CSN Officers' Deaths Outside the U.S.

Deaths of Confederate States Naval Officers Outside the Continental U.S.

by Terry Foenander.

This brief article is written in an attempt to correct the common misconception that there was only one officer of the Confederate States Navy, namely Simeon Cummings, of the CSS Alabama, who died outside the confines of the continental United/Confederate States during the Civil War. I have seen this error on at least one previous occasion in a Civil War publication, and recently the error has been repeated in the August, 2001, issue of the prestigious magazine, Civil War Times Illustrated. The statement is included in a letter to the editor, by Wally Reid of Cape Town, South Africa. He actually states that "In fact, the only Civil War death outside of the United States occurred here [in South Africa]," referring to the accidental shooting death of Simeon Cummings on a hunting expedition ashore.

I am no expert on the Confederate States Navy, but my quest for knowledge has led me to locate the names of at least two, and perhaps more CS Naval officers who died outside the United States, and are buried at the locations of their deaths.

We can start by counting those Confederate officers who were killed in the famed battle between the CSS Alabama and the USS Kearsarge, in June, 1864. David Herbert Llewellyn was the surgeon on the vessel, and drowned in the sinking of the vessel. William Robinson was carpenter and was wounded in the action and taken captive aboard the USS Kearsarge. He died aboard that vessel, and is buried at Cherbourg, France. [1]

At the end of August, 1862, third assistant engineer John Seeley, of the CSS Florida, died of fever, at the port of Cardenas, in Cuba. The journal of John Newland Maffitt indicates that his remains, together with those of several others who had also succumbed to the fever were interred at that port. [2]

Assistant Paymaster Junius J. Lynch, also of the CSS Florida, died of consumption in July, 1863, and his remains were interred at Bermuda. [3] Another officer of this vessel, Assistant Surgeon Joseph D. Grafton, is noted as having drowned off the aptly named Unlucky Island, in the Rocas group, on May 29, 1863. The journal entry does not indicate if his body was recovered, but if it was, it would most certainly have been buried at the Rocas group. [4]

An article by this author also gives the particulars of the drowning death of midshipman William B. Sinclair, junior, and, although it was some distance off the coast of the north eastern United States, it would still have been outside the United States.

These are only the names that currently come to mind, but certainly they can be considered as proving the statement in error, that Simeon Cummings, was the "only Civil War death outside of the United States," be it officer or enlisted man of the Confederate States Navy. It is to be hoped that this error will be seen for what it is.

Reference Sources:

[1] Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, series 1, volume 3, pages 649 and 654.

[2] Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, series 1, volume 1, page 766..

[3] See the entry of July 9, 1863, in the journal of engineer Charles W. Quinn, CSS Florida, a copy of which is in the possession of this author; original held by the Eleanor S. Brockenbrough Library, Museum of the Confederacy, Richmond, Virginia.

[4] As noted in the diary entry of May 30, 1863, of the Quinn diary, mentioned previously.

July, 2001 (Updated, August, 2001).