With all the heated debate surrounding the Confederate flag, it’s important to remember, regardless of your sentiments, that it’s vitally important to protect and preserve any and all artifacts of our history as a nation. We didn’t arrive here today, a remarkably strong republic, by way of a smooth and virtuous route, yet we did arrive here.
We are thankful to those individuals, throughout the United States, who dedicate themselves to the preservation of America’s treasures.
Flag a symbol of Confederate sea raider’s resolve
By GEORGE TUCKER, The Virginian-Pilot
© April 10, 2005
If you are a Dixie-oriented War Between the States history buff and would like to feast your eyes on the flag of the CSS Shenandoah, the celebrated Confederate sea raider that inflicted millions of dollars of damage to Yankee commercial shipping in Pacific and Arctic waters between 1864 and 1865 without having been defeated in naval combat, now is your golden opportunity to do so.
As the stellar attraction in a current exposition at the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond titled "The Confederate Navy," the enormous ensign, a picture of which illustrates today’s column, is the centerpiece of a floor-to-ceiling display case that also showcases many other original artifacts connected with the historic vessel, as well as portraits of her chief officers during its one-time cruise of maritime destruction.
One of these was Norfolk-born Lt. William Conway Whittle , who lived in the still-existing Taylor-Whittle House in the downtown area and is buried in Elmwood Cemetery, where his grave is marked with a striking monument.
Fortunately, Whittle kept a detailed diary of the Shenandoah’s actions, and I was told recently while visiting the exhibit at the Museum of the Confederacy that it soon will be published.
Meanwhile, here is a brief preview of what you will discover in the current show in the Holy City, where the grounds outside its main entrance feature a hands-on display of the anchor and propeller shaft of the CSS Virginia (the former USS Merrimack ) and part of the anchor chain of the USS Cumberland. The Virginia sent the Cumberland to a watery grave in Hampton Roads the day before the historic engagement between the Virginia and the USS Monitor took place in March 1862 .
Before taking in the show, however, be sure to buy a copy of the handsomely produced guidebook, "The Confederate Navy," which explains each of the relics on display in the museum’s three-room, second-floor galleries. These include a marvelously detailed pencil sketch of the CSS Virginia drawn by midshipman Hardin Littlepage , which gave me a better idea of the actual appearance of the celebrated ironclad than I had ever encountered before.
Space limitations prevent me from covering the present show that opened March 8 and will close Dec. 31, 2006 , in detail. So I’m going to quote from the guidebook introduction by John M. Coski , historian and director of library and research for the museum, concerning the reason that the show is exclusively devoted to the naval aspect of the Confederacy.
Coski writes:
"In 1861, Northerners, Europeans and even some Southerners lampooned the notion of the upstart Confederacy challenging the United States Navy. But the skeptics overestimated the power of the much-neglected U.S. Navy in 1861 and underestimated the South’s resourcefulness. Created in February 1861, the Confederate Navy began the war with a handful of lightly armed warships (converted from commercial vessels), materials and shipyards turned over by the seceded states. With these meager resources and with a wealth of trained officers who resigned from U.S. service, the Confederate Navy created a force capable of challenging the U.S. Navy."
With that curtain-raiser, Coski introduces the present exhibition that climaxes with the case in which the impressive flag of the Shenandoah is the featured attraction. So from now on, I’d like to devote the rest of today’s column to the vessel whose voyage of destruction is one of the great sagas of naval history.
Originally a British merchant ship named the Sea King , the vessel was bought by the Confederate government and reoutfitted for warlike purposes. Commissioned in the Madeira Islands on Oct. 19, 1864 , at which time it was renamed the Shenandoah , she set out on her historic voyage to attack Northern whaling ships in the Pacific and Arctic oceans .
Even after her skipper had heard rumors in late March 1865 that the Confederacy had collapsed, he sailed for the Arctic to carry out his orders.
In a six-day period in late June, the Shenandoah captured 24 ships and burned all but four of them. Finally, on Aug. 2, 1865 , the ship received definite evidence of the Confederacy’s surrender, at which time the ship’s officers voted to sail for Liverpool and turn the vessel over to British authorities. And it was on Nov. 5, 1865 , that the Shenandoah’s flag was finally lowered.
Returned by the British to one of the former raider’s officers, the flag was finally given to the son of a noted Confederate oceanographer, Matthew Fontaine Maury, who eventually brought it back to the United States. Finally, one of Maury’s daughters , an officer of the Museum of the Confederacy, donated it in 1907 to the facility’s vast collection of Southern-oriented artifacts.