William Marvel's "CSS Alabama" Crew List:

An Appraisal of the Sources.

by Terry Foenander.

The crew list of the CSS Alabama, as shown in William Marvel's excellent publication, "The Alabama and the Kearsarge: The Sailor's Civil War," although not quite complete, does contain, in almost all the entries, some very basic data. Some of these entries, especially those for most of the officers of the cruiser, show additional data, which can, in some cases, be found in other published sources, and sometimes in newspapers, unpublished memoirs, journals and letters, and other primary sources. Thus, it should be abundantly clear to every serious student of the Naval war, and the Confederate States Navy in particular, that no one person, or source, can rightfully claim full credit for all the data shown therein. With this in mind, a proper reading of Marvel's introduction, the notes supplied and the bibliography shown in the volume, will indicate correctly that the author had properly cited his sources, and supplied the correct information to allow the reader access to these other sources, especially the published sources.

It should be noted that there are, of course, errors in these listings of the crew members of the CSS Alabama, but that is irrelevant to the gist of this article, as will be abundantly clear to any reader. The purpose of this particular article, is to provide the reader with the proper knowledge that the sources cited in Marvel's volume have been correctly and properly shown all along, in spite of the often absurd claims of one English gentleman in particular, who tried to advise all and sundry that he was the source of all this data on the crew members. I do admit that the claimant was indeed responsible for some (not ALL, nor any large part) of the data shown. The evidence to show that Marvel had indeed cited the correct sources, that he had used, will be shown within this article.

William Marvel, in the preface to his volume, indicates that he had commenced research on the subject in 1979, years before the English claimant had done so (as indicated in the claimant's own letters to this author, and also on a Message Board, on the Internet), and Marvel had, at that time, been to the United Kingdom, for this research. Furthermore, the bibliographical listing in his volume shows numerous published and unpublished sources for his research, many of these from which he would have obtained the basic data on the crew members of the CSS Alabama, and others which would have provided some additional data. Just a cursory glance at the bibliography, and with some knowledge of the collections held by some of the repositories listed, would show that a large amount of the data on the crew members was, without a doubt, obtained from these sources. Yet, the claimant would have everyone believe that he was the SOLE contributor for ALL the data on these crew members. (In recent times he has tried to deny claiming credit for ALL the data on the crew members, yet I have his letters, dated in early 2001, to prove otherwise, and will gladly release copies to show this as evidence, amongst other matters that he has contradicted.)

As an example, let us take the University of Alabama collection of CSS Alabama material. Every serious student of the CSS Alabama (and I certainly cannot previously claim to have been a serious student of this vessel) knows, for sure, that they hold some of the largest amount of, and certainly some of the most important documentation, both primary and secondary, on this cruiser. The William Stanley Hoole collection, in itself, contains enough material to keep a researcher occupied for some period of time. Additionally, there are other collections of material on the CSS Alabama in other repositories within the United States alone, some of which are quite substantial. Duke University in North Carolina holds some post-CSS Alabama sinking data from the journal of one of the officers, and the Samuel Barron papers, held at a repository in Virginia, includes data on crew members and their disposition following the sinking. These are just some of the few examples of the information available on the vessel, her crew, and the subsequent movements of these personnel, immediately following the sinking off Cherbourg, France, on June 19, 1864. John Low, who was one of the officers on the CSS Alabama, and who later commanded the tender, Tuscaloosa, is adequately documented in some of Hoole's own published works, and in other sources, yet the claimant had tried to state, to at least one correspondent of this author, that he should bear credit for researching Low. Everyone who reads these works, as well as others, would most certainly know that all data on Low, from birth to death is documented therein. Perhaps the claimant may have managed to locate the final resting place of Low (which would almost certainly have been known to others, as well), but this is definitely the only piece of data he would have known about, that is probably not shown in other published sources.

Just a cursory check of some of the published sources mentioned in the Marvel bibliography will reveal that almost all the information on the crew members shown in that volume was extracted from those sources. Here are some examples (and these are only examples obtained from this author's own collections; who knows how much more would be available in other sources not to hand):

Lists of personnel of the CSS Alabama, their ranks or ratings, and their immediate disposition after the sinking of the cruiser, off Cherbourg, France, June 19, 1864, is shown in the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion (better known as the ORN), series 1, volume 3, pages 70, 72, 75-76, 653 and 654. Additionally, the continuing journal of the vessel (by Semmes), in volumes 1, 2 and 3 of the same series includes mention of a number of the crew members, discharges, desertions, promotions and reductions in rank, and other important information on the crew.

