CSS Nashville's Blockade Run @ Beaufort

[lelliott19]

@AndyHall and @Mark F. Jenkins I assume the article refers to February 28, 1862 when CSS Nashville ran the blockade at Beaufort. Does anyone know the identity of the Captain described in this article who aided Capt.(Lt) Robert Baker Pegram in entering Beaufort harbor?

@Pat Young another article mentioning the Confederate Irishman, Col Robert McMillan, for you.....

Col. R. McMillan
We have had the pleasure of an interview with this gentleman, commander of the 24th Geo. Regiment, now on a short visit to his family in Clarksville (Georgia). He represents the health of his Regiment as good. Col. McMillan had and interview with Capt. (Robert Baker) Peagram [sic], of the Nashville, who gave him many interesting particulars of his late voyage. The manner of the entry of the Nashville into Beaufort adds another to the remarkable incidents of the war, which seem to be Providential. Capt. Peagram [sic] states that he was in much perplexity and doubt as to the whereabouts of the channel, when he came in sight of a small coasting schooner wrecked, and the crew in much danger of being lost. He took them on board, and found that the Captain was intimately acquainted with the coast and channel, and piloted the Nashville safely into Beaufort harbor. But for this lucky circumstance, Capt. Peagram [sic] does not think he could have entered. Southern Banner, Athens, Georgia, Mar. 12, 1862, page 3.

CSS Nashville , a 1221-ton side-wheel steamer, was originally a passenger steamer built at Greenpoint, New York, in 1853. She was seized by the Confederacy at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1861 and converted to a lightly-armed cruiser. Nashville made one combat cruise under the Confederate Navy flag, starting in October 1861. She captured and burned the sailing merchantman Harvey Birch in the English Channel on 19 November, and spent some time at Southampton, England. Returning to American waters early in 1862, she captured and burned the schooner Robert Gilfillan on 26 February. Two days later, she ran the blockade into Beaufort, North Carolina, remaining there until mid-March, when she went to Georgetown, South Carolina. Sold to private interests and renamed Thomas L. Wragg , she operated as a blockade runner, but was hindered in this employment by her deep draft. After arrival near Savannah, Georgia, she was sold again in November 1862, to become a privateer under the name Rattlesnake. On 28 February 1863, while still in the Savannah area, she was destroyed by the monitor USS Montauk. http://americancivilwar.com/tcwn/civil_war/Navy_Ships/CSS_Nashville.html

 

[AndyHall]

Here is the relevant passage from Pegram's report to Secretary Mallory. It appears the newspapers garbled the story -- the man had been wrecked in Bermuda and came aboard Nashville there (ORN I:747):

Upon leaving England I had determined to make direct course for one of our Southern ports, but finding that the Nashville could not weather in safety continued northerly gales, and that far more coal had been consumed than was anticipated, I shaped our course for Bermuda, anchoring in the harbor of St. George on the 20th of February. Whilst receiving on board a supply of coal, I learned that the owner and master of the Confederate schooner Pearl, which had run the blockade from Beaufort, N. C., and had run aground on the northern part of the Island of Bermuda, was then at Hamilton, and I determined on seeking an interview with the person in charge. Before, however, I could carry out this resolution, Captain J. Pender, the owner of the Pearl, came on board the Nashville, and in the most patriotic and praiseworthy manner volunteered his services and those of his master, Mr. J. Beveridge, a practiced pilot, to pilot the Nashville into Beaufort, N. C., speaking with the utmost confidence of our ability to run into that port. The manner in which the proposal was made induced me to accept Captain Pender's offer, and I can not now speak too highly, both personally and officially, of the advice and assistance that he and Mr. Beveridge thus afforded me.​

 

[Dacluver]

Captain J Pender and Mr J Beveridge of the schooner Pearl assisted Pegram

 

[Dacluver]

Source


The Cruise of the CSS Nashville: The Report of Lieutenant Robert B. Pegram, CSN
Robert B. Pegram
The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography
Vol. 66, No. 3 (Jul., 1958), pp. 345-350
Published by: Virginia Historical Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4246459

 

[Dacluver]

"I can not now speak to highly both personally and officially of the advice and assistance he and mr Beveridge this afforded me".

Really curious what he meant and wish he went into greater detail.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Papers tended to print accounts of these engagements, pretty good reading.

 

[AndyHall]

Really curious what he meant and wish he went into greater detail.

Houston Pilot Boat Yellow Rose, March 14, 2015.

Pender and Beveridge were acting as pilots, so presumably they were able to provide detailed advice and direction on getting Nashville into Beaufort. While Pegram and his officers were undoubtedly qualified mariners, getting in and out of a port is substantially aided (and is often required by law) by the presence of a qualified pilot aboard with detailed local knowledge and experience. The pilot would be expected to know where the charts are inaccurate, the location of unmarked shoals or bars, particular tides or currents, buoys that have been removed or drifted off position, and all sorts of other details that only someone with in-depth, recent knowledge of the area would know. In addition in this case, since they had only recently run out of Beaufort, Pender and Beveridge would be expected to be able to advise Pegram on the specific details of the U.S. naval forces that might be patrolling or blockading in the area.

On civilian blockade-running ships, am experienced pilot could practically name his price, and was sometimes paid as much as the master. That's how valuable they were.

 

[lelliott19]

Safe Arrival of the Confederate Steamer Nashville
Southern Watchman (Athens GA), Mar. 5, 1862 -- page 3

 

[Carronade]

Insightful comment about draft, illustrating the difference between the optimal ships for coastal or open-ocean operations.