Confederate warship engaged in ‘flag trickery’

Operating at full speed, the Confederate warship known as the Nashville, made a mad dash from Southampton, England, on Feb. 3, 1862. Commanded by Lt. Robert B. Pegram, the vessel was given a 24-hour head start to evade its predator, the Union gunboat named the Tuscarora. 

Lt. Pegram

Sailing to safety through heavy gales, the Nashville arrived Feb. 20 at St. George, Bermuda, to refuel. While there, Lt. Pegram sought an interview with Capt. Josiah Pender of Beaufort, N.C., whose steamships were used to smuggle goods into southern harbors, operating out of Hamilton, Bermuda.

 

Lt. Pegram later wrote that Capt. Pender, “in a most patriotic and praiseworthy manner,” volunteered his service and assistance, offering to have his pilot J. Beveridge guide the Nashville into Beaufort Harbor, which was protected by Confederate troops that occupied Fort Macon. 

Lt. Pegram accepted that offer, and the Nashville left Bermuda on Feb. 24, on course to Beaufort. 

Civil War historian John Quarstein of The Mariners’ Museum and Park in Newport News, Va., said that at dawn on Feb. 26, Lt. Pegram spotted a schooner off his bow. It was the Robert Gilfillan, sailing from Philadelphia to Haiti with a load of provisions. Pegram hoisted the U.S. flag as did the Robert Gilfillan.

 

“Lt. John Ingraham of the Nashville boarded the schooner to review the ship’s papers. Ingraham sent a signal back to the Nashville, which prompted Lt. Pegram to replace the U.S. flag with that of the Confederate States of America. Thus, Robert Gilfillan was made a prize,” Quarstein said. 

“The seas were too heavy to transfer the cargo, so Lt. Pegram took the captain and crew, a total of seven men, along with their personal effects. Then the merchant ship was set ablaze, and the Nashville steamed on toward Beaufort,” he said. 

Approaching Beaufort on Feb. 28, Lt. Pegram observed the presence of the Union warship named the State of Georgia. The Nashville hoisted its U.S. flag and proceeded on. 

Quarstein said Cmdr. James Armstrong of the State of Georgia thought he was looking at the Union’s Keystone State pass by, not an enemy ship. 

As Lt. Pegram, approached Fort Macon, he quickly switched to his Confederate flag to avoid getting shot at from the fort, Quarstein said. “Armstrong was furious and fired his guns belatedly.” 

“The enemy fired 21 shots without the slightest effect,” Lt. Pegram later wrote. “I answered the enemy’s salute by firing one gun, finding it useless to waste more powder. We safely moored alongside of the railroad wharf at Morehead City.” 

Upon arrival in Morehead City, Lt. Pegram went to Richmond for instructions, a distance of 250 miles. He returned to the ship and informed the officers and crew that the Nashville had been sold to private investors for use fulltime as a blockade runner,” according to Quarstein. 

“Lt. Pegram stripped the ship of all of its charts, navigational instruments and armament. He then took most of the crew to Richmond. They boarded one of the last trains to leave Morehead City as Union Gen. Ambrose Burnside captured New Bern, on March 14, closing off any escape via train through that city.” 

Lt. Pegram left 22-year-old Lt. William Conway Whittle Jr. behind to watch over the Nashville. Meanwhile, Gen. Burnside’s troops were advancing on Morehead City.

Lt. Whittle

 

On March 17, Lt. Whittle met with Confederate Col. Moses White, the commander at Fort Macon, to inform him that a local pilot – Matthew R. Gooding of Beaufort – had agreed to run the Nashville past the blockaders that evening. 

 

The Nashville got out while the getting’ was good

It was a bold and gutsy call made by Lt. Whittle to flee from Beaufort Harbor. Reflecting on the situation, authors John Baldwin and Ron Powers wrote that “the Nashville was undermanned, under-armed and cut off from any help – a sitting duck.” 

Lt. Whittle “had no charts, no navigational instruments and just a skeleton crew to help him escape,” Quarstein said. 

Baldwin and Powers said Lt. Whittle had a small window. Whittle had written: “Between sunset and moonrise (with the moon being nearly full) was my only chance for darkness. I tripped my anchor and with all lights extinguished, we started.”

Quarstein said the Nashville “steamed directly toward USS Cambridge and passed by the gunboat, as the other blockader, USS Gemsbok, merely looked on. The garrison cheered the Nashville as the steamer passed, unharmed, out to sea.” 

“The Nashville was now a phantom of the night,” Baldwin and Powers stated. 

Lt. Whittle headed south and attempted to enter Winyah Bay to reach Georgetown, S.C., but the Nashville ran aground. Local pilots came to her rescue. 

Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory had arranged for the Nashville to be sold to Fraser, Trenholm & Company of Liverpool, England. Charleston-based senior partner George A. Trenholm, became the Confederacy’s Treasury Secretary in 1864.

George Trenholm

 

The Liverpool firm made an enormous contribution to the war effort of the South, acting as banker to the Confederate government and financing the supply of armaments in return for cotton. 

Fraser, Trenholm & Co. also participated in blockade running, and the Nashville became part of the company fleet, but renamed as the Thomas L. Wragg (in honor of a Confederate naval officer imprisoned at Fort Warren in Boston Harbor, Mass). 

Although successful as a blockade runner, the vessel was hindered in this employment by her deep draft. She was sold again in November 1862 at Savannah, Ga., to become a privateer under the name Rattlesnake. On Feb. 28, 1863, while still in the Savannah area, she was destroyed by the ironclad USS Montauk.

 

“The Nashville was a unique ship,” Quarstein said. “The steamer received the first naval fire during the Civil War, was the first Confederate commerce raider to serve in the North Atlantic, and the first Confederate warship to be recognized by Great Britain.” 

“This paddlewheeler was extremely fast, enabling her to run blockades five times,” he said. 

Capt. Gooding died in January 1863. He was approximately age 33 and left his wife Rebecca Harker Gooding and their 4-year-old son Herbert. Capt. Gooding was laid to rest in the Old Burying Ground on Ann Street in Beaufort. 

His gravesite (No. 13) is one of 28 that are specifically mentioned in the walking tour guide, with the citation: “As the pilot of the blockade runner Nashville, he ably ran the Union blockade of Beaufort Harbor during the first year of the Civil War.” 

Lt. Whittle became the executive officer of the Confederate ship named the Shenandoah. (That’s another great Civil War story for next time.)