In late 1860 and early 1861 the newspapers of Greenock published an increasing number of articles on an emerging political crisis taking place in the United States. The people of the West of Scotland were vociferous consumers of newspapers and were well versed on the reasons for the crisis that was beginning to unfold.
The United States was coming to a dangerous cross roads on the unresolved issue of slavery, and specifically on the expansion of slavery into the newly established western territories. An uneasy political balance existed between the slave states of the South and the mostly non-slave states in the North. The slave states feared that in the event of the new western territories outlawing slavery, then the balance of power would fall to the North and therefore slavery would be put on a path to extinction.
The election of Abraham Lincoln as president in November 1860, a candidate who stood on a manifesto of prohibiting the expansion of slavery into the new territories, brought the crisis to boiling point. Led by South Carolina, the Southern states raised the possibility of seceding from the Union. The Greenock Telegraph of 8 November 1860 was still hopeful that the crisis would not escalate, reporting that “Nothing definite had taken taken place with respect to the actual secession of any of the Southern States, but it appeared that, if South Carolina seceded she would be alone in the movement….There is no news relative to the secession movement”. Unbeknownst to the Greenock Telegraph, on that very same day, the southern members of President Buchanan’s administration resigned and on 20 December 1860 South Carolina declared it’s secession from the Union.
As the turmoil began to intensify, so did the number of articles appearing in Greenock’s newspapers. It was no longer certain that a compromise was possible between the political adversaries and the risk of civil war was now dangerously close. The tone of newspaper columns likewise became more pessimistic. The Greenock Advertiser reported on 3 January 1861:
Indeed the crisis was now starting to escalate so quickly that within days of the Greenock Advertiser’s article, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia and Florida began to seize federal assets. As more news arrived from across the Atlantic, the Greenock Advertiser captured the mood of Greenockians with solemnity as it became apparent that something momentous was about to occour in the United States. The Greenock Advertiser reported on 8 January 1861:
The news was becoming more ominous by the day, and just four days later the Greenock Telegraph reported:
In the weeks that followed Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas joined South Carolina in declaring independence from the Union. Delegates from these states met in February 1861 and declared the formation of the Confederate States of America with Jefferson Davis inaugurated as their first President.
Again, the Greenock Advertiser was reflective, capturing the spirit of the age from a Scottish perspective. The editorial of 22 January 1861 observed that “The whole South in fact appears to be under a fatal infatuation”, and expressed doubts that the Federal Government, with it’s small scattered miliary and huge territory, had the means by which to resolve the conflict by force. The editorial, well aware that a civil war in the United States would not be an abstract conflict, and indeed directly affected Scotland, ended with the following:
In April 1861 the Confederacy attacked Fort Sumter, formally beginning the Civil War, thereafter Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee joined the Confederacy. However, as it approached July 1861, no news had yet reached Greenock regarding any major pitched battles between the two combatants.
On 6 August 1861 news finally arrived in Greenock of the first great battle – and to the shock of people on both sides of the Atlantic, the Battle of Bull Run ended in the complete rout of the Federal army and a victory for the Confederacy.
Not only did the Greenock Advertiser contain a very detailed account of the battle, the editorial was also devoted to the subject. The paper spoke of the “profound sensation” of the news from America, chastising the Northerners for their “insolent self-confident spirit” which had now been “terribly rebuked”. In contrast they praised the gallantry of the Southerners and the superior management of their army.
Perceptively, the editor of the Greenock Advertiser raised doubts about the casualty figures provided by the Northern newspapers, of which history has vindicated this scepticism. The New York newspapers communicated Confederate dead at being 3000-4000 compared with 500-2000 Northerners. While the number of dead was in fact accurate for the Union army, with 481 men having been killed, the Confederate death toll was wildly exaggerated, as the deaths in reality amounted to just 387 men. Although the losses were very small compared with later battles in the war, it was up until that point the bloodiest battle in the history of the United States. The Battle of Bull Run shocked many observers into the sombre realisation that the war would not be won quickly or easily. The editorial in the Greenock Advertiser ends with the following:
As a modern reader, it’s striking to see such detailed information about a historical event being very quickly communicated across the Atlantic in 1861. Nonetheless, the information published by the newspapers was not always accurate. On 30 May 1861 the Greenock Advertiser reported that “It is now pretty generally believed that there is some truth in the report of the desecration of Washington’s tomb. A Virginia paper states that the remains have been transferred to Lexington, Virginia, and deposited in a suitable mausoleum there. It is known that a strong guard of Secessionists had been quartered for some days at Mount Vernon, and it is not unlikely that their object was the removal of the body of Washington”. In fact, while Washington’s tomb at Mount Vernon changed hands repeatedly during the war, the remains were never disturbed and both sides posted soldiers to protect the site. Similarly, the Greenock Advertiser of 14 March 1861 reported on a plot to assassinate Abraham Lincoln by means of an “infernal machine” placed under the President’s train. Contrary to the certainty reported in the contemporary newspapers, historians have long debated whether the alleged ‘Baltimore Plot’ was really any genuine threat to the President’s life. Nonetheless, Allan Pinkerton, who was originally from Glasgow and had been hired to manage security for Lincoln on that particular trip, claimed to have foiled an assassination attempt.
