In August, 1861, the United States war steamer San Jacinto, a first-class screw sloop mounting fifteen guns, left St. Paul de Loando on the western coast of Africa where she had been engaged during twenty months in an active cruise for slavers. She was at that time temporarily commanded by Lieutenant D. M. Fairfax, of the United States navy, who had been instructed to proceed to Fernando Po and await at that place the arrival of Captain Charles Wilkes, an able naval officer in the service of the United States. Captain Wilkes soon arrived and took permanent command of the ship, Lieutenant Fairfax resuming his former position of executive officer.

The name of Charles Wilkes was one which was not unknown in American naval circles and in the scientific world. He had commanded an exploring expedition to the South Polar Ocean and had discovered there the dreary land which now bears his name. He was a man of great scientific acquirements. That he had been a devoted student and an original investigator in his chosen field is attested by his voluminous scientific writings. The leisure hours of his long voyages among polar icebergs and elsewhere were chiefly spent in that way. He was regarded by his acquaintances as eccentric and independent in disposition.

After taking command of the San Jacinto, Captain Wilkes spent about a month cruising close to the shore of Africa for the purpose of ascertaining whether the Confederate privateers had taken any prizes to that coast. Having arrived at Cape Verd about the last of September, it was learned from newspapers received there that several Confederate privateers had run the blockade and taken numerous prizes in the waters of the West India islands. Captain Wilkes determined to cruise about those islands for a time and capture some of the Confederate privateers, before returning to New York. On October 10, 1861, the San Jacinto arrived at the port of St. Thomas in the West Indies. The Powhatan and the Iroquois, two United States war vessels, were already there. On the day after the arrival of the San Jacinto the British brig Spartan arrived, and her commander informed Captain Wilkes that on October 5 his vessel had been boarded by a steamer, evidently a war vessel in disguise, and that after answering all questions, he could get no satisfactory information concerning the stranger. Being shown a photograph of the Confederate privateer Sumter, he immediately recognized it as the one by which his own vessel had been boarded. All of the United States war vessels immediately left the harbor with the hope of overtaking the Sumter. About ten days afterward the San Jacinto touched at Cienfuegos on the south coast of Cuba. There it was learned from the newspapers that the Confederate commissioners were at Havana, having escaped in the Theodora.

Captain Wilkes immediately put to sea with the intention of intercepting the Confederate vessel on her return to Charleston. Arriving at Havana on October 28 it was learned that Messrs. Mason and Slidell were still there as guests of the Hotel Cubana, where one of Captain Wilkes’s officers met Mr. Mason in the parlor. The commissioners were waiting for the English steamer Trent which would leave Havana on November 7.

Upon hearing this latter bit of information, Captain Wilkes conceived the bold design of intercepting the Trent and making prisoners of the envoys, but about ten days must necessarily elapse before this plan could be put into execution.

The Theodora had already started upon her return voyage to Charleston. A supply of coal and provisions having been secured in great haste, Captain Wilkes followed in the wake of the Theodora, but failed to overtake her. The voyage was then continued to Key West in the hope of finding there the Powhatan or some other United States war vessel to accompany him to the Bahama Channel and assist in intercepting the British mail packet. In this, however, he was disappointed, as the Powhatan had left Key West on the day before the arrival of the San Jacinto, and there was no available war steamer in the harbor. Nothing daunted, however, Captain Wilkes resolved to undertake the enterprise alone, and, having previously ascertained when the Trent would leave Havana, he readily calculated when and where in the Bahama Channel it would be easiest to intercept the British vessel.

Any doubt of his right to board the Trent and remove the envoys from her seems never to have entered the mind of Captain Wilkes. Before arriving at Key West, he took into his confidence Lieutenant Fairfax, the executive officer of the San Jacinto, and told him of the plan to intercept the British packet, and, if the Confederate commissioners were on board her, to take them prisoners. Lieutenant Fairfax entered a vigorous protest against the proposed action and urged strongly upon Captain Wilkes the necessity of proceeding with the utmost caution in order to avoid international difficulties and possibly a war with England as a result of the affair. After reaching Key West Lieutenant Fairfax suggested that Judge Marvin, an eminent authority upon maritime law, should be consulted, but Captain Wilkes never asked advice of any one after he had once resolved to do a thing.

