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“This is the 4th of July, who can celebrate it? Can the northern people who now are and for years have been waging an unjust cruel, relentless and inhumane war upon us? To take from us the very independence, the declaration of which 90 years ago made this day to be gloried in? Can they glory in the day? Have they the barefaced audacity when 5 of the original 13 are now battling against more grievous wrongs from the others than they could ever urge as a support to their cause? Should they not rather blush with shame at their present course and relent?

Yes they have the audacity. Their honor, honesty, Christianity, and civilization is all gone. They blush at nothing except that which may be honest and honorable and in their own acts they rarely blush for even these causes. Oh god meet out confusion and discord to their counsels.

Independence, the north has corrupted its very entitlement of the word. If any people can celebrate the day, the southerners are the ones. For they are now battling the same right aggravated by causes ten times as strong those for which in 1775 they fought. But if such a thing is possible and these wicked men be successful. I for one would regret from the depth of my heart that we ever knew a fourth of July, for tomorrow I would rather be ruled over by the president of Liberia, then by the Yankees. “

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The CSS Shenandoah was a warship built in Liverpool, England. Although not officially commissioned as a warship, Confederate agents and English sympathizers made deals and cut around laws to acquire such ships and arm them. Shenandoah was commissioned in the Confederate navy on October 19th, 1864. Her objective like many of her sister ships was to be a commerce raider and target merchant vessels to cripple the Union economy rather than engage Union warships.

The Shenandoah would remain at sea for 12 months and 17 days, circumnavigating the globe. Her stops included South Africa, Australia, and numerous small islands throughout her 58,000 mile journey. While most officers were Southerners, the vast majority of the crew were British subjects recruited all over the globe and mostly from Australia towards the end of their journey. The officers of the Shenandoah were diehard Confederates cut off from the rest of the world. Months after Robert E Lee surrendered and President Jefferson Davis imprisoned. They would inflict the most damage near Siberia and Alaska on a New England whaling fleet.

The normal procedure for engaging enemy merchant ships was to fire a shot across their bow. They would then peacefully bring their crew and belongings onboard as prisoners before setting fire to the ship. The crewmen from the Yankee vessels told the rebel sailors the news regarding the war. But Captain James Waddell did not believe it and directed the ship to attack San Francisco. However, on August 2nd, they encountered an English ship that had several newspapers confirming the war was indeed over. Rather than surrender to the U.S. and possibly be hung as pirates. The crew of the CSS Shenandoah did a 10,000 mile journey back to England and formally surrendered on November 6th, 1865.

The ship’s log, Captain James Waddell’s notes, and other officer’s journals are well preserved and provide details of the entire voyage. The Shenandoah’s legacy made its officers well-known and respected on their return. Its flag is the only known Confederate flag to circumnavigate the globe and was last sovereign Confederate flag to be furled. The ship is also known for having fired the last shot of the war across the bow of a whaling ship to compel it to surrender. She sank or captured 38 ships, and took over 1000 prisoners without suffering a single causality amongst the crew or prisoners. She is estimated to have caused over one million dollars of damages that the U.S. government would successfully sue the United Kingdom for.

[Online References]

(https://www.history.navy.mil/.../confeder.../shenandoah.html )

(https://www.history.com/.../css-shenandoah-learns-the-war... )

(https://www.defensemedianetwork.com/.../how-the-rebels.../ )

(https://localwiki.org/.../Liverpool_-_The_Home_of_the... )

(https://www.history.com/.../american-civil.../alabama-claims )

[Audiobook Reference]

Last Flag Down:

The Epic Journey of the Last Confederate Warship

By: John Baldwin, Ron Powers

(https://www.audible.com/.../Last-Flag-Down.../B002V1O31I )

Authored by R.E. Foy