South Atlantic Blockading Squadron
General Orders,
Issued By Flag Officer Samuel F. Du Pont.
Collected and compiled by Terry Foenander.
General Orders No. 1. dated October 24, 1861.
Commanding officers of blockading vessels under my command are to be governed by the following rules:
1st. Duly notify neutrals of the declaration
of blockade, and give to it all the publicity in your power.
2d. The blockade must be strict and absolute, and only
public armed vessels of foreign powers are to be permitted to enter the ports,
which are placed in a state of blockade.
3d. Protect our commerce from the depredations of
privateers, and, as a matter of course, capture them, and all other vessels of
the enemy whenever you can do so, without being seduced away from your station.
4th. A lawful maritime blockade requires the
actual presence of an adequate force, stationed at the entrance of the port,
sufficiently near to prevent communication.
The only exception to this rule arises out of the occasional temporary
absence of the blockading vessels, produced by accident, as in the case of a
storm, which does not suspend the legal operation of a blockade; and to take
advantage of such an accidental absence is a fraudulent attempt to break the
blockade, and will justify the application of penalties.
5th. A neutral or foreign vessel proceeding
toward the entrance of a blockaded port is not to be captured or detained if
she shall not have previously received from one of the blockading squadron a
special notification of the existence of the blockade. This notification must be inserted in
writing on the register and muster roll of the neutral vessel by the cruiser
which meets her, and it should contain the announcement, together with
statements of the day and the latitude and longitude in which it was made.
6th. Until the ports are closed by
proclamation (that is, declared to be no longer ports of entry), the warning
just mentioned is to be continued to all vessels, instead of capturing at once,
as will be the case when they come to be so closed.
7th Vessels leaving guarded insurgent ports
without legal clearances are to be seized and sent in for adjudication. If it be claimed that there is not an
effective blockade, and therefore that they are entitled to depart, still they
must not disregard our municipal laws and the requirements of the National
Government. If they do, they incur the
penalties and are subject to the forfeitures which the laws impose.
8th. Vessels with contraband goods on board, approaching any of the blockaded ports, or vessels that may have cleared for any of those ports, and be found, with a due warning on their papers, hovering about any of them, are all to be seized and sent in for adjudication.
[To accompany General Orders, No. 1.]
FLAGSHIP WABASH,
Hampton Roads,
October 24, 1861.
SIR: You will, after receipt of this order, furnish me with a tabular statement, weekly, of each and every vessel spoken and boarded, with date, name, name of captain, nationality, position, cargo, where from, where bound, and such other remarks as may be deemed necessary.
You will take care to examine the character of any vessel
within your reach.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
S.F. DU PONT,
Flag-Officer, etc.
[Addressed to same commanding officers as preceding.]
[ORN 1, 12, 225.]
General Orders No. 2. dated aboard the Flagship Wabash, Hilton Head, Port Royal Sound, November 8, 1861.
It is the grateful duty of the commander in chief to make a public acknowledgement of his entire commendation of the coolness, discipline, skill, and gallantry displayed by the officers and men under his command in the capture of the batteries on Hilton Head and Bay Point, after an action of four hours’ duration.
The flag-officer fully sympathizes with the officers and men of his squadron in the
satisfaction they must feel at seeing the ensign of the Union flying once more
in the State of South Carolina, which has been the chief promoter of the wicked
and unprovoked rebellion they have been called upon to suppress.
[ORN 1, 12, 286.]
General Orders No. 3. dated aboard the U.S. Flagship Wabash, Hilton Head, Port Royal, December 4, 1861.
Sir: Hereafter no signal or other gun will be fired in presence of a superior officer without special authority, except in case of attack.
The above sent to the different vessels of the fleet.
[ORN 1, 12, 381.]
General Orders No. 4. [Not included.]
General Orders No. 5. [Not included.]
General Orders No. 6. dated aboard the U.S. Flagship Wabash, Port Royal Harbor, S.C., January 16, 1862.
The attention of commanders of the vessels of the squadron is called to the following general order:
A British schooner was recently captured by one of our
steamers for a breach of the blockade, and three of the crew, who claimed to be
British subjects, released after entering into an engagement not to be again
employed in a similar proceeding.
The requirement in question is not warranted by public law, and no such condition should be exacted by commanders of vessels in future.
It may be lawful to detain as witnesses such persons as
may be found on board of vessels charged with a breach of the blockade when
their testimony may be indispensable to the administration of justice, but when
captured in a neutral vessel they can not be considered, and ought not to be
treated, as prisoners of war.