Accordingly on the morning of November 5, the San Jacinto steamed out of the harbor of Key West and directed her course toward Sagua la Grande on the northern coast of Cuba. Having arrived there an attempt was made to get information by telegraph from the United States consul at Havana concerning the exact time of the departure of the Trent. Failing in this the San Jacinto ran out about two hundred and fifty miles from Havana and took a position in the Old Bahama Channel where it contracts to a width of about fifteen miles. Being stationed about the middle of the channel, Captain Wilkes determined to await the passage of the Trent which he thought would not be able to pass him on either side without being observed. With battery loaded and everything in readiness, the San Jacinto cruised here during the night of November 7, and until about noon on the 8th, when a vessel was seen to be approaching from the westward. When she had approached sufficiently near a round shot was fired across her bows from the pivot-gun of the San Jacinto and the American flag was hoisted at the same moment. The approaching vessel displayed English colors, but did not check her speed or show any disposition whatever to heave to. After a lapse of some ten minutes, the English vessel still moving under a full head of steam, a shell was fired across her bows, exploding several hundred feet in front of her. This had the desired effect. The Trent, being then only a few hundred yards distant, stopped. Captain Wilkes hailed that he intended to send a boat to board her.

The following instructions had previously been issued to Lieutenant Fairfax who had charge of the party that went on board the Trent:

“U. S. Steamer San Jacinto,

“At Sea, Nov. 8, 1861

“Sir—You will have the second and third cutters of this ship fully manned and armed, and be in all respects prepared to board the steamer Trent now hove-to under our guns.

“On boarding her you will demand the papers of the steamer, her clearance from Havana, with the list of passengers and crew.

“Should Mr. Mason, Mr. Slidell, Mr. Eustis and Mr. McFarland be on board you will make them prisoners, and send them on board this ship immediately, and take possession of her as a prize.

“I do not deem it will be necessary to use force; that the prisoners will have the good sense to avoid any necessity for using it; but if they should, they must be made to understand that it is their own fault. They must be brought on board. All trunks, cases, packages and bags belonging to them you will take possession of, and send on board this ship. Any dispatches found on the persons of the prisoners, or in possession of those on board the steamer, will be taken possession of also, examined, and retained, if necessary.

“I have understood that the families of these gentlemen may be with them. If so, I beg you will offer them, in my name, a passage in this ship to the United States, and that all the attention and comforts we can command are tendered them, and will be placed in their service.

“In the event of their acceptance, should there be anything which the captain of the steamer can spare to increase the comforts in the way of necessaries or stores, of which a war vessel is deficient, you will please to procure them. The amount will be paid by the paymaster.

“Lieutenant James A. Greer will take charge of the third cutter, which accompanies you, and assist you in these duties.

“I trust that all those under your command, in executing this important and delicate duty, will conduct themselves with all the delicacy and kindness which becomes the character of our naval service.

“I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

“Charles Wilkes, Captain.

“Lieutenant D. M. Fairfax,

“U. S. N., Executive Officer San Jacinto.”

