LAST SHOTS

The last Confederate forces in the Civil War didn’t surrender in the spring of 1865 or on a battlefield.

- Marcia Amidon

They surrendered on November 6, 1865, in Liverpool, England. How is that possible?

The story begins with the start of the Civil War. After South Carolina seceded from the Union in December 1860, Confederate naval secretary Stephen Mallory sent agents to England to purchase ships secretly. He knew that there would be a shortage of fast, seaworthy vessels for the Confederate navy.

Fast forward to 1864. A Confederate agent arranged the purchase of the British Sea King, a state-of-the-art clipper. The ship had an iron frame and a coal-burning steam engine that powered a propeller. It also had an unusual feature: The propeller could be raised up into the hull to reduce drag and allow the ship to go faster under sail. As a result, the ship could travel at a speed of 12 knots under steam and 16 knots under sail.

Union officials had warned British leaders against allowing the Confederacy to purchase ships and weapons, so the transfer of the Sea King was done secretly. The vessel slipped out of Liverpool on October 8, 1864, to rendezvous with a Confederate steamer in a remote area of the Madeira Islands off the coast of Africa in the North Atlantic Ocean. The Confederate ship carried a crew and heavy weapons to help convert the clipper into a warship. The clipper was fitted with six cannon and two signal guns and was re-commissioned as the CSS