U. S. TROOP-SHIP ATLANTIC,
Lat. 32 deg. 13‘, Long. 74 ° 49‘ 15“
April 10, 1861.
Hon. WM. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State:
DEAR SIR: We expect to touch at Key West, and will be able to set things in order there and give the first check to the secession movement by firmly establishing the authority of the United States in that most ungrateful island and city. Thence we propose to send dispatches under cover to you. The officers will write to their friends, understanding that the package will not be broken until after the public has notice through the newspapers of our success or defeat. Our object is yet unknown on board, and if I read the papers of the eve of our departure aright our secret is still a secret in New York. No communication with the shore, however, will be allowed.
Your dispatch arrived as I was on my way to the Atlantic, just before the hour at which she was to sail, and two or three hours after that appointed for the Powhatan. When the arrow has sped from the bow it may glance aside, but who shall reclaim it before its flight is finished?
A violent gale compelled us to lay head to wind for twenty-four hours. We ran one hundred miles out of our course. The Powhatan having taken this gale earlier may have got through it with less delay, so that it is not now likely that we will overtake her. She had orders to call off Key West, and by boat or signal ascertain whether we had passed. It is important that she should reach the port before us.
Permit me to urge the importance of the purchase of these Collins steamers. Britain has already token the first, the Adriatic. Jeff. Davis or the United States may take them. They were built under contract subject to be taken at a valuation if needed for war. This ship, the Atlantic, cost $750,000. We have chartered her at $2,000 per day for thirty days, with the privilege, at the end of thirty days, of retaining her at that price, giving her up, or purchasing by the United States at $350,000, one-half her cost. During the height of the gale she showed no signs of weakness, rode easily, without labor, and the very line of cabin-lights reflected from a mirror, which doubles all distortions, was straight and true. This too with forty tons of horses in place of port-guns on her bow, and thirty tons of hay and stores on her after-hurricane deck. The weight of 10-inch pivot guns would not therefore hurt her. Thus far we have lost but one horse, exhausted by struggling after failing during the gale.
The Baltic I hope is chartered on terms like those of the Atlantic. Both should belong to the United States. British agents, if not Southern envoys, are after them. Had we been on board a vessel less staunch and seaworthy not a horse would have been seen oh deck and the ship might have shared the fate of the San Francisco.
The dispatch and the secrecy with which this expedition has been fitted out will strike terror into the ranks of rebellion. All New York, saw, all the United States knew, that the Atlantic was filling with stores and troops. But now this nameless vessel, her name is painted out, speeds out of the track of commerce to an unknown destination. Mysterious, unseen, where will the powerful bolt fall? What thousands of men, spending the means of the Confederate States, vainly beat the air amid the swamps of the southern coast, and, filling the dank forts, curse secession and the mosquitoes!
Buy all the steamships, fill them with troops and stores, start them on such mysterious errands, and Mr. Memminger will need more loans and South Carolina herself will grow sick of rebellion.
God promised to send before his chosen people an advance-guard of hornets. Our constant allies are the more efficient mosquitoes and sand-flies. At this time the republic has need of all her sons, of all their knowledge, zeal, and courage.
Major Hunt is with us, somewhat depressed at going into the field without his horses. His battery of Napoleon guns, probably the best field guns in our service, is to follow in the Illinois; but the traitor Twiggs surrendered his horses to the rebels of Texas, and the company of well-trained artillerists finds itself, after eight years of practice, in that highest and most efficient arm, the light artillery, going into active service as footmen. They, too, feel the change deeply.
I inclose a memorandum which Major Hunt has written at my suggestion, and I bespeak your influence to see that he is supplied with horses. If, in the end, this be not found the best field for the campaign–and I am not yet prepared to advise on this point–then these trained men and officers, these instructed soldiers, may be easily transferred to another field and replaced by some company whose training will suit the duties to be performed at our destination. The major served through the Mexican war in Duncan’s famous battery, was brevetted for Churubusco, again for Chapultepec and the City of Mexico, and commanded the battery at Molino. These are historic names. Such an officer should be encouraged, promoted, translated to that sphere to which his peculiar training and skill will be most useful to his country. I have been gratified, even surprised, at the soldierly and loyal spirit with which these officers go upon this expedition. Whether our aim be Charleston, Savannah, Dominica, Pensacola, Mobile, Key West, Louisiana, or Texas, they do not know, but with cheerful trust in the Government they rely upon its wisdom and patriotism, and not a sad brow or a complaining spirit is on board. This loyalty and devotion is beautiful. It promises for the country, if properly appreciated and encouraged, a most efficient army, animated by hope and patriotism. From such men, and not from the pillows used to bolster up political reputations, should the colonels of your new regiments be selected. Such men will raise regiments at their call. The soil will sprout armed men. They can train them into soldiers who will save the country, if arms can save it. All patriots should look to these things. On the spirit and loyalty of your officers depends the success of your armies.
I am, most respectfully, your obedient servant,
M. C. MEIGS,
Captain of Engineers.
[Inclosure.]
Memorandum for Captain Meigs.
My battery, dismounted in consequence of Twiggs’ treason, left its horses at Fort Brown, Tex. The guns, light 12-pounders (the new canon-obusier of Louis Napoleon), are the only ones in our service of that kind. They were brought off by the company in spite of extraordinary efforts on the part of the Texans to get possession of them. Their firing is very accurate, and with equal mobility they have much greater power than the 6-pounder. Each is perfectly adapted to the use of all the projectiles known in the service–shot, shell, spherical case, and canister. The fire of one portion of the battery is therefore never Sacrificed to that of another, as so often happens in ordinary batteries, where the fire of the gun must often be sacrificed to that of the howitzer, and vice versa.
The men of the company are well instructed both as drivers and cannoneers, a work requiring time and patience, and it is of great importance that the knowledge they have acquired by long training should not be lost to the service, for neither drivers nor cannoneers can be improvised when wanted. The battery has with it its forge, battery-wagons, harness, &c., and requires only horses to make it thoroughly efficient. These ought to be supplied at once, as they would convert a comparatively inefficient, because uninstructed, infantry company into an efficient field battery.
The number of horses required is eighty; for quality and description see page 46, Artillery Tactics. A few good saddle-horses for officers should be sent in addition, say eight or ten.
HENRY J. HUNT,
Brevet Major, Captain Second Artillery
Commanding Light Battery M.
Steamer ATLANTIC,
At Sea, April 10, 1861.