Captain Moir of the Trent was evidently much angered at the manner in which he had been compelled to stop, and called out through his trumpet, “What do you mean by heaving my vessel to in this manner?” Lieutenant Fairfax says that he was greatly impressed with the gravity of the situation and resolved to perform his disagreeable duty with the utmost possible courtesy. In a few minutes the boats had reached the Trent, and, directing his crew to remain alongside for orders, Lieutenant Fairfax boarded the British vessel alone and was escorted by the first officer to the quarter-deck. There he was introduced to Captain Moir, who manifested great indignation at what he styled the unusual treatment he had received, although he observed the outward forms of courtesy in receiving the American lieutenant, who at once asked to see the passenger list, but this request was denied by the British captain. Lieutenant Fairfax then said that he had information of the Confederate commissioners and their secretaries having taken passage at Havana, and that he would satisfy himself as to whether Messrs. Mason and Slidell were on board before allowing the steamer to proceed. Mr. Slidell, evidently hearing his own name mentioned, stepped up and said, “I am Mr. Slidell; do you want to see me?” Mr. Mason, with whom Lieutenant Fairfax was well acquainted, came up at the same time and was asked about the two secretaries, Messrs. Eustis and McFarland. They were pointed out as they stood near. Having the four desired gentlemen before him then, Lieutenant Fairfax informed Captain Moir that he had been ordered by his commander to arrest them and send them prisoners on board the San Jacinto near by.

In the meantime the passengers, numbering almost one hundred, many of them being southerners, had crowded upon the deck, and a howl of rage and indignation burst from them when the object of the visit to the Trent was announced. The British captain, the commissioners and their secretaries were quiet and dignified, but the other passengers yelled, “Throw the d—— fellow overboard.” Lieutenant Fairfax then asked Captain Moir to preserve order and also reminded the passengers that the deck of the Trent was being closely watched through glasses from the San Jacinto, that a heavy battery was at that moment trained upon them and that to carry out their threat might result in dreadful consequences. This, with the example set by the captain, restored partial order. During the uproar caused by the first announcement of Lieutenant Fairfax’s object in visiting the Trent, the guard which had been left below, fearing violence to him, came hurrying to the upper deck. At sight of the marines Captain Moir remonstrated and Lieutenant Fairfax ordered them to return to their boat with an assurance to the British captain that they had come up contrary to instructions. The purpose of the visit was then discussed more generally, Captain Moir saying very little. Among those on board who were noisiest and most abusive was Commander Richard Williams, an officer on the retired list of the royal navy in charge of her majesty’s mails. He denounced the whole proceeding in the bitterest and most offensive language possible, repeatedly stating that he officially represented the British government, that he meant to report the matter at once, that England would break the blockade of the southern ports in twenty days and that the northerners might as well give up now. His formal “protest” on the deck of the Trent was as follows: “In this ship I am the representative of her majesty’s government, and I call upon the officers of the ship and passengers generally to mark my words, when, in the name of the British government, and in distinct language, I denounce this as an illegal act, an act in violation of international law; an act indeed of wanton piracy, which, had we the means of defense, you would not dare to attempt.” Not the slightest notice was taken of Commander Williams or his insults either by Lieutenant Fairfax or any of his men, as they could have official relations only with Captain Moir. Mrs. Slidell inquired who was in command of the San Jacinto, and upon being informed that it was Captain Wilkes she expressed surprise at his playing into Confederate hands by doing a thing which would certainly arouse England, thus accomplishing what the southern people most desired. Mr. Mason suggested to her that the matter be not discussed at that time. Both Mrs. Slidell and Mrs. Eustis declined to accept Captain Wilkes’s offer of his cabin, and declared their intention not to leave the Trent.

After trying in vain to induce the commissioners and their secretaries to go with him peaceably, Lieutenant Fairfax called to one of the officers in his boat below and directed him to return to Captain Wilkes with the information that the gentlemen whom they desired to arrest were all on board, but that force would be necessary to execute the order to remove them from the packet. Lieutenant James A. Greer was at once sent with another boat in which were a number of armed marines. A comfortable boat was also sent for the commissioners and their secretaries; a second for their luggage, and still a third for provisions which had been purchased from the steward of the Trent for the benefit of the prisoners.

Meanwhile Messrs. Mason and Slidell had repaired to their respective cabins and arranged their luggage, but still insisted that force would be necessary to compel them to go. Lieutenant Greer’s armed marines were then brought up and formed just outside the main deck cabin. Calling to his aid several officers who had been previously instructed concerning their duties, Lieutenant Fairfax said to them, “Gentlemen, lay your hands upon Mr. Mason,” which they accordingly did, seizing him by the shoulders and the coat-collar. Mr. Mason then said that he yielded to force under protest and would go, after which he was escorted to the boat in waiting.

