"Pirates of the Ozarks" was originally published in Fall 2012 issue of Science Fiction Trails.
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To the President of the United States and the
Members of Congress - Gentlemen:
As directed, I have prepared this report on
the U.S. Naval campaign to quell the sea-faring brigands who had bedeviled our
commerce and transport on the Great Inland Sea.
I report with great satisfaction we have been exceedingly
successful. Commerce between the United
States and its Western territories, as well the northern Mexico province of
Tejas, proceeds unimpaired.
#
Preface:
The circumstances of the subsidence of the
Lower Mississippi River Valley and the Great Inundation of 1812 are only
recalled here for reference to the historical record into which this report is
to be appended.
The first violent tremor struck in December
1811. The initial refugees reported the
subsidence began in the district of New Madrid in the Missouri Territory. There followed a myriad of tremors that
culminated in the last violent earthquake on February the 7th, 1812, that
completed the subsidence of the great Mississippi River valley as far north
along the former western bank at Hannibal in the Missouri Territory. Although
devastated, Memphis, Tennessee, remained intact along the former eastern bank.
This calamity resulted in the loss of
thousands of souls and the total destruction of the great cities of New
Orleans, Natchez, Vicksburg and Saint Louis, as well as all intermediate
settlements.
The new sea eventually extended westward over
the Great Plains as far north as the Black Hills of the Lakota Indian
Territory. For two decades following the
great calamity the sunken region remained a morass of dangerous backwash laden
with debris. As the sea and its
coastlines stabilized, transport was re-established in the third and fourth
decades of the century. Memphis and
Texarkana in Tejas became the major east and west ports of departure and
debarkation, respectively, across the new sea.
These cities provided vital bases of transport for American commerce,
along with the ports of Natchez and Vicksburg, which were re-established on the
barrier islands that remained at their previous sites. Although Texarkana is a Mexican city, it has
been administered with a loose rein by the central national authority in
distant Mexico City. It has its own
“Texian” society dominated by expatriate American settlers who were isolated on
the far side of the Inland Sea by the great inundation.
Regular sea transport was in operation in
time for the the California Territorial Gold Rush of 1849. However, these trading routes also led to the
unforeseen proliferation of pirates.
The collapse of the interior of the North
American continent and the inflow of the Great Inland Sea left the Ozark
Highlands of the furthermost Arkansan and Missouri Territories as an
archipelago of islands approximately 140 nautical miles from both the Tennessee
and Tejas coasts. The situation of these
islets led to their being used as a base for pirates and sea robbers of the
basest sort. These forces were made up
of equal parts of settlers who had fled to the highlands during the winter of
1811-12 as well as outlaws and brigands who fled to the frontier.
The islands had become a “Noman’s Land” with
an accumulation of the worst bandits, ruffians and cutthroats. Few took note of these clusters of degraded
people until--utilizing the forests which remained on the former
mountaintops--they built crude sea craft and set upon the packet routes with
their primitive but sturdy roughhewn craft.
What these pirates lacked in speed and
maneuverability they made up in ferocity and marksmanship--always the
prerogative of the frontiersman. The few
of these “seabillies”, as they termed themselves, who had been captured stated
they had been driven by poverty to set sail--and found what seemed to be an
abundance of riches on the slow ships that plied the Inland Sea routes.
#
Preparations:
The decision of President Cass and Secretary
of the Navy Graham in the previous decade to expand the Southern Naval Command
based in Mobile Bay and to build a new base in Vicksburg—and deploy forces from
there to battle the pirates--proved an initial success, but the pirates shifted
their operations in closer to the Tejas Coast where there is no effective
Mexican naval presence. The Mexican
fleet based in Galvez Island occasionally made desultory forays along their
coast, but their officers showed little interest in suppressing brigandage
perpetrated by Americans upon their own kinsmen.
