USS Constellation on the Dismal Coast , livre ebook

USS Constellation on the Dismal Coast
Studies in Maritime History
William N. Still, Jr., Series Editor
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John P. Holland, 1841-1914: Inventor of the Modern Submarine
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Cockburn and the British Navy in Transition: Admiral Sir George Cockburn, 1772-1853
Roger Morriss
The Royal Navy in European Waters during the American Revolutionary War
David Syrett
Sir John Fisher s Naval Revolution
Nicholas A. Lambert
Forty-Niners round the Horn
Charles R. Schultz
The Abandoned Ocean
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Northern Naval Superiority and the Economics of the American Civil War
David G. Surdam
Ironclads and Big Guns of the Confederacy: The Journal and Letters of John M. Brooke
Edited by George M. Brooke, Jr.
High Seas and Yankee Gunboats: A Blockade-Running Adventure from the Diary of James Dickson
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Dead Men Tell No Tales: The Lives and Legends of the Pirate Charles Gibbs
Joseph Gibbs
Playships of the World: The Naval Diaries of Admiral Dan Gallery, 1920-1924
Edited by Robert Shenk
Captains Contentious: The Dysfunctional Sons of the Brine
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Lewis Coolidge and the Voyage of the Amethyst, 1806-1811
Evabeth Miller Kienast and John Phillip Felt
Promotion-or the Bottom of the Rive r
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USS Constellation on the Dismal Coast: Willie Leonard s Journal, 1859-186 1 Edited by C. Herbert Gilliland
USS CONSTELLATION
ON THE DISMAL COAST

Willie Leonard s Journal, 1859-1861
Edited by C. Herbert Gilliland The University

The University of South Carolina Press
2013 C. Herbert Gilliland
Published by the University of South Carolina Press
Columbia, South Carolina 29208
www.sc.edu/uscpress
22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
L IBRARY OF C ONGRESS C ATALOGING-IN -P UBLICATION D ATA
Leonard, William Ambrose, 1837-1889.
USS Constellation on the Dismal Coast : Willie Leonard s journal, 1859-1861 / edited by C. Herbert Gilliland.
pages cm-(Studies in maritime history)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61117-289-8 (hardback)-isbn 978-1-61117-290-4 (e-book)
1. Leonard, William Ambrose, 1837-1889-Diaries. 2. Slave trade-Africa, West- History-19th century. 3. Antislavery movements-United States-History- 19th century. 4. Constellation (Frigate)-History. 5. United States. Navy. African Squadron. 6. United States. Navy-Sea life-History-19th century. i. Gilliland, C. Herbert, editor. ii. Title.
HT 1332.l46 2013
306.3 620966 09034- DC 23 2013019618
Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Editorial Method