[ORN 1, 12, 484.]
General Orders No. 7. dated aboard the Flagship Wabash, Port Royal Harbor, February 1, 1862.
The commanding officers of the vessels attached to this squadron will give special attention to all intercourse between the men under their command and the various plantations in their vicinity.
No stock or provisions of any kind must be taken without
paying a fair price for the same to the Negroes.
No boat from any of the ships of the squadron can be
permitted to land anywhere but at Bay Point and Hilton Head without a pass from
the fleet captain.
[ORN 1, 12, 532.]
General Orders No. 8. dated aboard the Flagship Wabash, Port Royal Harbor, S.C., February 13, 1862.
Nothing in the suppression of this rebellion has been more difficult to contend with than information conveyed to the enemy of projected movements, sometimes by individuals holding places of trust, who have unexpectedly proved to be correspondents of the press, and not infrequently by the publication of private letters.
A recent glaring instance of the former in my own command
has led to my asking the Navy Department to issue a general order on this
subject.
Until this order is promulgated I hereby enjoin it upon
every officer and man in this fleet to avoid such a violation of military
propriety and of the dictates of an honest patriotism; for, whether intended or
not, the result of the practice is to give aid and comfort to the enemy.
This general order will be read at muster on board of
every vessel in the fleet.
[ORN 1, 12, 546.]
General Orders No. 9. [Not included.]
General Orders No. 10. dated aboard the Flagship Wabash, Port Royal, April 26, 1862.
No subsistence, forage, mules, horses, oxen, cows, sheep, cattle of any kind, or other property must be taken by the officers or men of the vessels of this squadron from plantations under the charge of the special agent of the Treasury Department, nor must the men ever be allowed to visit such plantations without a written permission from their commanding officer.
[ORN 1, 12, 778.]
General Orders No. 11. dated aboard the Flagship Wabash, Port Royal Harbor, S.C., May 15, 1862.
The hot season on this coast, now approaching, renders it advisable that acclimated persons be employed on board of the ships of this squadron in such duties as involve much exposure to sun and heat, such as boat service and work in the engine rooms.
The commanding officers are therefore authorized to
enlist contrabands, with their consent, on their respective vessels, rating
them as boys at $8, $9, and $10 per month, and one ration, this privilege to be
exercised with sound discretion.
A monthly return of the number so employed will be made
to the flag-officer.
[ORN 1, 13, 5.]
General Orders No. 12. dated aboard the Flagship Wabash, Port Royal Harbor, May 17, 1862.
Hereafter no army transport shall be boarded by the vessels of this squadron on any of the blockading stations, where she is known to be such, either before or after anchoring.
[ORN 1, 13, 13; compiler’s note: This General Order was issued following an incident in which an Army transport, the Delaware, was stopped by a blockading gunboat of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, and the captain of the Delaware then proceeded to insult the Navy in general. Following the issue of General Orders No. 12, the Army commander in the region also issued an order instructing all transports and other vessels belonging to the Army to allow any inspection by vessels of the United States Navy. See ORN 1, 13, 12 & 130.]
General Orders No. 13. [Not included.]
General Orders No. 14. dated aboard the Flagship Wabash, Port Royal Harbor, S.C., June 2, 1862.
Hereafter no boat will be allowed to go out of signal distance from the ship to which it belongs without the approval of the senior officer present, and then only on public service.
Whenever an officer is sent up to Port Royal on special
duty, the cause thereof must be explained by letter, and no officer will be
permitted to leave his ship for any other point on the coast on private
business.
[ORN 1, 13, 69.]
General Orders No. 15. [Not included.]
General Orders No. 16. [Not included.]
General Orders No. 17. [Not included.]
General Orders No. 18. [Not included.]
General Orders No. 19. dated aboard the U.s. Flagship Wabash, Port Royal Harbor, S.C., October 30, 1862.
When foreign vessels attempting to run in or out of a blockaded port are captured, the flag of the country to which they belong must be worn until their cases are adjudicated.
The American flag will be carried at the fore to indicate
that they are, for the time, under charge of United States officers.
[ORN 1, 13, 424.]
Reference Source:
ORN - "Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion," in 31 volumes; originally published, 1903, by the Government Printing Office, Washington; reprinted 1987 by Historical Times, Inc., Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17105. Citation includes series, volume and page numbers.
© Terry Foenander.
May, 2006.