Reign of terror off Nova Scotia, part 2

After his CSS Tallahassee captured the packet ship Adriatic on August 12, 1864, Capt. John Taylor Wood transferred that ship’s passengers and crews to another captured ship. Wood then burned the Adriatic. He also burned the schooner Spokane of Calais, Maine that day. (American Heritage Century Collection of Civil War Art)

Last week: Reign of terror off Nova Scotia, part 1

After his CSS Tallahassee bagged the Maine-based schooner Floral Wreath about 40 miles off Cape Sable Island on Thursday afternoon, August 11, 1864, Confederate Navy Capt. John Taylor Wood soon spotted another victim.

With the Floral Wreath sinking (if not sunk) and her crew now prisoners on his armed steamer, Wood steamed northeast toward “another vessel … which had just hove in sight,” reported the Portland Daily Press. Wood soon hailed Capt. Levi Blake and learned his ship was the Restless, homeported in Boothbay. Laden “with a cargo of fish,” the schooner was headed to Portland “from the bay of St. Lawrence,” according to the PDP.

The CSS Tallahassee captured New York Pilot Boat 22 (the James Funk) on August 11, 1864. Confederate Navy Capt. John Taylor Wood used the pilot boat to lure other Union ships to be captured by the Tallahassee. When he was done with the James Funk, Wood burned it. (Wikipedia)

A prize crew boarded the Restless, a Confederate sailor spotted “another vessel which had hove in sight” to the northwest, and Wood left his sailors and their prisoners aboard the Restless while he steamed over to capture the Sarah B. Harris, homeported in Dorchester, Mass.

Delano took his ship’s papers aboard the Tallahassee, which “took the vessel in tow” and “and went back to the Restless and picked up the crew, that schooner … having been scuttled,” the PDP reported.

By now the Southern warship bulged at her seams with crew and prisoners. That morning Wood had taken the New York City-based schooner Howard (Capt. Poor), outbound with coal loaded at Lingan, Nova Scotia. Removing the crew, Wood scuttled the ship “off Cape Sable”

He already carried the crew from the schooner Mary E. Howes of Chatham, Massachusetts, previously taken and scuttled.

Wanting rid of his 40-dd prisoners, Wood sent them by boat to the Harris, which he bonded for $8,000. Then he “allowed her to proceed on her course” to Portland, the PDP reported.

Delano did not get far. All hands probably watched as the Tallahassee “steamed for a schooner that was at anchor at the south-west, boarded her, cut away her masts and scuttled her.” This latest Wood victim was the Portland-based fishing schooner Etta Caroline. Her Capt. Poor apparently figured out what that big steamer was up to off Cape Sable; why try to flee when the tiger’s right there, waiting to pounce?

Rather than burn their prize (the smoke would alert other unsuspecting Yankee skippers that something unusual was happening off Cape Sable Island), Confederate sailors cut down the Etta Caroline’s masts, scuttled the schooner, and took their prisoners to the Tallahassee. Wood promptly steamed to the Sarah B. Harris; one can imagine what Delano thought as the Southern warship approached … yet again.

This time Wood transferred the Caroline’s crew to the Harris. He paroled all his prisoners and, as the sun set, “steamed off for another vessel he saw in the south-west.”

A modern sailboat cruises neat Portland Harbor, into which the schooner Sarah B. Harris brought 40-plus seamen captured by the CSS Tallahassee in August 1864. Confederate Navy Capt. John Taylor Wood bonded the Sarah B. Harris rather than burn it. (Brian F. Swartz Photo)

Chandler Jewett reported that “he was treated in a very gentlemanly manner” by Wood, “with whom he had considerable conversation,” the PDP reported.

The Southerner “enquired a great deal about Portland, saying that he meant to visit the port.”Jewett did not say if Wood mentioned the June 1863 Confederate sea raid on Portland.

A Harris sailor apparently spoke with Wood; in the peacetime Navy, both men had served aboard the frigate USS Ontario.

Once safely ashore in Portland on August 18, Jewett and his crew caught the train to Brunswick and headed to Georgetown from there. Meanwhile, Wood steamed into Halifax to replenish his coal supply, but on August 19 a British admiral “sent to the Tallahassee, several boats with full crews and an order to cease coaling, which was promptly enforced,” a telegram reported about “The Pirate Tallahassee.”

Wood wanted “to take on board 500 caldrons [of coal] for a long cruise, but has less than 300—a week’s supply,” the message reported from Halifax.

Wood “slipped out of the [Halifax] harbor under cover of night and fog” and returned to Wilmington. During her short reign of terror, the CSS Tallahassee sank 26 Union ships and bonded seven others. Of those ships at least 13 were Maine vessels — and of these, Wood bonded two and either burned or scuttled the others.

Sources: Portland Daily Press, Friday, August 19, 1864; Portland Daily Press, Saturday, August 20, 1864; Ellsworth American, Friday, September 2, 1864; Ellsworth American, Friday, September 23, 1864


“Swartz delves into the personal stories of sacrifice and loss…” — Civil War News

If you enjoy reading the adventures of Mainers caught up in the Civil War, be sure to like Maine at War on Facebook and get a copy of the new Maine at War Volume 1: Bladensburg to Sharpsburg, available online at Amazon and all major book retailers, including Books-A-Million and Barnes & Noble. —————————————————————————————————————–

Available now: Passing Through the Fire: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and the Civil War, released by Savas Beatie.

This new book chronicles the swift transition of Joshua L. Chamberlain from college professor and family man to regimental and brigade commander and follows him into combat at Shepherdstown, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and the Petersburg and Appomattox campaigns.

Drawing on Chamberlain’s extensive memoirs and writings and multiple period sources, historian Brian F. Swartz follows Chamberlain across Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia while examining the determined warrior who let nothing prevent him from helping save the United States.

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Brian Swartz can be reached at visionsofmaine@tds.net. He enjoys hearing from Civil War buffs interested in Maine’s involvement in the war.

 

Brian Swartz

About Brian Swartz

Welcome to "Maine at War," the blog about the roles played by Maine and her sons and daughters in the Civil War. I am a Civil War buff and a newspaper editor recently retired from the Bangor Daily News. Maine sent hero upon hero — soldiers, nurses, sailors, chaplains, physicians — south to preserve their country in the 1860s. “Maine at War” introduces these heroes and heroines, who, for the most part, upheld the state's honor during that terrible conflict. We tour the battlefields where they fought, and we learn about the Civil War by focusing on Maine’s involvement with it. Be prepared: As I discover to this very day, the facts taught in American classrooms don’t always jibe with Civil War reality. I can be reached at visionsofmaine@tds.net.