Prologue

June 1859

July 1859

August 1859

September 1859

October 1859

November 1859

December 1859

January 1860

February 1860

March 1860

April 1860

May 1860

June 1860

July 1860

August 1860

September 1860

October 1860

November 1860

December 1860

January 1861

February 1861

March 1861

April 1861

May 1861

June 1861

July 1861

August 1861

September 1861

October 1861

Epilogue

Notes

Bibliography

Index
Illustrations
Maps
African Squadron cruising area
African Squadron Congo patrol area, 1860-61
Figures
USS Constellation gun deck
USS Constellation berth deck
USS Constellation spar deck
Charlestown Navy Yard
USS Constellation under way
Madame Ferreira s house on Prince s Island
St. Paul de Loanda
The U.S. Navy storehouse at St. Paul de Loanda
Lt. Donald McNeill Fairfax
USS Portsmouth
Typical page from Leonard s journal
USS Niagara
HMS Arrogant
The capture of the slave bark Cora
Boatswain John Hunter
Jamestown, St. Helena
USS Saratoga
Clipper ship Nightingale
USS San Jacinto
Flag Officer William Inman
William French
William French
Alexander Colden Rhind
Leonard s journal for the Fourth of July 1861
USS Constellation with studding sails set alow and aloft
The Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Navy Yard
Acknowledgments
This book would not have been published without the generous permission of William Leonard s descendant, Paul Sweeney, who still possesses the manuscript journal. Stan Berry and John Pentangelo meticulously prepared the working transcript. In addition John Pentangelo, former curator of the Constellation , read a preliminary draft and helped in many ways. Kate Dullnig, Michael P. Parker, and John Schroeder cheerfully read preliminary drafts and gave valuable advice. Chris Rowsom, director of Historic Ships of Baltimore, first suggested I look at the Leonard journal and has given steadfast support. Chris Robinson prepared the maps. The staff of the Naval Academy s Nimitz Library, including my daughter Alice Gilliland, was unfailingly helpful in many ways. Dale Cockrell lent his expertise on minstrel performances. Tony Hughes-Lewis and his cleaning lady, Vanda, helped clarify various questions about Madeira. The Huntington Library provided a copy of Captain Dornin s journal, with permission to quote.
At Historic Ships of Baltimore, Dayna Aldridge has been a tremendous help in verifying textual specifics.
Preparation of this edition was in part assisted by a sabbatical grant from the U.S. Naval Academy.
My wife, Carol, and my daughters, Anne-Marie, Alexandra, Elizabeth, and Alice, all expressed unfailing interest and support.
Editorial Method
William A. Leonard s journal of his cruise on the Constellation was written in an ordinary leather-spined blank book, 12.5 inches tall by 9 inches wide and 2 inches thick. He and others entered poetry, family information, and other material in it for decades afterward, but he bought it originally with the specific plan of recording his experiences aboard a ship of the U.S. Navy. The Constellation journal occupies the first four hundred pages of the book. The book has been kept in the family and is now (2012) in the possession of a direct descendant, Paul Sweeney.
Leonard s occasional remarks directly to the reader make it very clear that he intended his journal to be published at least to the extent of being read by friends and family. He saw himself as a reporter, and in that capacity at times made special efforts to seek out and obtain information, as when he lists all the officers of the ship or all of the possible mess bill items. I have edited his work in the firm belief that he would want it to be as accessible and attractive to readers as possible. What follows is Leonard s title page for his journal:
Items and Incidents
in the
cruise of the
United States Flag Ship Constellation
on the
West Coast of Africa
in the years
1859, 1860 and 1861
kept by
William Ambrose Leonard
of
Bunker Hill,
Charlestown,
Mass.
June 13th
1859
W.A. Leonard
My basic approach to editing William Leonard s journal has been to (1) keep all of his words; (2) modify the spelling, punctuation, and paragraphing in general (though not absolute) accordance with present publishing standards; (3) add comments and notes helpful to the ordinary twenty-first-century reader. My comments are interspersed within the original material to provide the reader as smooth and unified a reading experience as possible. I imagine the reader standing on the Constellation s deck with Leonard, seeing and hearing what he sees and hears, while I whisper helpful information into the reader s ear.
The only words omitted in this edition of Leonard s journal are half a dozen words that he accidentally repeated, plus the running headlines at the top of every page, typically reading something like Cruise of the U S Sloop of War Constellation Flagship of the Africa Squadron 1861. Because the pagination in this edition differs from that of the manuscript, keeping the headlines as they were would have been very cumbersome and intrusive. Additionally the summary comments for each day that now appear printed at the beginning of a day s entry have been moved from the margins in the original manuscript.
Leonard s usual punctuation was the comma, or at least marks that look like commas. The present editor has altered the punctuation to make it closer to standard practice, which has involved deciding (among other things) where sentences begin and end. At times a comma has been left where standard practice would not have permitted it, in order to maintain Leonard s rhythm of thought.
Leonard did not paragraph, but the present editor has made many paragraph breaks where appropriate.
Leonard was a fairly good speller, but corrections to his spelling have been silently made to bring it more into accord with standard spelling.
Like most writers of his day, Leonard was far more generous with capitals than