Farragut’s Captain: Percival Drayton, 1861–1865

By Peter Barratt

Captain Percival Drayton played a central role in four of the key naval engagements of the American Civil War, and as a personal friend and trusted subordinate of Admiral David Glasgow Farragut and Rear Admiral Samuel Francis du Pont, Drayton made a vital contribution to the ultimate success of the Union Navy in the struggle to maintain the Union. As the son of a noted Jacksonian Unionist obligated to leave South Carolina for Philadelphia many years before the war, Drayton was the very embodiment of the romantic war between brothers. Captain Drayton was a highly literate and intelligent observer of the world around him and the people in it. And throughout the war, he maintained a constant flow of letters to naval colleagues and friends. His letters provide a captivating insight into his service and into the personalities of many Civil War–era figures, and so his letters—and his biography—stand as a primary record of the war at sea and of the collapse of the slave system on the South Carolina coast.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Oct 16, 2018
• ISBN: 9781483487946

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BARRATT

Copyright © 2018 Peter Barratt.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of the author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

ISBN: 978-1-4834-8795-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-8794-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018907930

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 8/8/2018

Also by Peter Barratt

Circle of Fire: The USS Susquehanna in the War of the Rebellion

For my grandchildren, Jackson and Alice.

Our Captain strode to the bow,

Drayton, courtly and wise,

Kindly cynic, and wise,

(You hardly had known him now,

The flame of fight in his eyes!)

His brave heart eager to feel

How the oak would tell on the steel!

THE BAY FIGHT BY HENRY HOWARD BROWNELL

Acknowledgments

The writing of a biography requires much research. The author is grateful for the help and encouragement of the following institutions and individuals: Reference & Instruction section, Nimitz Library, US Naval Academy; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hagley Institute (for providing access to its digital files, which contain valuable correspondence between Admiral Du Pont and Percival Drayton); Robert Eberley of the Lowcountry Civil War Roundtable of South Carolina; Anne Petrimouix, assistant archivist at Trinity Church, New York; the Naval History & Heritage Center in Washington, DC; the Mount Sterling Library at the University of Kentucky (for the image of Brig. Gen. Thomas Drayton, CSA); Miss Kerry Bryan, historian and member of the Union League of Philadelphia; Richard Hatcher III, former chief historian, National Park Service, Charleston, South Carolina; Albert Skip Theberge of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Central Library; Jack Lieberman, captain, US Navy, (retired) for his contribution and support; Nigel Wilkinson, Jean Barratt, and Jill Ereira for their technical assistance; and finally, Richard O’Sullivan, Civil War historian, author, and my editor in chief, whose contribution throughout the project ensured the successful completion of this book.

Introduction: A Family Divided

This book commemorates the career of Captain Percival Drayton, USN, who played a central role in four of the key naval engagements of the American Civil War. Until now, his exploits have received scant attention, and apart from his official reports and the publication of some of his private wartime correspondence in 1906, little about him has appeared in print.

The phrase war between brothers has long been used to give a sentimental gloss to the struggle, but in Percival’s case, the phrase had a literal meaning. His brother was a Confederate general, and at the Battle of Port Royal, the two men were for a time actually shooting at each other. Their exchanges, with both cannon and pen, give an edge to a fascinating story.

The substance of the story remains the remarkable character of Percival Drayton. He was a highly literate and intelligent observer of the world around him and the people in it. Throughout the war, he maintained a constant flow of letters to naval colleagues and friends. These writings, often tinged with restrained humor, cover the period from May 1861 to August 1865, during which he was variously engaged in arming vessels, maintaining the blockade, developing ironclads, and fighting face-to-face with Confederate forces. We know this because he tells us about it. His letters provide a captivating insight into his service and into the personalities of his two immediate superiors, Admirals Du Pont and Farragut, as well as that of the inventor John Ericsson, President Lincoln, and a host of lesser figures. Drayton’s writings are an important primary record of the war at sea and of the collapse of the slave system on the South Carolina coast.

Among his confidants were his half-brother W. Heyward Drayton, a railroad engineer and prosecuting attorney; Lydig Monson Hoyt, whose father had made a fortune in the East India and China trade;¹ and Alexander Hamilton, a successful marine and insurance lawyer, whose famous grandfather and namesake had been a signatory to the Declaration of Independence.²

Percival Drayton was born on August 25, 1812, the third child and second son of William Drayton, an affluent and well-connected lawyer in Charleston, South Carolina.³ Little is known of his childhood, but it was probably a happy one. His mother died when he was barely two, but he and his siblings developed a close bond with their father’s second wife, Maria Miles Heyward, whom they always referred to as mother in their correspondence.