Given the technological restrictions, and occasional misinformation, the newspapers in Greenock published good quality information on a range of subjects relating to the Civil War, including detailed information on the movements of the respective armies, the economic situation, the political machinations and indeed the motivations of individual soldiers. The Greenock Advertiser published the following article on 14 November 1861:
As 1861 progressed the outbreak of a civil war in the United States didn’t stop life continuing in the West of Scotland. Business and trade continued, and indeed some companies on the Clyde even benefited from the war, building blockade runners for the Confederacy – an activity that proved costly for the British taxpayer in the long term as the government later agreed to pay the United States $15.5million in compensation.
For one particular ship on the Clyde, 1861 was simply a year of business as usual. Captain Joseph Davies, and his ship, the Washington, were regularly listed in the shipping intelligence section of the local newspapers. For the most part this activity amounted to exporting iron and coal to Quebec, and returning to Greenock with timber – although occasionally there would be shorter trips between Greenock and Glasgow.
Captain Joseph Davies was a native of Liverpool and one of three brothers, all of whom were shipmasters. He moved to Greenock around 1859 and by 1861 lived at Nicholson Street with his wife Winifred and four children, a few years later Captain Davies moved to 13 Brisbane Street, Greenock.
Davies’ ship, The Washington, which carried sails, was one of the largest ships on the Clyde, weighing in at 989 tonnes. The Greenock Harbour Directory in the local newspapers showed that it’s regular berth was the Victoria Harbour.
The Washington was no stranger to turmoil, and it’s eventful working life was subject to numerous articles. In 1859 the Washington was involved in a dispute with another ship, the Atholl, after the latter refused to move from the Victoria Harbour on the orders of the Deputy Harbour Master. The Washington eventually had to settle on a position on the outside of the East India Quay at the expensive of the owner – much to the annoyance of the authorities as the Washington paid fees and taxes, while the Atholl paid none (Greenock Telegraph 24 Feb 1859). In the same year, Captain Davies and the Washington had attempted the usual route to Quebec in order to deliver iron and timber, only to be battered by a hurricane south of Greenland at longitude 46W. After 77 days at sea the “leaky” Washington was forced back to Greenock and put into dock for repairs having lost her mainyard and much of her sails. (Greenock Advertiser 5 November 1859 & Greenock Telegraph 5 November 1859)
In 1861 two of the Washington’s crew, Augustus Braun of Hamburg and Frederick Shultz of Danzig were sentenced to four weeks jail after refusing to fulfil the contract they had signed with Captain Davies to accompany the ship on a return trip from Greenock to Quebec (Greenock Advertiser 2 April 1861 & Greenock Telegraph 6 April 1861). Likewise in 1861, the Washington, after sailing through ice, reported that it had seen the wreck of the steamship United States at somewhere known as ‘Bird Rock’ (Greenock Telegraph 4 June 1861), while a month later in Quebec, a ship named the Lotus collided with the Washington and a number of other ships. (Greenock Advertiser 6 June 1861)
It was however in Greenock on 28 November 1861 that Captain Davies and the Washington were involved in perhaps their most unusual occurrence. While lying at the Wooden Wharf at Victoria Harbour, Captain Davies hoisted a flag up the foremast head. It was described as having the colours “red, white and red horizontal, with a blue square containing seven stars in the corner” – it was the national flag of the Confederate States of America. According to reports, the flag was noticed and it “excited the wrath of a Yankee ship bound for New York” which was being towed down the Clyde. The Yankee captain, yelling to the Washington, ordered that the Confederate flag be removed so he could spit on it, but he was met with laughter from the crew of the Washington. The Greenock Advertiser, reporting two days after the event, noted that the Yankee captain never returned to fulfil his threat. (Greenock Advertiser 30 November 1861)
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Why Captain Davies, a native of Liverpool, wished to fly the Confederate flag and where he even managed to find such a flag remains a mystery. The irony of him having a similar name to the President of the Confederacy and his ship being named the Washington would undoubtedly not have been lost on him.
