COMMON MEN IN UNCOMMON TIMES: ANALYZING THE DAILY LIVES OF AMERICAN CIVIL WAR SAILORS USING PERSONAL NARRATIVES A Thesis by STEPHANIE K KOENIG Submitted to the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Chair of Committee, Kevin J. Crisman Committee Members, Joseph Dawson III Donny L. Hamilton Head of Department, Cynthia Werner August 2016 Major Subject: Anthropology Copyright 2016 Stephanie Koenig ABSTRACT The American Civil War was a tumultuous period for the United States, forcing brother against brother in a battle over the secession of the Confederate States. To study the Civil War sailor, a wealth of archival information exists in the form of personal narratives. Like their ships, naval crews were very much a reflection of where they were built and supplied. The purpose of this thesis is to provide scholars with a collection of narratives relevant to the study of shipboard life and to annotate this list with pertinent details drawn from those sources. There is a wealth of information concerning shipboard life during the American Civil War in the form of personal narratives and primary sources, and the following collection extracts evidence for shipboard life and seeks to contextualize the daily lives of sailors within their societal framework. The primary accounts predictably reflect a standardized lifestyle, but was there any variation between Confederate and United States shipboard conditions? The American Civil War has always been a period of exceptional historical interest, especially to families whose ancestry can be traced back to that cataclysmic event. This annotated collection is meant to be a valuable resource, not just for archaeologists or historians, but for all of those interested in finding the past through the eyes and voices of those who knew it best – the sailors themselves. ii "We talked the matter over and could have settled the war in thirty minutes had it been left to us." - Unknown Confederate soldier after meeting a Union soldier iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My heartfelt appreciation is extended to my committee chair Dr. Kevin Crisman, whose support and vision throughout this endeavor has been tremendously valuable – it was Kevin who worked long hours to edit every one of the following pages, and for that I am incredibly thankful. I would like to convey a similar expression of sincere gratitude to my other committee members, Dr. Donny Hamilton and Dr. Joseph Dawson III, as well as special thanks to Dr. Deborah Carlson, who kept me gainfully employed while I finished writing. I also wish to recognize my family for their love and generous support, and for providing the foundation of hard work and discipline for which I am so grateful today. I would like to end with a special note of thanks to Kevin Melia-Teevan for his unwavering encouragement through periods of self-doubt and hesitation (and for promising we could get a puppy when I finished). I hope to one day return the favor. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..............................................................................................iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................... v LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... vii CHAPTERS I INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................... 1 II LOGS AND JOURNALS ........................................................................ 19 The Duel between the Alabama and the Kearsarge, by John M. Browne. ...................................................................................... 19 Four Years of Fighting: a volume of personal observation with the army and navy, from the first battle of Bull Run to the fall of Richmond, by Charles Coffin ................................................... 21 Never Caught: Personal Adventures Connected with Twelve Successful Trips in Blockade-Running during the American Civil War, 1863-64, by Captain Roberts (Augustus Charles Hobart-Hampden). .................................................................................... 25 III MEMOIRS AND RECOLLECTIONS .................................................... 34 Personal Narratives of Events in the War of the Rebellion, by William H. Badlam. ............................................................................ 34 Memoirs of Service with John Yates Beall, C.S.N., by William Baker ..................................................................................... 37 Reminiscences of Two Years in the United States Navy, by John M. Batten. ................................................................................... 43 Recollections of a Sailor Boy, or the Cruise of the Gunboat Louisiana, by Stephen F. Blanding. ......................................................... 46 A Sailor’s Log: Recollections of Forty Years of Naval Life, by Robley D. Evans. ................................................................................. 50 v Page Memories of a Rear-Admiral Who has Served for More than Half a Century in the Navy of the United States, by Samuel Rhodes Franklin ..................................................................... 60 Twenty Years at Sea, or Leaves from my Old Log-Books, by Frederic Stanhope Hill ........................................................................ 65 Cruise and Combats of the "Alabama," by John McIntosh Kell; taken from Battles and Leaders of the Civil War Vol. IV ............................................................................................... 70 Recollections of a Naval Life, Including the Cruises of the Confederate States Steamers Sumter and Alabama, by John McIntosh Kell ............................................................................. 73 Recollections of a Rebel Reefer, by James Morris Morgan. .................... 81 From Reefer to Rear-Admiral; Reminiscences and Journal Jottings of Nearly Half a Century of Naval Life, by Benjamin F. Sands. .............................................................................. 93 Two Years on the Alabama, by Arthur Sinclair ....................................... 94 Three Years on the Blockade, by Israel Everett Vail. ............................ 105 IV CORRESPONDENCE ........................................................................... 113 Letters from a Georgia Midshipman on the C.S.S. Alabama, by Edward Anderson .............................................................................. 113 Naval Letters from Captain Percival Drayton, 1861-1865, by Percival Drayton ................................................................................ 115 Letters of Captain Geo. Hamilton Perkins, U.S.N., edited by Susan G. Perkins. .............................................................................. 119 V OFFICIAL RECORDS .......................................................................... 126 VI CONCLUSION ...................................................................................... 129 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 134 APPENDIX .................................................................................................................... 140 vi LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE Page 1 Powder monkey on USS New Hampshire off Charleston, South Carolina ................ 5 2 The war on the Mississippi River – night expedition to island no. 10, from a sketch by Mr. Henri Lovie .............................................................................. 6 3 Sailors in front of the turret on USS Lehigh .............................................................. 23 4 On board USS Constitution ....................................................................................... 51 5 The bombardment and capture of Fort Fisher, North Carolina, January 15 1865 .... 56 6 Interior view of Fort Fisher, North Carolina, after the bombardment ....................... 59 7 Sailors relaxing on USS Monitor on the James River ............................................... 62 8 An unidentified double-ended ferry gunboat .......................................................... 111 9 An envelope from a letter sent during the American Civil War ............................. 113 10 U.S. naval officers relaxing on deck of an unidentified ship .................................. 131 vii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The American Civil War was a tumultuous period for the United States, forcing brother against brother in a battle over the secession of the Confederate States, individual states’ rights, and the nationally enforced abolition of slavery. From 1861 to 1865, both sides equipped their armies and navies for war utilizing whatever resources they had available. In the case of the Confederacy, this meant seeking assistance from sympathizers in Europe who favored a destabilized and divided American federal government (Dougherty 2013:12). Naval blockades and alternatively, blockade running and commerce raiding played a significant role in the American Civil War – a successful Union blockade meant reducing the flow to the Confederacy of vital weapons, munitions, food, medical supplies, and communications (Symonds 2008:38). Wars have been