James Coffey.
by Terry Foenander.
There was never any doubt, from the very beginning, that the James Coffey, buried at the Dunwich Asylum Cemetery, on North Stradbroke Island, Queensland, was a totally different person from the Confederate Navy sailor, James Coffee. The evidence was clearly shown in several documents, and in statements made by the descendant of Coffey, one Michael Forrest, yet American Civil War Round Table of Queensland member, James Mason Gray, chose to ignore all this evidence, or failed to elicit further evidence that was supposed to be forthcoming, before rushing ahead pell-mell to order a Veterans Administration grave plaque for Coffey. Once again, as in at least two previous cases, this order was made without any proper proof of service, and almost certainly resorting to dishonesty, just so these grave markers could be obtained.
Mr. Gray had stated, when he first plagiarised the work of many other researchers, in early 2005, that his intention was to “correct and verify” this original work. Yet his numerous failures to abide by these intentions has resulted in a massive burden to United States taxpayers, as well as the spreading, throughout cyberspace, of so much inaccurate and sometimes downright false data, that it is going to take more than a lifetime to correct all these falsehoods. Unfortunately, as well, many persons are unable to verify Mr. Gray’s so called “facts” and are very unlikely to take the trouble to obtain proper official documentation that will show the many inaccuracies in Gray’s unresearched biographies. Most of these biographies consist of passages lifted, often word for word, from the work of others, published on the Internet and in various volumes. Mr. Gray himself had claimed, in the past, that, as long as he changed a word or two in these passages, that they cannot be considered as being plagiarised, which shows the extent of his knowledge on plagiarism and literary theft. Not only is he incredibly bereft in such knowledge, but he also seems totally unaware of the proper history of the Civil War, often making very simple mistakes in his biographies, that every American schoolchild should be aware of. Perhaps Mr. Gray failed to attend school in his younger years, as, according to himself, he was a veteran of the Second World War, despite his being born in 1939. One correspondent of mine mentioned, sarcastically, that perhaps Gray was in his cradle at Pearl Harbor, when it was bombed in 1941, thus entitling him to classify himself as a veteran of the war!!
Anyway, to move on to the evidence that proves James Coffey, buried at Dunwich, was not the Confederate Navy sailor, James Coffee, we should first peruse the death certificate of James Coffey. It clearly states that, at the time of his death, on October 26, 1896, at the Benevolent Asylum, Dunwich, Coffey had been born in Kerry, Ireland, and that he had been 33 years in Queensland. This would make his arrival in Queensland, as having occurred in 1863. A check of the arrival records, for passengers arriving in Queensland, further confirms this data, showing that James Coffie had arrived aboard the Golden Dream, from Queenstown, Ireland, at Brisbane on May 28, 1863. A journey of that length, in those days, took about three months, and the Brisbane newspaper, the Courier, of Friday, May 29, 1863, confirms this even further, showing that the Black Ball company ship, the Golden Dream, of 1454 tons, captain Griffiths commanding, had left Liverpool, England, on the 12th of February, 1863, and stopped over at Queenstown, Ireland, on February 19th, 1863, picking up immigrants for Australia, James Coffey obviously being one of these immigrants.
The difference in surnames, Coffey, buried at Dunwich, and Coffee, the Confederate Navy sailor, should have been sufficient to arouse at least a small bit of suspicion that perhaps they were not one and the same person, but the arrival in Queensland, from Ireland, of Coffey in May, 1863, should have been a major factor to indicate that something was definitely not quite right, as the Confederate Navy sailor, James Coffee, was, in May, 1863, serving aboard the Confederate tender, the Clarence, with several other sailors from the cruiser, the CSS Florida, and under the command of second lieutenant Charles William Read. These sailors, Coffee included, later used two other vessels as tenders, first the Tacony, then the Archer, before quietly seizing the revenue cutter, Caleb Cushing, in the harbor of Portland, Maine. Read and his men, in trying to escape from Portland harbor, were hotly pursued by Federal ships, but there was never any so called “Battle of Portland” as so vividly described in Mr. Gray’s inaccurate account. Read and his mob, when surrounded by Federal ships, chose instead to burn the cutter, and took to the boats, but were captured shortly after. They obviously much preferred to surrender than to fight it out bravely. All captives, including Coffee, were eventually sent on to Fort Warren, and he remained there until the end of the war. A journal by one of the members of Read’s party confirms that Coffee was amongst the group captured and sent first to Portland, and later moved to Fort Warren. Additionally, the Fort Warren POW registers and correspondence, a copy on microfilm which is in the possession of this author, confirms fully that Coffee was held at the facility till the end of the war, and most certainly could not have been the same person who was in Queensland at the time. All these avenues of research were totally ignored by Mr. Gray, when he jumped to the conclusion that James Coffey, buried in Dunwich, and James Coffee, the Confederate sailor, were both one and the same person.
