial shipping. CSS TALLAHASSEE was one such raider, a sleek and fast cruiser built in England as the cross-channel steamer Atalanta and transferred to Wilmington, North Carolina, in the summer of 1864. Her five guns included an 84-pounder stern pivot that was mounted high enough to be identifiable in her silhouette. Similarly, her two closely mounted stacks amidships made her readily recognizable. Jefferson Davis’ nephew, CDR John Taylor Wood, CSN, was named her captain, and after several attempts to negotiate sand bars at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, Wood set to sea on 6 August 1864.
He coursed northward, where ship traffic near New York and New England would be heavy. His success was remarkable from the start. On August 11th, 80 miles off Sandy Hook, New Jersey, he captured the brigs A. Richards and Carrie Estella, the schooners Sarah A. Boyce and Carrol, the bark Bay State, and the pilot boats James Funk and William Bell. All except Carrol were rifled for medicines, food, instruments, charts, and other items of value, then burned. Carrol was bonded as a cartel ship to carry the captured crews to New York. On the 12th, Wood captured five more, burning three. On the 13th he took the brig Lamont DuPont and the schooner Glenavon.
The same day, news of TALLAHASSEE’s raiding reached CAPT Hiram Paulding, commander of the New York Navy Yard. He sent three ships in immediate pursuit. These were quickly supplemented by Union Navy warships out of Hampton Roads and Boston. Regardless, from 14-17 August Wood took 15 more defenseless freighters bound to or from New York. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles was furious as insurance rates for trans-Atlantic shippers began to rise.
Now with nearly a dozen Union warships on her tail, by 18 August, TALLAHASSEE was running short on coal. CDR Wood shaped a course for Halifax where the American Consul, Mortimer M. Jackson, protested to Lieutenant Governor Richard G. MacDonnell the sale of any coal to the Confederate. As a neutral port, Halifax was not thus constrained, although local authorities agreed to sell Wood only enough coal to make his homeport of Wilmington–60 tons. Jackson also notified Welles, who dispatched LCDR George A. Stevens in USS PANTOOSUC from Eastport, Maine. Stevens reached Halifax at 0600 on the 20th to learn he had missed the raider by only seven hours. He turned north anticipating Wood would next harass the fishing fleet in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
But Wood had turned south. His coal still short, he ran the blockade into Wilmington on the 25th. In a fortnight’s cruising he had taken 31 freighters in a remarkably effective sortie.
Watch or more “Today in Naval History” 22 AUG 25
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Civil War Naval Chronology 1861-1865. Washington, DC: GPO, 1961, pp. IV-103, IV-104, IV-105, IV-106, IV-108.
Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 5 “N-Q”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1979, p. 350.
Hearn, Chester G. Gray Raiders of the Sea: How Eight Confederate Warships Destroyed the Union’s High Seas Commerce. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State Univ. Press, 1992, pp. 129-39.
Silverstone, Paul H. Warships of the Civil War Navies. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1989, p. 215.
Shingleton, Royce Gordon. John Taylor Wood: Sea Ghost of the Confederacy. Athens, GA: Univ of Georgia Press, 1979, pp. 116-44.
Sweetman, Jack. American Naval History: An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 3rd ed. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 2002, p. 78.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: Despite Consul Jackson’s efforts, Wood actually purchased 120 tons of coal in Halifax–more than agreed, but still not enough to sustain further cruising.
Wood’s cruise indirectly led to the capture of seven subsequent blockade runners. TALLAHASSEE had commandeered all the hard coal available in Wilmington before her cruise, leaving only softer bituminous coal for other runners, which produces half the speed and twice the smoke.
TALLAHASSEE was to escape the Wilmington blockade twice more for guerre de course raids, in October 1864 under the name CSS OLUSTEE and two months later in December 1864 as CSS CHAMELEON.
Both Hiram Paulding and John Taylor Wood survived the war. In Paulding’s case he rose to the rank of RADM, which he held at his death in 1878. Wood escaped the South at the end of the war believing he would be executed as a pirate and traitor. He reached Halifax, where he became a prominent businessman for decades until this death after the turn of the century.
A “cartel ship” is used in time of war to exchange prisoners or carry messages between belligerents. Under maritime law, the ship must not carry cargo, ammunition, or weapons, except a single gun for signaling.
