- Joined
- Mar 31, 2012
- Location
- Central Ohio
While it would be tough to name the MVC (Most Valuable Confederate), if there is justice, James D. Bulloch surely is in the running for the title. The word "quit" does not appear to have been in his vocabulary.*
In the summer of 1864, when there appeared to be a heavy sea running against Confederate fortunes-- the Alabama had been sunk off Cherbourg, the "Laird Rams" were firmly enmeshed in British red tape, and the news from across the Atlantic was sounding dire-- and despite having Northern agents dogging his every footstep-- Bulloch managed to score once again.
Once before, he'd spotted a brand-new ship that would make a terrific high seas cruiser, the Sea King. Built for the East Indies trade, she had the size, speed and endurance a cruiser would need, operating well under both steam and canvas or either separately, and with the well-built wooden hull that Bulloch considered vital for a ship that would be largely without adequate dockyard support. Unfortunately, her owners were not interested in selling.
But the Sea King was back from the Orient, and she was now available for sale. Mustering his resources and operating under bureaucratic and legal covers, Bulloch bought her, reporting this in a dispatch on September 16, 1864. She would become another of the Confederacy's storied commerce raiders, the CSS Shenandoah, and was destined to carry the Confederate flag farther afield than it had ever gone, to Australia and the Arctic Circle-- and outlast the Confederacy itself.
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* Family trait? His nephew was Theodore Roosevelt...
In the summer of 1864, when there appeared to be a heavy sea running against Confederate fortunes-- the Alabama had been sunk off Cherbourg, the "Laird Rams" were firmly enmeshed in British red tape, and the news from across the Atlantic was sounding dire-- and despite having Northern agents dogging his every footstep-- Bulloch managed to score once again.
Once before, he'd spotted a brand-new ship that would make a terrific high seas cruiser, the Sea King. Built for the East Indies trade, she had the size, speed and endurance a cruiser would need, operating well under both steam and canvas or either separately, and with the well-built wooden hull that Bulloch considered vital for a ship that would be largely without adequate dockyard support. Unfortunately, her owners were not interested in selling.
But the Sea King was back from the Orient, and she was now available for sale. Mustering his resources and operating under bureaucratic and legal covers, Bulloch bought her, reporting this in a dispatch on September 16, 1864. She would become another of the Confederacy's storied commerce raiders, the CSS Shenandoah, and was destined to carry the Confederate flag farther afield than it had ever gone, to Australia and the Arctic Circle-- and outlast the Confederacy itself.
______________
* Family trait? His nephew was Theodore Roosevelt...
Bringing the