One or more volumes of the 1872 publication, The Case of Great Britain as Laid Before the Tribunal of Arbitration, Convened at Geneva, etc., covering the claims for compensation against the British government for damages caused by the cruisers built in the United Kingdom, such as the CSS Alabama, CSS Shenandoah, etc., include some important data on quite a few, if not all of, the crew members of the CSS Alabama, such as the nativity of these sailors, including the English born personnel. Data shown includes the actual cities or towns they came from, and some data on occupation, service in the British Navy or Coast Volunteers, etc. See especially volume 1 of this three volume set, pages 468-470, 475-478, 480, 481, 485. There are also accounts included by Clarence Randolph Yonge, and crew member John Latham, as well as a list of the officers and crew members picked up by the yacht Deerhound (page 638, volume 1), and a list of the personnel of the tender Tuscaloosa (page 592, volume 1). Volume 3 of this set also includes some other data on personnel of the CSS Alabama, including some information on David Leggett and George Forrest.

Arthur Sinclair's 1895 (reprinted by the Naval Institute Press in 1989) publication, Two Years on the Alabama includes a roster of the personnel of the CSS Alabama (with the exception of three names), some showing their ranks, and other data. Additional data on several of the crew members is interspersed throughout the volume. Although there are errors in this volume, there is much of importance, shown for the benefit of the researcher.

The Journal of George Townley Fullam, Boarding Officer of the Confederate Sea Raider Alabama, edited by Charles G. Summersell, published in 1973, also includes much important information on the crew members, not only within the text of the journal itself, but also shown in the numerous notations throughout the volume.

All the works mentioned above include more than enough information to enable one to compile a basic roster of the personnel of the cruiser. It is quite obvious that William Marvel used these works for information to include in his publication, as well as other volumes mentioned within his bibliography, which would have yielded much more important information on the officers and crew. For anyone to claim credit for all this data, freely available from so many published works, and, at several repositories within the United States, is almost tantamount to plagiarism. Yet there are those who would deny Marvel any justice by insinuating that he was practically incapable of doing his own research (as the English claimant has so often done). It is fairly obvious that anyone making such an absurd claim has no knowledge of the large amount of data on the crew members available within the above-named works, as well as the other publications listed in Marvel's bibliography. As well those who tend to support these claims, that Marvel's work was a huge lie, have obviously not even bothered to check the published sources available, and have tended to support the claims of one or more individuals, that the data shown on ALL the crew members as listed in Marvel's work was only the work of these individuals. If even a cursory check had been instigated in some of the material listed at the Marvel bibliography, it would have been so obvious to any researcher that no one person can claim credit for all the data shown on the crew members listed, but such a check was not even attempted. This should serve as a warning to all serious students, or researchers of the Civil War Navies, not to place too much reliance on the word of any individual who attempts to make claims for credit on any data relating to personnel of the Confederate Navy, such as this one individual had done for the crew members of the CSS Alabama. The true "lie" has been exposed, and I urge anyone interested in the subject to check the sources indicated above, as well as many other sources, as listed in Marvel's bibliography, to verify all the evidence.

If any researcher does not have easy access to the publications noted above, to check the evidence proving that Marvel had obviously obtained most of his data on the crew of the CSS Alabama from these sources, and not, in particular, from one glory seeking English gentleman, I will be most happy to send copies of the relevant pages to anyone who requests these for further scrutiny. I would also strongly advise researchers to also check some of the other sources, as listed in Marvel's bibliography, as, without a doubt, these other sources would also yield much data on the crew of the Alabama.

Sadly, the claimant had tried to divert attention to these errors and misconceptions, relating to the true sources of William Marvel's data on the crew members of the CSS Alabama, but in attempting this diversionary tactic, he contradicted many of his own previous statements. Revelations of numerous errors and misleading statements in this claimant's articles on Clarence Randolph Yonge, paymaster of the CSS Alabama, William Param Brooks, one of the engineers of the cruiser, and other crew members, show that complete reliance on his data would be rather risky, at best. Some of his articles do not even include any references to sources of his data, thus preventing the reader from checking up on the facts (or distortion of the facts).

William Marvel had correctly cited the sources of his information within the preface in his volume, and gave more than enough credit to the English claimant, yet this English claimant, desperate for much more glory, had often maligned the name of Marvel by seeking to gain more credit than he deserved. He was even able to convince many others of his knowledge and that he, and not Marvel was the source of the data on the crew. Sadly no one, previously, had taken the initiative, and investigated these absurd claims any further, choosing instead to accept him at his word. The true "lie" has now been exposed, and the evidence is freely available for those who choose to investigate further. For all others who would rather believe the word of the English claimant, it is their own choice, and they will live with this lie.

© Terry Foenander.

August, 2004.