The specific flag in question can be dated very precisely, as having only seven stars we know that it was the first national flag used by the Confederacy between March and May 1861, the stars representing the original seven Confederate states. By the time it was being flown in Greenock by Captain Davies in November, it was already out of date, as the Confederate national flag now had 11 stars, only to be replaced by another version in December with 13 stars. Informally known as the ‘stars and bars’, it was not a popular flag amongst Southerners, being considered too similar to that of the United States. There were also practical difficulties as the Confederates soon discovered that the ‘stars and bars’ was extremely difficult to discern from the ‘stars and stripes’, especially during the confusion of battle. The Confederacy ultimately settled on a variety of flags derived from the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia – the flag most people now recognise as a “Confederate flag”.
The incident in Greenock could not have happened at a more sensitive time in the relations between the United States and United Kingdom. In late November 1861 the two powers were embroiled in a serious diplomatic dispute after the US Navy boarded a British Royal Mail steamer that was carrying envoys of the Confederacy bound for England. Known as the ‘Trent Affair‘, the Confederacy hoped the scandal would lead to diplomatic recognition of their government and intervention in the war by Britain and France.
Remarkably, news of the Trent Affair was first published in Greenock on 28 November 1861, just a day after the news had first arrived in London and on the very day that Davies raised the Confederate flag in the Victoria Harbour. It may well have been the case that Davies, having read of the slight to Britain’s honour in the morning newspaper, raised the flag in defiance of the Yankees.
If that were the case, Davies was certainly not alone in his views towards the United States. The British public was angry and two days later the editorial of the Greenock Advertiser called the actions of the United States during the Trent Affair an “outrage” and “provocation”. The editorial ended with a warning, that “Britain would deservedly sink from her high place were she to shrink from the vindication of her honour, insolently, deliberately and unprovokedly outraged, and the Government has but to say the word for the nation to rise in arms to support them in their determination to wipe off the insult offered to the national flag.” (Greenock Advertiser 30 November 1861)
Much to the disappointment of the Confederacy, President Lincoln tactfully backed down and war between the US and UK was averted. The European powers did not officially recognise the independence of the Confederate States and the UK resumed it’s role as a major arms supplier to the Union army, most critically by providing saltpeter for gunpower, an important source of which was British India.
As the years went on so did the bloodshed of the Civil War, but Captain Davies of the Washington also experienced terrible misfortune. On 20 June 1864 his wife Winifred died at only 36 years of age, leaving Davies to care for his four children (Greenock Advertiser 21 June 1864). Further tragedy was heaped upon the family, and in particular the children, in the following year.
On 25 September 1865 the Washington left Quebec on the return leg to Greenock as it had done for many years before. However on this occasion there was a strange occurrence when on 28 October 1865 a telegram was received in Greenock, providing notification that the Washington had stopped at Belfast Lough under the charge of Mr Richard Imrie, the mate, without any explanation as to what had happened to Captain Davies.
A terrible anxiety manifest itself amongst Captain Davies’ friends in Greenock as they hoped the Captain only discharged his duties to Mr Imrie on account of ill-health. Their worst fears were soon realised when the Washington was towed into Greenock by the tug Flying Dutchman on 29 October and Captain Davies was not on the ship.
Mr Imrie soon provided a full account of events, that around 1am on 26 October the ship was near Tory Island off the coast of Donegal when Davies was walking on the deck with his second mate. With this duty complete the Captain lay down for around 10mins when the man at the wheel saw him get up and walk across the deck. Around an hour later the second mate went aft to speak with Davies about taking in the sail, but being unable to find the Captain, assumed he had gone below to his cabin. When the second mate realised that Davies was not there either, all hands were called to deck. After a rapid search Davies was no where to be found and it became obvious that he had fallen overboard. They figured out that around the time Captain Davies was last seen the ship had made a heavy lurch to one side either on account of strong winds or waves. It was thought that the ship was around 12 miles from Tory Island at that point but given the time that had elapsed and having no idea where the incident took place for certain, the crew reluctantly decided not to turn back. (Greenock Telegraph 30 October 1865, Greenock Advertiser 31 October 1865 & The Glasgow Sentinel 4 November 1865)
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Captain Davies was only 37 years old and his four children were left orphaned by his death. His obituary noted that he was well respected by the owners of the Washington, Messrs Bunten of Glasgow, and especially in his home city of Liverpool.
So in the end, after flying the flag of the Confederacy in Greenock, Captain Davies himself barely outlived the Confederate States of America, the government of which was abolished at the end of the Civil War in May 1865.
Colin S MacDonald 
Really interesting. I know very little about American history – amazing how much information was provided in the newspapers of that time. Such a sad story about Captain Davies. I wonder what happened to his children.