A Fast Small Ship

The Confederate blockade runner the Theodora slipped out of Charleston, South Carolina October 12^th 1861 with John Slidell and James M Mason on board.

The Theodora started life as the Carolina when she was built in 1852 in Greenpoint, New York, and was sent to Charleston, South Carolina for use as a coastal packet.  When the Civil War started she was refitted, renamed the Gordon and commissioned as a privateer under the command of Captain T J Lockwood on July 15^th 1861.  She had a light draft and so had no trouble slipping over the bar in the harbor, was able to stay just out of reach of the guns on the Union ships, and was fast.

John Slidell with two female members of his family went out on the ship on October 5^th 1861, and they approached the Union fleet during daylight and were ignored.  This gave Confederate Secretary of State Robert M T Hunter the idea to use her to run the blockade, carrying Confederate diplomats James M Mason and John Slidell to the West Indies.  She received her name Theodora, and with the diplomats on board slipped over the bar in Charleston Harbor on October 12^th 1861 at about one in the morning.  She hugged the coast escaping the Union blockade and on October 14^th 1861 the Theodora made the mouth of the harbor at Nassau, Bahamas being chased by the USS H W Johnson.  Two days later the Theodora with Mason and Slidell on board, with the Confederate flag flying reached Cuba.  The start of the “Trent Affair”.

The Theodora was captured May 28^th 1862 with a crew of 24 and a load of Enfield rifles, clothing and ammunition.  She was sent to the New York prize court.

A Secret Ship

The Confederacy secretly took ownership of the CSS Stonewall on January 10^th 1865 from France.

The CSS Stonewall was built in Bordeaux, France for the Confederate Navy at the request of John Slidell the Confederate commissioner to France.  It was a 1390 ton ironclad ram.  Just before she was ready to launch in February 1864, the French government enacted an embargo, and sold the ship to Denmark.  When it was completed however the Danish government would not accept delivery.

The Confederate Navy secretly took possession of the ship January 10^th 1865 and commissioned her the CSS Stonewall.  She was placed under the command of Captain T J Page.  She sailed for the Azores on her way to America, looking for Union Navy and commercial ships to attack.  A storm forced the Stonewall into Ferrol, Spain where she was confronted by the USS Niagara and USS Sacramento in March 1865.  Those two wooden ships declined to attack the heavily armed Stonewall.  She reached Havana, Cuba in May after the Civil War ended, and was turned over to Spanish authorities.

The Stonewall was turned over the United States government in July 1865.  After sitting for two years in the Washington, DC Navy Yard, she was sold to Japan.

There Could Have Benn A British Invasion

The Trent Affair occurred when a British mail packet was intercepted by the USS San Jacinto and two Confederate diplomats were removed from the ship on November 8^th 1861 and held as contraband of war.

Union Captain Charles Wilkes the commander of the USS San Jacinto intercepted a British mail packet, the RMS Trent on November 8^th 1861.  The British ship was boarder and two Confederate diplomats; James Murray Mason and John Slidell, were found on board and removed under Union custody.  The two men were on their way to England and France to try to get diplomatic recognition for the Confederacy and were traveling under the protection of the British flag.

The initial public reaction within the Union was to come together against Britain, but President Abraham Lincoln knew better then to risk a war on that front.  The Confederate states thought this might be the thing that would hurt Federal and British relations and bring them recognition.  In Britain there was outrage that their neutrality had been violated and they demanded an apology as well as the release of Mason and Slidell.  There was even a movement of English troops to Canada for a possible invasion of Maine.

There were several weeks of tension which was resolved when Union Secretary of State William Seward made a disavowal of Captain Wilkes’ action saying he had erred in not bringing the RMS Trent in for adjudication violating the policy of freedom of the seas.  There was no formal apology, but Mason and Slidell were released and allowed to continue on their diplomatic mission to Britain.