Percy’s father made a name for himself as an infantry colonel and later as inspector general of the army during the War of 1812 before serving two terms in Congress, representing the First District of South Carolina. Unfortunately, he then became embroiled in the Nullification Crisis of 1828–33, with long-term consequences for himself and his immediate family. Throughout the dispute, he demonstrated himself to be an outspoken defender of President Andrew Jackson and the central government, a stance that put him at odds with most of his constituents. As a consequence, his business and personal life suffered, and his position in Charleston became untenable. He and his family were obliged to move to Philadelphia, where he resumed the practice of law and engaged in banking. Following the financial depression engendered by the Panic of 1837, he assumed the running of the Second Bank of the United States in 1839. Less than two years later, he retired, dying of a heart attack on May 24, 1846.⁴

For Percival, the family’s virtual expulsion from Charleston left a lingering resentment. His future life would be devoted to upholding the federalist principles that he learned from his father and defending the Union, often at the risk of his life. He joined the United States Navy, not just to pursue a career but as a patriotic duty. It seems he also came to share his adopted state’s disapproval of slavery. Although taciturn on the subject prior to the war, his actions and comments once it had started reveal he had long made up his mind that it was an evil that would have to be eradicated.⁵

Not all of William Drayton’s family accompanied him to the City of Brotherly Love. Percy’s elder brother, Thomas, was old enough to make up his own mind and elected to remain in South Carolina, the land of his birth. From that moment, the two brothers’ lives were on ever more divergent courses. Thomas Fenwick Drayton was a remarkable man in his own right. He graduated from West Point (future Confederate president Jefferson Davis was a friend and classmate) and served as a regular army officer and later as a railroad engineer and railroad president.⁶ He was an officer of the state militia and longtime member of the South Carolina legislature, and when he married Emma Catherine Pope on February 28, 1838, he gained entry into the planter elite.⁷ By the time the war broke out, he was administering approximately $25,000 of land and 156 slaves (mostly held in trust for his seven children).⁸ Naturally, he adopted a pro-slavery, states’ rights view. Politically, Percy and he were at opposite ends of the spectrum.

Despite this, the brothers enjoyed a cordial relationship. Thomas always signed off his letters to Percival as Your affectionate brother, and it would seem that, over the years, the Northern and Southern branches of the family exchanged visits at Christmas and during vacations until the secession crisis arose to tear the country apart. Legend has it that the brothers met for the last time in St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, in Broad Street, Charleston. There they prayed for guidance, shook hands, and parted.⁹

1

The Making of a Sailor

An energetic fellow, full of zeal.

—DAVID GLASGOW FARRAGUT

B efore the first shots were fired on Fort Sumter and Percival Drayton took the decision that would render him infamous in South Carolina, he served for many years in the United States Navy, cruising the seas and oceans of the world, developing those attributes that were to stand him in such good stead between 1861 and 1865.

In December 1827, at the age of fifteen, he penned a typically succinct letter that would dictate the future course of his life, Sir, I hereby signify my acceptance of the appointment of an acting Midshipman in the Navy of the United States … I am very respectfully, your obedient servt. Percival Drayton.¹ After an initial six months of instruction at the Naval School for Midshipmen in Norfolk, Virginia, he was sent to sea to put what he had learned to the test.² Working a twelve-to sixteen-hour day, he was at the beck and call of every officer—men from whom he learned seamanship, navigation, mathematics, gunnery, and the myriad other skills involved in the handling of a sailing warship. When off watch, he shared Spartan and communal quarters situated amidships just forward of the gun room, with other midshipmen and steerage officers.

There were no shortcuts to advancement as an officer in the peacetime United States Navy. A man had to be physically fit, patient, loyal, and ever willing to learn and to serve. He had also to learn to command. Drayton rose to the challenge during a career spanning thirty-seven years. For much of that time, he was at sea, giving practical application to his considerable intelligence. Prior to his promotion to the rank of commander in October 1855, he saw two tours of duty with the Brazilian Squadron in the South Atlantic (1828–30 and 1839–42), four tours with the Mediterranean Squadron (1831–32, 1835–38, 1849–50 and 1850–52), one in the Pacific Ocean (1842–43), and one in the East Indies (1845–48).

On the Brazilian Station, operating out of Rio de Janeiro, he served first as a midshipman on the frigate Hudson, returning later as a lieutenant on the schooner Enterprise. These vessels were engaged in protecting American merchantmen on their journeys south to the Pacific or Indian Oceans. His two years in the Pacific, operating out of Callao and Valparaiso on the schooner Yorktown, involved similar duties.

