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The Tangier Consul, however, went far beyond his brethren, for he not only demanded, but succeeded in effecting the arrest and imprisonment of an officer and a citizen of the Confederate States. These gentlemen, Mr. Myers, the Paymaster of the Sumter, and Mr. Tunstall, a private Southern gentleman, had been despatched by Captain Semmes from Gibraltar to Cadiz, in search of coal.
There were but three commissioned officers besides myself, that I can now call to mind, with the advance when the above position was reached. One of these officers was a Lieutenant Semmes, of the Marine Corps. I think Captain Gore, and Lieutenant Judah, of the 4th infantry, were the others.
The first intimation the brig's crew had that Captain Semmes was about to cast off his tow was a warning whistle from the Sumter. This was followed by a sudden slackening of the hawser, and a few minutes later the Sumter's black hulk showed itself on the starboard bow. She was backing water. "Sabine ahoy!" came the hail. "On board the Sumter! replied the midshipman.
During the stay of the Sumter at Cadiz, and her subsequent arrival at Gibraltar, Captain Semmes made the entries in his Journal which will be found in this chapter. Saturday, January 4th. Harbour of Cadiz ancient Gades with its Moorish houses and feluccas, or latteen vessels. Some fine oranges alongside the product of this latitude, 36° 32' N., about the same parallel with Norfolk, Virginia.
In September Capt. Semmes ran his vessel into a Martinique harbor, to make some needed repairs, and give the sailors a run ashore. Here they were blockaded for some time by the United States frigate "Iroquois," but finally escaped through the cunning of Semmes.
After the discovery of the purposes and acts of the leaders of the Sons of Liberty in Illinois, in co-operation with rebels, and the arrests detailed in a former chapter, a Military Commission was convened in Cincinnati for the trial of the prisoners, Morris, Walsh, Grenfell, Anderson, Daniels, Cantril, Marmaduke and Semmes, upon a charge of conspiring to sack and burn Chicago, and to liberate the prisoners in Camp Douglas.
For nearly two years, Winslow had been searching for that scourge of American shipping, but Semmes had always eluded him, so it may well be believed that Winslow lost no time in getting under way. On Tuesday morning, he reached Cherbourg, and breathed a great sigh of relief as he saw, beyond the breakwater, the flag of the Alabama.
Now, in the earlier years, when Frank Vizetelly returned from Italy or America, he was often at my father's house at Kensington, and I heard him talk of Napoleon III, MacMahon, Garibaldi, Victor Emmanuel, Cialdini, Robert Lee, Longstreet, Stonewall Jackson, and Captain Semmes.
Nothing, however, appeared; and the attention of the Alabama was for the most part devoted throughout the day to strictly domestic affairs. To-day says Captain Semmes, in his journal has been a great "house-cleaning" day with the first lieutenant, who, regardless of Mona Passages, strange sails, &c., is busy with his holy-stones and sand. *
With regard to the vessel called the Tuscaloosa, I am advised that this vessel did not lose the character of a prize captured by the Alabama, merely because she was, at the time of her being brought within British waters, armed with two small rifled guns, in charge of an officer, and manned with a crew of ten men from the Alabama, and used as a tender to that vessel under the authority of Captain Semmes.
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