Monday, July 08, 2024

Piracy! Smuggled Weapons! A Master of Disguise! The Capture of the St. Nicolas

   The first couple of months of the war include a series of well-documented events: Fort Sumter fell in April, the U.S. Army occupied Arlington Heights in May, and the two sides clashed at Big Bethel in June. Those are all well-known stories. Lesser known is the strange story of one of the first Confederate naval victories.

   George N. Hollis had an idea. He was going to steal the St. Nicholas, “and manning her with volunteers . . then take the Pawnee.” It was a bold and daring plan. The Maryland side of the Potomac swarmed with Federal soldiers. But, the plan just might work.[1] 

The Baltimore Sun, March 19, 1861. 

   The St. Nicholas was a packet boat that ran regularly between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., with other stops in Alexandria and Georgetown.[2] With a Confederate commission in hand, the permission of Virginia’s Governor Letcher, and cash to purchase firearms up North, Hollis set out with his two sons and five other men. Upon reaching Point Lookout, the draft for the firearms was given to “Colonel Thomas, of Maryland, alias Zarvona,” who proceeded on to Baltimore and Philadelphia to procure weapons and maybe a few more men. Hollis told Thomas to return to Point Lookout on the St. Nicholas. A day or two later, the St. Nicholas returned for its regular stop at Point Lookout. Hollis and his band boarded the vessel about midnight where he found “Colonel Thomas dressed as a woman, to avoid suspicion, as he had high, large, trunks such as milliners use; they contained arms and ammunition.”[3]

   Just a few minutes after leaving the wharf, Hollis gave the signal. The trunks were opened, and the members of the party were armed, with Hollis taking a Sharps rifle and pair of pistols. He ran to the wheelhouse and put his “hand on the captain’s shoulder,” capturing the vessel. Hollis ordered the captain to sail the St. Nicholas to Coan River, on the Virginia side of the Potomac River. He was joined by a small body of Confederate soldiers under a Captain Lewis. The passengers were landed and most made their way home. There was a group of ladies that “amused themselves by making Confederate flags out of the Yankee flags I had captured.” Hollis determined that the Pawnee was out of reach. Instead, he sailed out into the Chesapeake Bay toward Fredericksburg. He soon spotted the brig Monticello, with a load of coffee from Rio. Hollis captured the brig without firing a shot. He moved a crew under Lt. Robert D. Minor and sent the load of coffee to Fredericksburg. An hour later. Hollis and the St. Nicholas captured a schooner coming from Baltimore and bound for Washington, D.C., with a load of ice. Once again, Hollis placed a “prize” crew aboard and sent the vessel to Fredericksburg. On board, Hollis found a “splendid flag of a 74” that had been borrowed from the U.S. Naval yard for Stephen Douglas’s funeral. He used the large flag to make “a goodly number of secession flags.”[4]

   Hollis then captured another vessel coming from Baltimore and headed to Boston. This one was loaded with coal, which Hollis used to replenish the St. Nicholas. At that point, Hollis, afraid that word had gotten out and Federal gunboats were looking for him, sailed the St. Nicholas to Fredericksburg. The Confederate government purchased the St. Nicholas for “about $45,000” and turned it into a gunboat.[5]

   “Piracy on the Chesapeake” read a headline in The Baltimore Sun on July 2, 1861. The St. Nicholas was last seen leaving Point Lookout “under great speed for the Virginia shore . . . There is no doubt but that she was taken forcible possession of by parties who came passengers in her from Baltimore.”[6] By the evening, The Baltimore Sun was able to report that it was Hollis who had captured the St. Nicholas. After unloading passengers and taking on board soldiers, Hollis proceeded to capture three other vessels.[7]

   The news quickly made the rounds. “The rebels have succeeded by a coup de main in seizing and carrying off a Baltimore steamerreported the New York Daily Herald.[8] “The seizure of the steamer St. Nicholas from this port . . . proved to have been a bold piratical expedition,” summed up The New York Times.[9] The Richmond Dispatch considered the affair a “Brilliant Achievement.”[10] The New Bern Daily Progress labeled it a “Daring Exploit.”[11]

Harper's Weekly, July 27, 1861

   In 1910, the Evening Sun told the story of George W. Watts, the “Last Survivor of Col. Zarvona Thomas’ Band.” Watts stated that Thomas had sixteen men with him that night. After boarding the vessel, Watts could not find the colonel, but did notice “a mighty pretty young woman, stylishly dressed, flirting outrageously with some young officers. She talked with a strong French accent . . . That young woman behaved so scandalously that all the other women on the boat were in a terrible state over it.” Later, Watts was summoned below deck. On entering the cabin, he saw his comrades, “gathered around that frisky French lady.” Watts recognized the eyes as belonging to Thomas. Thomas “shed his bonnet, wig, and dress and stepped forth clad in a brilliant new Zouave uniform. In a jiffy the ‘French lady’s’ three big trunks were dragged out and opened. One was filled with cutlasses, another with Colt’s revolvers and the third with carbines.” Watts and the others armed themselves, then proceeded to take possession of the St. Nicholas. According to Watts, the Pawnee was no longer in position guarding the river south of Washington, but had moved closer to the city, escorting a dead naval officer to the capital.[12]

   The story of the capture of the St. Nicholas is so outlandish that it almost seems like an episode in a work of fiction. Yet, it really did happen, and the history of this strange event, though less spectacular than a battle, needs to be told along with those of Fort Sumter and Big Bethel Church.



[1] OR Navy, 4:553.

[2] The Baltimore Sun, March 19, 1861.

[3] OR Navy, 4:553.

[4] OR Navy, 4:555.

[5] OR Navy, 4:555.

[6] The Baltimore Sun, July 2, 1861.

[7] The Baltimore Sun, July 2, 1861.

[8] New York Daily Herald, July 2, 1861.

[9] The New York Times, July 3, 1861.

[10] Richmond Dispatch, July 2, 1861.

[11] Daily Progress, July 1, 1861.

[12] The Evening Sun, August 27, 1910.

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