As well, documentation, promised to Mr. Gray, was never sent, and Gray went ahead, anyway, without waiting for these confirming items, if they ever existed, and applied for the memorial plaque from the VA. And I do believe that these documents were never ever sent, especially since they don’t exist at all, no doubt. All researchers know their full responsibilities, which Mr. Gray seems totally unaware of – that, to be absolutely sure of any oral history, one needs confirming documentation. Oral history is often embellished to the point that nothing can be totally believed, unless there is supporting documentation, otherwise, what I like to call the “Gettysburg syndrome” sets in. There are so many veterans of the Civil War, and even some non-veterans, who like to claim that they had been at Gettysburg, during the battle, and, if all these oral accounts are believed, there would have been millions of soldiers, north and south, covering the entire battlefield of Gettysburg, and perhaps the entire state of Pennsylvania. Researchers are placed on this earth to sort the wheat from the chaff, but wannabe “researchers” such as Mr. Gray, would much prefer to throw in the whole kit, wheat, chaff and all, thus ensuring completely false accounts, from beginning to end.
Mr. Gray would much rather prefer to plagiarise the hard work and research of others, including this author’s own work, than to indulge in his so called research by “correcting and verifying”, as indicated by at least one passage in Gray’s James Coffey biography:
***From Gray’s biography of Coffey, buried at Dunwich: “Some indicate he was a Chaplain on the Tacony, however, all documented sources show his rating was that of a seaman, and there is no official evidence that any Chaplain was ever appointed in the Confederate States Navy, despite the Confederate Congress passing a bill to allow for such appointments.”
***From this author’s Confederate Navy listing, showing at the entry for Confederate sailor, James Coffee: "....a captioned image indicates that he was a Chaplain on the Tacony, however, all documented sources show his rating as a seaman, and there is no official evidence that any Chaplain was appointed in the Confederate States Navy, despite the Confederate Congress passing a bill to allow for such appointments.”
As he stated he would do, thus ensuring that he would not be considered as a plagiarist, he has changed a word or two, removed one or two words, and nothing more, but everything else remains the same. This occurs time and time again in Gray’s biographies. Whole passages are stolen and used without permission, images are doctored to escape detection (poorly, in most cases, thanks to his partner in crime), and incorrect facts are added just so that people will fail to see his methods.
The date of James Coffey’s arrival in Queensland, is a perfect example of the lengths that Mr. Gray would go to, to fudge the facts, when faced with a dilemma. Despite the fact that both the death certificate of James Coffey, as well as passenger lists both show his arrival in Queensland as being in 1863, Mr. Gray, when advised by secretary of the American Civil War Round Table of Australia, Mr. Barry Crompton, that it was inconsistent with the facts about the Confederate Navy sailor, James Coffee, who was still aboard the tender Clarence, at that time, and was later imprisoned in Fort Warren until the end of the war, decided to change the date to suit his version of the facts, and stated that James Coffey arrived in Queensland in May, 1865.
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Anyway, to return to the Coffee case, the last piece of evidence, from the 1870 United States census records for Louisiana, should prove, once and for all, that if the proper research had been indulged in, the true facts of James Coffey, and James Coffee would have been known, and a Veterans Administration grave marker would not have been applied for, improperly. The offending marker now sits in an unknown location that Gray knows of, and, thankfully, not at the Dunwich Asylum cemetery. Meanwhile, the United States government continues to pay for such improperly, and dishonestly obtained items, world-wide. A book titled, Lies Across America, published in the United States in the last decade or so, gives an account of such dishonesty, just in the United States alone, but we know it also occurs here in Australia, as well.
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Page Created, June, 2008 (Updated August, 2008).