Somewhere off the western coast of Latin America, the C.S.S. SHENANDOAH met the H.M.S. BARRACOUTA. Although the BARRACOUTA was authorized to seize the commerce raider as a prize, the captain of the BARRACOUTA instead let SHENANDOAH sail on after he had informed Captain Waddell that the Civil War had indeed ended in the Spring. The BARRACOUTA’s Master also advised Waddell that SHENANDOAH had been declared a brigand vessel under the Law of The Sea, and was now being hunted by several nations for a rich cash prize.
Waddell, who had ignored rumors about the end of the war for many weeks, decided this time to believe the British Captain. He ordered the Confederate Navy Jack struck as the two ships parted company.
Although the hunted ship could have safely and easily put into any port on the western coast of South America within days, Waddell decided (against explicit orders and against all measures of sanity) to sail back to England. Waddell chose to dare the Roaring Forties, sail into the teeth of the Austral winter, round the Horn, and sail 17,000 miles back to Britain rather than merely head east for Callao or Valparaiso in order to complete a circumnavigation and enter the history books.
As an outlaw vessel, SHENANDOAH could not put into port for supplies or repairs and could not take any more prizes without courting piracy. Already in dire straits when Waddell made his seemingly irrational decision, SHENANDOAH became “a perfect hell afloat.”
Her last prize dated back to late June. By this day in August, stores were running low. The ship was severely overmanned with its own crew to feed, plus the crews, officers, and other passengers of its prizes. Despite saner options Waddell turned the once-proud vessel into a prison ship, even a floating madhouse as it traveled onward, back to its beginning.
The Order was given and the Colors came down. SHENANDOAH was doomed to travel Stateless, hoping not to cross the paths of any U.S. Navy ships actively seeking to sink her. Against all odds, she reached her destination.
The Confederate Jack rose and fell one last time when the battered craft docked at Merseyside on November 6, 1865.
Even as SHENANDOAH struck her colors in the Pacific, a half a world away in the heart of the North American continent, glum-faced Confederates gathered in front of the Caddo Parish Courthouse in Shreveport, Louisiana to watch as at noontime the last Blood-Stained Banner, faded and dusty, lowered to the ground, was carried off by a soldier wearing blue, ultimately to become a memento of a time gone by.
They said nothing as the flag of the United States of America fluttered up the flagpole for the first time since 1860, there to remain forever.
*This blogpost of August the second 1865 is the last regular daily post of the ONCE A CIVIL WAR blog. Future entries will not be on a day-by-day basis but will commemorate specific dates and occurrences. It has been a pleasure "walking through the war" with you all.
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