The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 76, July 1972 - April, 1973 Page: 59

Notes and Documents

teeired to lead an expedition into Galveston harbor to destroy a Con-
federate war steamer. The following is his official report of the
incident. U. S. Frigate Santee,
Off Galveston Bar, Tex., November z4, 186i.
Sir: In obedience to your orders of the 7th instant, I took the
first and second launches and, at 11:40 P.M. that day, proceeded into
the harbor intending, if we could pass the armed schooner guarding
the channel and the Bolivar and [Fort] Point forts, to try to surprise
and burn the man-of-war steamer General Rusk,6 lying under Pelican
Island Fort [Jackson?].'
We succeeded in passing the schooner and two forts, but in at-
tempting to avoid the sentinels on Pelican fort, we grounded on
Bolivar Spit.
At this juncture we were discovered. Deeming it imprudent after
this discovery to encounter so large a vessel and so heavily armed and
manned, I determined to abandon that portion of the expedition.
As had been my intention, in returning we boarded, and after a
short conflict captured the armed schooner Royal Yacht." We took
a few stand of arms, 13 prisoners, and her colors. As our pilot was
shot down and the schooner had received a shell between wind and
water, I did not deem it advisable to attempt to bring her out; we
therefore burned her, after spiking her gun, a light 32-pounder."
After this we returned to the ship. I regret to state that i man was
killed, 2 officers and 6 men wounded, one mortally, who has since died.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
Jas. E. Jouett,
Captain Henry Eagle, Lieutenant, U.S. Navy
Commanding U.S. Frigate Santee."
Records of Living Officers of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps (6th ed.; New York,
1898), 21-23; "James E. Jouett," The National Cyclopedia of American Biography, IV,
501-502.
6The General Rusk, a side-wheel steamer built in Wilmington, Delaware in 1857, was
seized from the Southern Steamship Co. at Galveston by the state of Texas in 1861;
tons, 75o; length, 2oo'; beam, 31'; draft, 5'7". U.S. Navy Department, Dictionary of
American Naval Fighting Ships (5+ vols.; Washington, 1963-present), II, 525.
7The brackets were inserted by the compiler of the O.R.N. O.R.N., Series I, XVI, 757.
8Royal Yacht: sailing schooner, chartered October io, 1861, for naval patrol duty off
Galveston; tons, 4o; draft, 6'6"; crew, 15; guns, 1. Dictionary of American Naval Fight-
ing Ships, II, 563.
"Confederate reports indicate that the gun was a 12-pounder. Wm. W. Hunter, C.S.N.,
to Paul O. H6bert, C.S.A., November 8, 1861, O.R.N. Series I, XVI, 759-760.
10Jouett to Eagle, November 14, 1861, ibid., 757-758.