The continued intractability of the conflict
came to a head with the pirate defeat of the screw frigate SS Stephen Decatur
in April 1857, which was only preserved from being captured by being scuttled
by Captain John Brown, who as tradition demands went down with his ship.
Upon the initiative of Secretary of the Navy
Toucey, President Buchanan formally asked Emperor Santa Anna of Mexico for a
conference to discuss the terms under which the United States would be allowed
to send a flotilla to the Ozarks to eradicate the pirates. The conference, held on Galvez Island March
6-8, 1858, resulted in the so-called “Sweeping Accord” which stipulated that
American forces would be allowed to sweep the pirates from the sea, on
the condition of the construction of a new naval base in Texarkana which would
become an entrepot for the envisioned increased trade between Tejas and the
United State upon the completion of the campaign.
For my part, I had enlisted in the new
squadron based in Vicksburg in 1853 at the age of 18, and in 1857 I had become
a personal aide to Flag Officer David Farragut, who was particularly well-bred
to deal with the inter-national issue, being a Tennessee native born of a
Spanish father.
I accompanied him to the Galvez Island
Conference, and he subsequently asked me to represent him during the
construction of the Texarkana naval base, which was completed shortly after
President Douglas assumed office in March 1861.
I then returned to the United States and assisted Flag Officer Farragut
in the process of assembling the 12-vessel expeditionary force in Mobile
Bay. By August 1861 six of the new model
ironclad frigates--the Columbia, State of Georgia, Pawnee, Passaic, Kearsage
and Missouri [the last of which serving as the flagship]--were joined by a half
dozen older traditional gunships, to wit: The Wareham, Abington, New Boston,
Piedmont, Cedar Hill and Malakov. The
gunships were dispatched from Vicksburg, while the new ironclad frigates
arrived from Hampton Roads. The ironclad
craft all had the latest Dahlgren cannon, while the gunships were fitted with
older-fashion marine howitzers ranging from twelve to twenty pounds.
I was honored and humbled to be promoted to
Captain of the Flagship Missouri by Flag Officer Farragut. The Expeditionary Force was gathered and
prepared at Mobile Bay naval base, with the complement of sailors and marines
drawn in equal part from Mobile and Vicksburg, as well as from the Coast Guard
stations in Memphis and Natchez.
After many months of preparation and
training, the Inland Sea Naval Expeditionary Force departed Mobile Bay at
daybreak on May the 15th, 1862, with Flag Officer Farragut aboard the Missouri
as Commander.
Early on the second day, after traveling 125
nautical miles, we traversed the site of the former Mississippi delta. At approximately noonday we passed the buoy
that marks the former site of New Orleans.
As is the custom of all who pass, we reduced speed and observed a moment
of silence in memory of the victims of the tremendous catastrophe of 1812. The Gulf of Mexico was possessed of large
swells that day, and amidst the silence some of the crew said they heard the
bells of the great city’s sunken cathedrals tolling under the waves. Whether this is true, or whether the supposed
sound of the bells is the result of romantic imagination, I cannot say, but I
thought I heard, at the very threshold of audibility, the spectral tolling myself.
After another day’s northward voyage under
full steam we arrived at the shoals that mark the former site of Baton Rouge,
and Commander Farragut gave orders for us to swing northwestward towards the
Tejas coast. The flotilla weighed anchor
at Texarkana harbor on the morning of May the 18th, 1862, after a voyage of
approximately 500 nautical miles.
Texarkana was a propitious base for our
flotilla. It is the center of the
American community of settlers who had begun to infiltrate northern Mexico
before the Great Inundation, and who have been subsequently isolated by the
Great Inland Sea. Although many, such as
Alcalde James Bowie, have intermarried into native Spanish families, strong
affinities of blood and kinship to their American brethren remain.
The entire city came to the quay to greet our
flotilla, with Alcalde Bowie at the fore.
The Alcalde explained that all were anxious to see the pirates quashed
and the entire community would give every assistance possible to help us
succeed in our endeavors.
