Tell Me When The War Is Over

CSS Shenandoah, Melbourne, Australia
 

     Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox on April 9, 1865. Confederate President Jefferson Davis was captured by Union forces on May 11, 1865, and the last confederate troops surrendered May 26, 1865.

     However, the Civil War continued in the Pacific Ocean as far north as the Arctic Circle.

     At the end of the American Civil War, the Confederate warship CSS Shenandoah continued to raid and burn ships in the Pacific. Near the end of June, 1865, the ship was located in the Bering Strait between Russia and Russian-owned Alaska. Her captain and crew were raiding New England whaling vessels. Many of the whaling ships were captured and burned after personnel and provisions were removed. Some of the captured ships were bonded or ransomed to the Confederacy and allowed to go home. Those returning ships carried survivors from the ships that were destroyed.

     On November 9, 1865, after a long journey around Cape Horn, Confederate Commander James Waddell surrendered CSS Shenandoah to the British on the Mercy river near Liverpool. Many of the Shenandoah's crew were English citizens but during the "staged" surrender they claimed to be Americans. For his part Waddell claimed that he was not officially informed of the Confederate defeat until August 30, 1865. But Captains William Thompson and Francis Smith informed him of the Confederate defeat as early as June 22, 1865 in the Bering Strait, when Commander Waddell captured their whaling ships.

     Northern newspapers called Waddell a pirate. People in the South called him a hero. In 1871, an International Court at Geneva awarded the United States damages of 820,000 pounds sterling against England. James Waddell remained in England for ten years. How he managed to procure a living for 10 years in England remains a mystery. He returned to the United States in 1875. He was not charged or arrested for any crime.

                                                   End of the Shenandoah.
                                      She Goes into a British Port and Surrenders.
                                                   Perplexing Questions Ahead.
                                                   Comments of the British Press.

Albany Evening News, Nov. 20, 1865, Utica Morning Herald and Daily Gazette, Nov. 21, 1865.

     --The pirate Shenandoah arrived in Mersey and surrendered to guard ship Donegal, and is now in the hands of the naval authorities. Capt. Waddell states that the first information he received of the close of the war was on the 30th of August, from the British war vessel, Barracouta, and that he immediately consigned the guns to the hold and steered for Liverpool.
      The Daily News says: “The Americans may be inclined to say it was only a fitting end that her end should be as British as her origin was;” but the Daily News cannot help asking “how the Shenandoah has been able to pursue her course without the least interruption of the American navy? Can it be possible that the expectation of recovering compensation for losses resulting from her depredations from the English Government made the Americans less eager for her capture? If the world should come to that conclusion, it would be one of the strongest practical arguments against the admission of such liabilities as Seward is now endeavoring to establish against England.”
     It is stated that Waddell sent a letter to [British Prime Minister] Earl Russell; contents unknown. The captain and crew remained on the Shenandoah.
     The Star says that the vessel will undoubtedly be claimed by America, and there is no reason for refusing the request.
     The Times says that the question of personal liability and surrender after capture, will probably give rise to perplexing discussions; but that at whatever cost, strict justice will be done by the British tribunals to which it is submitted.

The Pirate Shenandoah.

New York Times editorial, reprinted by Albany Evening News, November 21, 1865.

     The Shenandoah, like a good many other Rebel curses, has gone “home to roost.” She turned up one fine morning in the port of Liverpool, carrying the Rebel flag, and was surrendered by her commander to an English man-of-war.
     It will be seen by the extracts from English papers which we publish elsewhere, that her welcome is by no means cordial. It has ceased to be for English interests, and has therefore become immoral, to welcome the Rebel flag and fete the captains of Rebel privateers. The English, moreover, feel that the untimely arrival of the Shenandoah involves them in new and somewhat embarrassing responsibilities. It is susceptible of proof, we believe, that the Captain of this vessel, long after he had received authentic information of the termination of the war, pursued his career of plundering and burning peaceful and unarmed vessels, and that fifty or sixty whalers thus fell victims to his cowardly prowess in the Arctic seas. He claims to have received official intelligence of the close of the war only on the 30th of August; but what particular form and style of information is requisite to check the black and bloody cruise of a privateer, it will now become the duty of English law courts to determine.
     The responsibility of dealing with Waddell devolves wholly on the British Government. If he was in command of a privateer, duly exercising belligerent rights, England cannot surrender him, nor shall we ask her to do so. If, on the contrary, he pursued his career of devastation after those rights had ceased to protect him, he became simply a pirate, and violated the laws of Great Britain quite as truly as those of the United States. And it devolves upon the English authorities to hold him responsible. The fact that his depredations were continued to American vessels, and that British commerce suffered nothing at his hands, cannot, of course, alter the principles of justice and of law applicable to his case; though we should hesitate, in view of the recent events, to say that it will not alter the actual application of these principles by the British courts of law.
     One thing, however, it may be well enough to bear in mind. The future application of whatever principles may now be laid down by English tribunals is of much more importance to England herself than is the fate of Waddell to anybody on the face of the earth. We wish the English neutrals joy of the return of their belligerent rover.



Former Confederate Naval Officers in England late 1865.


 

Reference:
1) Wikipedia--James Waddell
2) Ahoy--Mac's Web Log