Lieutenant Fairfax then returned for Mr. Slidell who insisted that considerable force would be necessary to remove him. During all of this time excitement was rapidly increasing among the passengers. They crowded around the entrance to the cabin making a great deal of noise and all kinds of disagreeable and contemptuous remarks, such as: “Did you ever hear of such an outrage?” “These Yankees will have to pay well for this.” “This is the best thing in the world for the South; England will open the blockade.” “We will have a good chance at them now.” “Did you ever hear of such a piratical act?” “They would not have dared to have done it, if an English man-of-war had been in sight.” One person, supposed to be a passenger, became so violent that the captain ordered him to be locked up. Commander Williams, it is said, advised Captain Moir to arm the crew and passengers. The confusion and loud talking increased. Lieutenant Greer, in charge of the armed marines stationed just outside of the main deck cabin, feared that there would be trouble, as he heard some one near Lieutenant Fairfax call out, “Shoot him.” An order was given for the marines to advance into the cabin at quickstep. As they moved forward with fixed bayonets the passengers fell back. A passage-way was cleared and the armed guard ordered back. Mr. Slidell at the same moment jumped out of a window of a state-room into the cabin. He was then seized by two of the officers and enough of force applied to convey him into the boat with Mr. Mason.

Many accounts of this affair state that while her father was being taken out of the cabin, Miss Slidell, a young lady of perhaps seventeen, screamed and slapped Lieutenant Fairfax in the face. The truth of the matter seems to be that while the lieutenant was at the door of Mr. Slidell’s state-room, the latter’s daughter was protesting against having her father taken from her when a slight roll of the ship caused Miss Slidell to lose her balance for a moment and involuntarily to touch Lieutenant Fairfax’s shoulder. The two secretaries entered the boat quietly under protest. The entire party was then transferred to the San Jacinto. Their luggage having been put into another boat was also transferred.

It will be noticed from the instructions given by Captain Wilkes to Lieutenant Fairfax that the latter’s orders were to take possession of the Trent as a prize after having captured the commissioners. When the transfer had been made, Lieutenant Fairfax returned to the San Jacinto and reported that he had not made a prize of the Trent in accordance with his original orders, assigning at the same time satisfactory reasons for not having done so. The first was that as the San Jacinto was expecting to move northward at once and co-operate with Admiral Du Pont in his naval attack on Port Royal, their force and efficiency would be greatly weakened, if a large prize crew of officers and men should be put on board the Trent in order to carry her into port. The second reason was that great inconvenience and loss would be occasioned to the large number of innocent passengers aboard the Trent. After consideration of these suggestions Captain Wilkes approved them and consented that the Trent be allowed to go. Lieutenant Fairfax then returned to the Trent and informed Captain Moir that he would be detained no longer and that he might continue his voyage. The British vessel then continued on her course, having been detained about two hours by the San Jacinto.

Lieutenant Fairfax says that he resolved in the very beginning to perform his duty as courteously as possible so as not to irritate the British captain, his passengers, or the envoys lest they might decide to throw the Trent upon his hands, which would necessitate his taking her as a prize. While the Trent was stationary, with steam shut off, she drifted out of channel and into sight of shoal water. Captain Moir noticed this and said to Lieutenant Fairfax, “If you do not hurry and get out of my vessel, I will not be responsible for her safety.” The lieutenant at once hailed the San Jacinto and requested that she be kept more nearly in the middle of the channel. After she had taken a new position Lieutenant Fairfax said to Captain Moir: “Now you can move up nearer to the San Jacinto.” This he accordingly did. Lieutenant Fairfax cites this to show how careful he was to keep the British captain in an agreeable frame of mind so that the chances of his throwing the Trent upon the hands of the Americans would be less.