The community imparted a magnificent banquet
for the expeditionary force that evening, with great conviviality and
refreshments. Following a full day to
rest from the voyage and torecover from the festivities, we met with the
Alcalde and an aide of Gobernador Houston, who sent his regrets; at nearly 70
years of age the Gobernador was too infirm to make the trip from the provincial
capital of Cuidad Santa Anna in the distant heart of the province.
The fact that such leaders such as Bowie and
Houston were born in the United States--Bowie in Kentucky, Houston in
Virginia--and they retain the most genial regards for the Stars and Stripes was
a great aid to our cooperation from local citizens. For their part, they were immensely relieved
the Emperor in Mexico City had discarded his long-standing distrust and
accepted the help of the United States in effecting a solution to the pirate
matter.
During our fourth day in port, Alcalde Bowie
introduced us to “Captain” Dick Dowling, a ruddy-faced son of Hibernia who was
reputed to be the Texian the most familiar with the Pirates of the Ozarks. A local merchant and tavern-keeper, Dowling
led the local coast guard that protected the city and its immediate environs
from the raiders. His commercial
interests provided him an ongoing source of information on their whereabouts
and activities.
Although there were numerous pirates plying
the waves of the Inland Sea, the most dangerous was indubitably “Captain Q”,
whose base of operations was Wolverton Island.
Captain Q was a living legend among the pirates, having both escaped
death many times and bestowed it most freely upon the unsuspecting, Dowling
said. All of the sea-faring fiends
allowed some degree of nominal allegiance to The Dread Captain out of abject
fear.
Dowling showed us one of the pirate craft
that had been captured. The large open
boat could be propelled both by oars or a hand-sewn square sail, and was crude
but exceedingly sturdy. He said they
used these craft exclusively; even when coming into possession of larger ships
by conquest, they lacked the seamanship skills to helm them properly. It somewhat resembled the ships used by Norse
raiders that had once preyed upon the English.
#
Approach:
After a full week of rest, the flotilla
departed Texarkana. Dowling was attached
to the flagship as a special lieutenant.
We left the morning of May 26, 1862.
Along the way Dowling limned no sanguine
picture of the task before us. The
pirates’ modus operandi was to lay in wait in hidden coves and set upon
ships passing the archipelago. The
situation of the islands is such that it requires making a wide detour to avoid
approaching them along the route between Tejas and the United States. The pirates would lay in wait until a passing
ship was espied, and swoop upon it.
Captain Q’s home of Wolverton Island was one
of hundreds of small islets that dot the lawless sector of the sea. Dowling said it was nondescript and well
hidden. Captain Q launched his raids
into the open sea by “leap flogging” between
islands until he approached the shipping lanes.
The crafty pirate never laid in wait in the
same place twice, said Dowling. The key
to victory, he said, would be to track the pirate captain to his hiding place
for the current season and strike him unawares.
Destroying Captain Q would be like cutting the head off a serpent,
Dowling stated; the rest of our sojourn in the Ozarks would subsequently be a
“mopping up” operation.
Dowling had brought along a small skiff that
he used as part of his personal trading fleet that plied the coastal route
between Texarkana and Galvez Island. We
devised a ploy to use it as a forward decoy, and to hold back the task force as
we approached the Ozark Islands.
We sent the skiff ahead as if it were on its
way towards Memphis. We selected a dozen
of our most durable seamen to man the craft, and concealed a supply of the
newest Winchester repeating rifles as well as a small brass cannon.
The morning of June 1st we heard the report
of the cannon, and quickly joined the fight at full steam. Upon our approach the pirates immediately
broke off the engagement, but their craft were no match in speed with our
steam-driven ships, and we quickly overcame them.
Despite their superior weapons and the speed
with which we had relieved them, half of our men on the skiff were killed. Their sacrifice brought us a great reward,
though, as we took three dozen pirates prisoner. It was a small tribe, which nominally owed
its allegiance to Captain Q but operated independently. Their leader was a “Captain” Lansdell.