The Mediterranean Station was in some respects less demanding. One officer wryly noted that to be ordered there was simply to be included as a member of a perpetual yachting party.³ Nevertheless, Drayton made the most of the opportunities offered. He wrote to his father with impressions of Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Turkey and clearly fell in love with Europe as he took six months’ leave to return there in 1848. On and off duty, he honed his language skills. The diary he kept while on the 544-ton thirty-gun frigate John Adams in 1831–32 was written entirely in French, and during his 1835–38 tour as a midshipman on the famous Constitution, his fluency in both French and German led to his being employed frequently as an interpreter.⁴ Regrettably, his relationship with his commander, Captain Jesse Elliott, soured when a fellow midshipman, Charles C. Barton, and other junior officers accused Elliott of tyranny and oppression. I am sorry to say that our noble commander does not improve on acquaintance, wrote Percival to his father on December 1, 1835, he is without doubt one of the brutes of [the] service, he has quarrelled with every officer on board and some of them have been abused in the greatest manner.⁵ Displaying considerable strength of character, Percival sided with Barton, putting his career at risk for what he thought was right. It was perhaps fortunate for the young officers that Elliott turned out to have been accepting gifts from

01tiff.tif

Midshipman Percival Drayton—a society portrait painted around 1827 by English artist Thomas Sully. (Historical Society of Pennsylvania)

foreign representatives in contravention of Navy Department rules. He was recalled to Washington, court-martialed, and found guilty of Oppression and cruelty [and] Scandalous Conduct, tending to the destruction of good morals.⁶

The most significant cruise Drayton participated in during his antebellum service occurred in 1845 when he secured a berth as one of four lieutenants on the seventy-four-gun ship of the line Columbus, the flagship of Commo. James Biddle’s East India Squadron. On December 31, the squadron paid a scheduled visit to Canton, where Biddle met representatives of the Chinese government and exchanged ratified copies of the first commercial treaty between their two countries. Percival had just witnessed the first step in the opening up of Asia to American exports.

02tiff.tiff

Drayton’s first ship, the frigate Hudson.

(NH 53598 Naval History & Heritage Command)

Following the outbreak of war with Mexico in 1846, the Columbus was ordered to participate in the blockade of the Californian coast, but her size made her unsuited to the task, and she was subsequently laid up in Norfolk Navy Yard. While off California, on March 17, 1847, Percival wrote to his half-brother Heyward, noting how hundreds of American settlers were flooding into the area. We appear to have fixed our grip firmly in this country … the original population, which is not quite ten thousand, will be completely absorbed and lost sight of in many years.⁷ His ability to see the larger picture and predict how things would turn out could not have gone unnoticed.

The 1850 Navy Cruise Book reveals Drayton had been at sea for a total of thirteen years and nine months of his then twenty-two years’ service. During this time, he had served on two schooners, three sailing frigates, two ships of the line, and a steam paddle frigate. His experience in handling vessels could hardly have been wider, and he had taken it all in his stride while advancing slowly but steadily in rank. On his first cruise, he had been warranted as a midshipman on March 22, 1830, before being sent to the navy school at New York to continue his studies. After a stint on the Mediterranean Station, 1831–32, he was ordered to take examinations in April 1833; consequently, he was warranted a passed midshipman on June 10 of that year.⁸ He was commissioned a lieutenant on February 28, 1838, and promoted to commander on October 8, 1855. It says something for Percival’s powers of concentration that he was able to complete his studies in 1833 because, as noted in the introduction, it was at this time that the Nullification Crisis came to a head, requiring the family to uproot itself from Charleston and settle in Philadelphia.

In 1838, taking advantage of a period of shore leave, Percival journeyed south to spend Christmas with the one member of the family who had remained in South Carolina, his brother Thomas. In a letter to his father written on December 23, Percival described his brother and sister-in-law’s home. It was a plantation known as Fish Haul located on Hilton Head Island at the entrance to Port Royal Sound: They have quite a nice house, and things seem to be in good order. The cotton crop that year had been poor; however, the price of cotton will give them about four thousand dollars clear after all expenses are paid, which is enough to live on, as they spend scarcely anything on the plantation. The whole experience was completely new to him, and in all his travels, it was the first time Percival had been on a place where the great Southern staple was raised.⁹ He made no comment on the slave system itself, perhaps in deference to the views of his father and brother. (Although a convinced Unionist, William had recently published a pro-slavery tract entitled The South Vindicated from the Treason and Fanaticism of the Abolitionists.) ¹⁰

By the early 1850s, Drayton’s skill in handling ships was not in doubt, but every naval officer possessed, or was supposed to possess, such ability. It was his aptitude in another sphere that would mark him out and ensure his future advancement. Percival was an early