Lieutenant Fairfax gives an account of a conversation which he had with Captain Moir at St. Thomas after the close of the war. The latter “reverted to an interview he had with the British admiralty on his return to England whither he had been from St. Thomas. The admiralty were very much displeased with him for not having thrown the Trent on our hands, to which he replied (so he said to me) that it had never occurred to him; that in fact, the officer who boarded the Trent was so civil and had so closely occupied him in conversation about foreign matters, that he had failed to see what afterward was very plain. He recounted the excitement on ’change over the affair, and expressed the conviction that all England would have demanded speedy redress had I taken the Trent. He had seen the reports in print in our newspapers, and had read my order to take possession and wondered that I had not.”⁠[1]

After parting company with the Trent the San Jacinto proceeded to the Florida coast and thence northward, but was too late to take part in the attack on Port Royal. On November 15 Fortress Monroe was reached. Captain Wilkes came ashore and reported the seizure. His report of the movements of the ship and the facts in regard to the capture of the commissioners was forwarded to Washington by Lieutenant Taylor, who was a passenger from the coast of Africa to the national capital. In an extended talk with Captain Wilkes, General Wool, who was then in command of Fortress Monroe, expressed the opinion that the right thing had been done in capturing the commissioners, and that, if a wrong had been committed, no greater penalty than “cashiering” could be inflicted. On November 16, after receiving Captain Wilkes’s report, the following telegram was sent to the commandant of the New York navy yard by the secretary of the navy: “You will send the San Jacinto immediately to Boston, and direct Captain Wilkes to deliver the prisoners at Fort Warren. Let their baggage be strictly guarded and delivered to the colonel at Fort Warren for examination.” On the same day the following telegram, which had been united in by the secretary of state and the secretary of the navy, was sent to Robert Murray, United States marshal at New York: “You will proceed in the San Jacinto to Fort Warren, Boston, with Messrs. Mason and Slidell and suite. No persons from shore are to be permitted on board the vessel prior to her departure from New York.”

Severe weather and a lack of coal compelled Captain Wilkes to stop at Newport, Rhode Island, on November 21. The prisoners expressed a wish to be allowed “to remain in custody at Newport on account of the comparative mildness of the climate,” which they thought would benefit the delicate health of one of their number. They offered to pledge themselves “not to make any attempt to escape, nor to communicate with any person while there unless permitted to do so.” The matter having been referred by telegraph to the secretary of the navy, he immediately sent the following reply: “The government has prepared no place for confinement of the prisoners at Newport. The department can not change the destination of the prisoners.” Two days before the arrival of the San Jacinto at Boston, Captain Hudson, who was in command of the Boston navy yard, received the following telegram from Gideon Welles, secretary of the navy: “Direct Captain Wilkes immediately upon his arrival to have the effects of the rebel prisoners on board the San Jacinto thoroughly examined, and whatever papers may be found to send them by special messenger to the department.” Finally the San Jacinto steamed into Boston harbor on November 24, after having encountered both a heavy fog and a very severe storm off the coast of New England.

During the entire voyage of sixteen days the prisoners had been treated with great courtesy. They messed with Captain Wilkes at his table, and occupied his cabin. Lieutenant Fairfax frequently talked with Mr. Eustis while on the way. The latter expressed the opinion that Great Britain would demand the release of the prisoners and that the United States would have to accede. Before leaving the ship the prisoners addressed a courteous note to Captain Wilkes thanking him for the kindness with which they had been treated while on board his vessel. When first brought on board, however, they prepared and signed a formal protest against the manner in which they had been seized. They requested that it be forwarded to the government of the United States. This was done by Captain Wilkes when his own report was sent. The prisoners knew very well that it would have no effect whatever on the government of the United States. It was a statement intended for Confederate sympathizers in Europe and elsewhere. The commissioners doubtless thought that their protest of injured innocence would secure much sympathy for them abroad.