Commander Farragut absented himself below
deck and allowed the Texian Dowling free rein with our “guests”. Dowling began by summarily shooting three
pirates who had remained unscathed from our engagement, and then turned his
attention to the pirate captain himself.
The ruffian’s braggadocio discandied
completely upon witnessing the brutal treatment of his colleagues, but Dowling
was then confronted by a seemingly intractable dilemma. Although Lansdell knew Captain Q’s forward
base for the current season, he was terrified of retribution if he divulged its
location.
“Q will surely kill me I tell you!” cried out
the pirate.
“He may, if he finds you later,” said
Dowling. “But if you do not tell me where he is, I will kill you now!”
Confronted by such logic, Lansdell divulged
that Captain Q was ensconced at Branson Island in the northernmost Ozarks, and
upon being freed of his fetters drew a map for us. We then collected up the pirate captain and
his remaining cohorts and bound them below decks.
#
Battle Plan:
Dowling advised that in view of the location
of Branson Island, our best approach would be by way of a wide sweeping arc to
the west, then bearing down southeasterly.
That bearing put the high plains and Indian Territories behind us, the
least common origination for trade.
Commander Farragut, upon reviewing the map of the islands, decided to
split his forces, sending the ironclads on the trajectory envisioned by
Dowling, while concurrently sending the gun ships easterly towards Memphis.
Although the ironclad frigates were the much heavier
craft, their steam engines were much more powerful. They could traverse the longer distance
around the western end of the islands and swing back towards Branson in the
same time the gunships would feint towards Memphis and then make straight for the
islands. Our intent, of course, was to
effect a pincers movement.
Our
plan was outlined with the goal of insuring the greatest possibility that the
pirate leader would in no case elude our flotilla. At the time we kept secret a “project” we intended
to deploy to facilitate communication between the two fleets, in the
eventuality that Captain Q was as clever as he was brutal and had somehow
secured an agent in our midst.
#
Division:
The morning of June the 3rd, 1862, we divided
the flotilla, with Commander Farragut leading the ironclad frigates west from
aboard the Missouri while I assumed leadership of the gunships with the
Piedmont as my task force flag ship, and steamed east.
I proceeded at a measured pace towards
Memphis, and after two days and achieving its latitude, turned directly
west. We never allowed the outermost
islands to leave our sight. One of our desires in drawing up our plan was to
make the pirates think we were the main force.
Along our route we espied what may have been pirate craft, but none
approached what seemed to them a considerable fleet.
The Texian sea robber Lansdell was aboard the
Piedmont, and I took it upon myself to interrogate him at my leisure. He was of good Anglo-Saxon stock, and like so
many of the “seabillies” his antecedents had settled on the Louisiana Purchase
frontier in the early years of the century.
He had spent his youth on the small Tejas coastal fishing village of
Nacogdoches, whose origins went back to the 16th Century and the earliest
Spanish missions. The hamlet was greatly
impoverished by the destruction caused by the Great Inundation, and Lansdell
and his brothers were driven to sea by the grinding abject poverty of the
region. Weeks away from the provincial
capital, the poor people--cut off by fate from their kith and kin in the United
States--suffered severely from a lack of commerce and trade.
Lansdell told that his father, looking back
on the years when Americans had begun to infiltrate the Mexican frontier,
opined that fate would have surely incorporated Tejas effectively as part of
the United States, so great was the movement of population.
Lansdell seemed to be possessed of a native
cleverness and industry, indicative of his racial origins, and had he been
reared in more propitious circumstances it is my opinion he might have made a
prosperous merchant or manufacturer.
By June the 7th the ship’s
navigator indicated we were only 30 nautical miles east of a point 40 miles due
north of Branson Island. I stationed a
mate in the crow’s nest to keep watch for any heliographic communications from
The Missouri. He soon spied the signal,
and we received the message that Captain Q’s main body had been sighted. As Dowling had predicted, he was making with
all due haste into the heart of the islands.
