be within the personal recollection of the several gentlemen, members of the Tribunal, that in the British ports the base of insurgent operations; a partial hospitality surgents; a branch of their year 1860 the world was dependent upon the fields shown to the inof the insurgent States for a large portion of its sup- Government established in Liv ply of cotton, and that, when the blockade was es- erpool; their Govtablished by the United States, a large part of the crop of 1860 was still unexported.' This, and all subsequent crops that might be produced during ernment vessels officially aided in evading the block ade and in fur nishing them with arms, munitions, and means for car gle. the struggle, would yield their value in gold as soon rying on the strugas landed in Liverpool. The insurgent agents took advantage of this fact. They secured, through their assumed authority as a Government, the control of so much as might be necessary for their purposes, and they early made arrangements for a credit in Liverpool upon the faith of it. The firm of Fraser, Trenholm & It so happened that there was at Charleston, at that time, a well-established commercial house, Co. doing business under the name of John Fraser & Co. The head of this firm was George A Trenholm, of Charleston. Another prominent member "It was estimated that only about 750,000 bales at most of the crop of 1860 remained on hand in the South when the blockade began. The crop of 1861 was about 2,750,000 bales-a little more than half the total quantity consumed in 1860-and this supply, or so much of it as could be properly picked, cleaned, and baled, would, together with what remained from the previous year, have been available for exportation in the winter and spring of 1861-62. The quantity actually sent abroad, however, up to July or August, 1862, was reckoned not to exceed 50,000 bales, the great bulk of which, but not the whole, went to England.”—Bernard's Neutrality of Great Britain, page 286. ser, Trenholm & Co. The firm of Fra- was Charles K. Prioleau, also a citizen of the United States. Before or about the time the insurrection broke out, and, as the United States believe, in anticipation of it, this house established a branch in Liverpool, under the name of Fraser, Trenholm & Co. Prioleau was dispatched thither to take charge of the Liverpool business, and became, for purposes that may easily be imagined, a naturalized British subject. George A. Trenholm remained in Charleston, and, in due course of time, became the Secretary of the insurgent Treasury, and a member of the so-called Government at Richmond. An arrangement was made by which the cotton of the insurgent authorities was to be sent to Fraser, Trenholm & Co., to be drawn against by the purchasing agents of the insurgents.' The first amount (five hundred thousand dollars) was placed to their credit in Liverpool, somewhere about the month of May, or early in June, 1861; and, under the name of "depositories," Fraser, Trenholm & Co. remained a branch of the Treasury of the insurgent Government. 1" Of twenty steamers, which were said to have been kept plying in 1863 between Nassau and two of the blockaded ports, seven belonged to a mercantile firm at Charleston, who had a branch-house at Liverpool, and through whom the Confederate Government transacted its business in England." "The name of the Charleston firm was John Fraser & Co.; that of the Liverpool house, Fraser, Trenholm & Co. Of the five members of the house, four, I believe, were South Carolinians, and one a British subject."-Bernard's Neutrality of Great Britain, page 239 and note. The British subject referred to by Mr. Bernard was Prioleau, naturalized for the purpose. ser, Trenholm & Thus there was early established in Great The firm of FraBritain a branch of the War Department of the in- Co. surgents, a branch of their Navy Department, and a branch of their Treasury, each with almost plenary powers. These things were done openly and notoriously. The persons and places of business of these several agents were well known to the communities in which they lived, and must have been familiar to the British officials. If there was any pretense of concealment in the outset, it was soon abandoned. On the 22d of July, 1861, Huse writes to the officer in charge of the insurgent Ordnance Department, complaining of the activity of the agents of the United States in watching and thwarting his movements. "It is difficult," he says, "for a stranger to keep his actions secret when spies are on his path." He says that he shall have ready, by the 1st of August, some of the goods that had been ordered on the 17th of the previous April, and more by the 1st of October, and that "the shipping of the articles will be left in the hands of the Navy Department."1 On the 18th of September, the steamer "Bermuda" ran the blockade, and arrived at Savannah with "arms and munitions on board." Huse to Gorgas, Vol. VI, page 33. She came 2 Lawton to Cooper, 20th September, 1861, Vol. VI, page 36. The firm of Fra- from Fraser, Trenholm & Co., consigned to John Fraser & Co. Information of the character and ser, Trenholm & Co. Character of the blockaded coast. purposes of this steamer, and of the nature of her freight had been given to Lord Russell by Mr. Adams on the 15th of the previous August,' and he had declined to "interfere with the clearance or sailing of the vessel." On the fourth day after her arrival at Savannah, her consignees offered to charter her to the insurgents, and the offer was accepted."3 The experience of the "Bermuda," or the difficulties which she encountered in running the block. ade, seem to have induced the insurgent authorities to think that it would be well, to have some surer way for receiving the purchases made by their agents in Liverpool. The stringency of the blockade established by the United States, and the nature of the coast that was blockaded, made it necessary to have a set of agents in the West Indies also. The coast of the United States, from Chesapeake Bay to the Mexican frontier, is low, with shoaly water extending out for some distance to sea. A range of islands lies off the coast, from Florida to Charleston, and islands also lie off Wilmington and 3 Adams to Russell, Vol. I, page 760. 2 Russell to Adams, Vol. I, page 762. Benjamin to John Fraser & Co., 27th September, 1861, Vol. VI, page 37. the coast to the north of it. The waters within these islands are shallow, affording an inland navigation for vessels of light draught The passages to the sea between the islands are generally of the same character. This outlying frontier of islands, or of shallow waters, is broken at Wilmington, at Charleston, and at Savannah. At these three points large steamers can approach and leave the coast; but these points were at that time guarded by the blockading vessels of the United States, so as to make the approach difficult. Vessels not of light draught and great speed were almost certain of capture; while vessels of such draught and speed could not carry both coal and a cargo across the Atlantic. To avoid this risk it was resolved to send the purchases which might be made in England to Nassau in British bottoms, and there transship them into steamers of light draught and great speed, to be constructed for the purpose,' which could carry coal enough for the short passage into the waters that connected with either Charleston, Savannah, or Wilmington. The first order from Richmond that is known to have been given for such a shipment is dated the 22d of July, 1861.2 Character of the blockaded coast. The attention of the Tribunal of Arbitration is Geographical sit 1 Huse to Gorgas, 15th March, 1862, Vol. VI, page 69. 2 Walker to Huse and Anderson, Vol. VI, page 31. uation of Nassau and Bermuda. |