Colonel Dimmick, in command of Fort Warren, took charge of the prisoners and their baggage, which consisted of about half a dozen trunks and as many valises, several cases containing an assortment of fine wines and liquors and a good supply of cigars. A careful examination was made but no dispatches were found among their effects. None had been asked for and no particular effort had been made to secure them when the Trent was boarded. Whatever of dispatches that were in possession of the commissioners were doubtless secretly given to some of the other passengers of the Trent—probably the ladies—and by them conveyed to England from St. Thomas in the British steamer La Plata.⁠[2]

On November 16, the day after his departure from Fortress Monroe, Captain Wilkes prepared his final report of the capture. A number of passages in this report are of great interest, giving, as they do, his reasons for making the capture, and his arguments by which he justifies the act. He says: “I determined to intercept them, and carefully examined all the authorities on international law to which I had access, viz.: Kent, Wheaton and Vattel, besides various decisions of Sir William Scott, and other judges of the admiralty court of Great Britain, which bore upon the rights of neutrals and their responsibilities.”

“The question arose in my mind whether I had the right to capture the persons of these commissioners—whether they were amenable to capture. There was no doubt I had the right to capture vessels with written dispatches; they are expressly referred to in all authorities, subjecting the vessel to seizure and condemnation if the captain of the vessel had the knowledge of their being on board, but these gentlemen were not dispatches in the literal sense, and did not seem to come under that designation, and nowhere could I find a case in point.”

“That they were commissioners I had ample proof from their own avowal, and bent on mischievous and traitorous errands against our country, to overthrow its institutions, and enter into treaties and alliances with foreign states, expressly forbidden by the constitution.”

“I then considered them as the embodiment of dispatches, and as they had openly declared themselves as charged with all authority from the Confederate government to form treaties and alliances tending to the establishment of their independence, I became satisfied that their mission was adverse and criminal to the Union, and it therefore became my duty to arrest their progress and capture them if they had no passports from the Federal government, as provided for under the law of nations, viz.: ‘That foreign ministers of a belligerent on board of neutral ships are required to possess papers from the other belligerent to permit them to pass free.’”

“They went into the steamer with the knowledge and by the consent of the captain, who endeavored afterward to conceal them by refusing to exhibit his passenger list and the papers of the vessel. There can be no doubt he knew they were carrying highly important dispatches, and were endowed with instructions inimical to the United States. This rendered his vessel (a neutral) a very good prize, and I determined to take possession of her, and, as I mentioned in my report, send her to Key West for adjudication, when, I am well satisfied, she would have been condemned for carrying these persons, and for resisting to be searched. The cargo was also liable, as all the shippers were knowing to the embarkation of these live dispatches, and their traitorous motives and actions to the Union of the United States.”

“I forbore to seize her, however, in consequence of my being so reduced in officers and crew, and the derangement it would cause innocent persons, there being a large number of passengers who would have been put to great loss and inconvenience, as well as disappointment, from the interruption it would have caused them in not being able to join the steamer from St. Thomas to Europe. I therefore concluded to sacrifice the interests of my officers and crew in the prize, and suffered the steamer to proceed, after the necessary detention to effect the transfer of these commissioners, considering I had obtained the important end I had in view, and which affected the interests of our country and interrupted the action of that of the Confederates.”

A perusal of these paragraphs from Captain Wilkes’s report is sufficient to show that he acted in accordance with what he believed to be his duty, and if subsequent events proved him to be in the wrong, it was only an error of judgment.

AUTHORITIES AND REFERENCES.

1. Appleton’s Cyclopedia of American Biography.

2. Fairfax, D. M.: Account of the Seizure of Mason and Slidell in Volume II of “Battles and Leaders of the Civil War.”

3. Magazine of American History, March, 1886.

4. Log Book of the San Jacinto.

5. Moore’s Rebellion Record, Vol. III.

6. Official reports of the officers who visited the Trent.

7. Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. Ser. I, Vol. I.

8. Paris, Comte de: The Civil War in America.

9. Reports of Captain Wilkes.