Commander Farragut’s communication indicated the course we should engage
that would bring us to an intercept with the pirate chief’s small fleet.
#
Victory:
At mid-afternoon we heard the cannonade, and
as we approached the engagement we saw that the ironclads had caught up with
the pirate craft, which were being quickly and brutally subdued. I joined Commander Farragut aboard the
Missouri for the conclusion of the engagement.
The hot air balloon and basket--the “secret project”--lay on the ship’s
desk. Sending the balloon into the
stratosphere had enabled the Missouri to signal us from a distance that would
have been otherwise impossible. It was
this special evice that Farragut had taken such pains to conceal until needed.
After the pirate fleet had been disabled,
Dowling and a contingent of Texarkana citizens fell upon the pirates with a
thirst for revenge with a purpose that would have reddened the cheeks of an
Apache. Dowling and his men would take no captives. Our own marines had to step in to prevent a
general massacre. While many of the pirates begged for quarter, and were taken
prisoner at Farragut’s direction, Captain Q’s “Old Guard” refused to surrender
and the Captain and his hearties were last seen alive on a craft which burnt to
the waterline. This grime finale was witnessed by the assembled flotilla as
dusk descended across the waters, and I could not help but recall my previous
observations how these sea robbers’s craft had harkened to the Norsemen of old,
as Captain Q’s went up in flames much as a Viking funeral ship of yore.
Almost until the flames were quenched by the
sea the infamous Captain and his last men hurled the most profane curses
towards us and continued shooting while the our sailors watched
impassively. As the the ship disappeared
behind a veil of smoke and steam, Captain Q was heard clearly to declaim “See
you in H---! Farragut” followed by one last muffled shot. It was obvious the vile man had dispatched
himself from one sea of flames to another.
There were loud huzzahs from the sailors,
marines and Texians aboard all ships, which was stifled as Commander Farragut
called out loudly, “Our work has just begun, men!” Silence swept across the ships. We all recognized that--to return to another
of Dowling’s analogies--although we had cut off the head of the serpent, the
crippled length of the creature would continue to wriggle.
#
The “Mopping Up”:
Farragut offered amnesty to any brigand who
agreed to join forces with us to reduce the pirates who remained. Lansdell and a dozen men from both his and
Captain Q’s ships agreed to accept his offer, and subsequently provided
invaluable information on the whereabouts of other raiders. The unrepentant pirates among us were
collected aboard the gunship Wareham, which returned with them to the Texarkana
naval base.
I subsequently learned that after the Wareham
returned to Texarkana with its prisoners it dispatched a communication from
Flag Officer Farragut to the Department of the Navy, the nature of which I was
not acquainted with, and which would only be disclosed to me upon the
flotilla’s return to Texarkana.
Lansdell’s better nature emerged with the
demise of Captain Q. We jointly took
time to interview some of Q’s pirates who had survived to more fully understand
the nature of that most feared Pirate of the Ozarks.
His full name was William Clark
Quantrill. He was--somewhat to our
surprise--an Ohio native who had drifted down the river of the same name while
a youth, and being possessed of a direct and forceful nature he quickly rose to
the fore of the “seabilly” pirates. Many
of the amended pirates, Lansdell among them, seemed relieved at Quantrill’s demise
and professed a desire for closer relations with fellow Americans. They were unsure whether the Ozarks were
truly American Territory, and when I told them it was indeed they seemed quite
happy. I told them that--if it was their
desire--perhaps the federal government could be entreated to secure an
administration there. I saw at that time
a furtive and knowing look from the Commander.
There were perhaps 300 pirates in a half
dozen bands scattered across the islands, and the “clean sweep” took a six full
months. We embarked upon a methodical
pursuit, which had a most salubrious effect on the safety of the sea. Most of the pirates surrendered immediately
when confronted by the flotilla.
Accustomed as they were to attacking isolated ships, they were thoroughly
cowed by our fleet.
What settlements we found on the islands were
spectacularly impoverished. It was
simple to discern the poverty that had driven the forgotten “hillbillys”--their
original name for themselves--into the sea.
After seeing one hamlet where only the dogs seemed well fed, Farragut
muttered “we must do something for these people so they can live as
Christians.” Many sailors and marines
were so moved by what they saw they gave their own rations to the inhabitants.
#
Conclusion
We steered a course from the archipelago and
towards Tejas December the 6th, 1862 and arrived at the Texarkana naval base a
week later. We were greeted with great
jubilation, and Dowling was chaired through the city by the townspeople while
our regular forces marched to the Alcalde’s mansion with flags flying.
I was rather perplexed to see the Wareham
riding low at anchor and surrounded by a half dozen American warships. As we marched through the streets, I asked
the Flag Officer Farragut about them. He
shouted that--upon his request, which was telegraphically delivered to the
federal government upon the arrival of the Wareham--President Douglas has
signed a decree organizing the Ozarkia Territory. The Wareham would lead the other ships to the
islands with personnel and provisions for the establishment of a capital and
territorial administration.
When I inquired who would be leading the
organization of the new territory, he declaimed: “I would suggest you make
Lansdell your chief executive, Your Excellency.”
Unbeknownst to myself, at Farragut’s
recommendation, President Douglas named me the first Ozarkia territorial
governor.
At the celebratory banquet that evening, as
the claret flowed and cigars smoldered, Farragut confided to me, “There is no
one as qualified for the post as you.
You are a Missouri native; had the great calamity not come upon the
frontier, Ozarkia would surely have been incorporated into the state of
Missouri. And you have been most closely
involved on the expedition just concluded.”
I conceded his logic was unassailable, and
the next morning, at the break of noon, I gathered my wits about me and sent a
message via telegraph to the executive mansion in the District of Columbia
gratefully accepting the appointment.
#
Summation:
It has now been six months since the Wareham
returned to the islands. We established
our capital on Wolverton Island--Quantrill’s old headquarters--and I designated
a blacksmith who had never been part of the pirate raids, one Clifton Clowers,
as the mayor. The artisan had lived on
the same location since before the Great Inundation.
In honor of the leader of the original
expedition, we named the newly established capital Farragut. The same situation that had worked to the
pirates’ advantage is presently working towards the prosperity of the
indigenous inhabitants, as the islands become a profitable way station on the
Inland Sea routes.
For my part, I am gratified that Flag Officer
Farragut and Secretary of the Navy Graham have allowed me to retain my Naval
rank as I fulfill my role as territorial governor, as I owe everything to my
naval career and would hope that--as Ozarkia is established on a stable and
permanent footing--that I might return to the sea that has meant so much in my
life.
Who could have foreseen when I was a child,
gazing across the blue inland waters from Cardiff Point--the foremost
promontory of the former Mississippi left bank that overlooks the strand where
Hannibal is situated--that boyish fantasies of adventure could be fulfilled in
the most literal manner, and I would live to sail the wide open sea, fight and
defeat pirates, and lead a city and territory?
No Dickens or Cooper could write a story as
much like the Arabian Nights. For my
part, while this report is meant as an official record, I flatter myself to
think that I have some small innate measure of skill as a storyteller, and in
these pages I hope you have not only found an accurate summation report on the
expedition that subdued and suppressed the Pirates of the Ozarks, but also an
engaging tale that is one chapter of the great unfolding story of the American
Republic.
As my chief executive Lansdell said when
shown the draft of this document, “It gives one pause to think you might have
missed your true calling, Sam!”
But I am in most felicitous circumstances,
and greatly doubt that.
Respectfully
submitted,
Captain (U.S.N.)
Samuel L. Clemens
Governor, Ozarkia
Territory
June 1, 1863
