The Confederate privateer Jeff Davis captured the Boston schooner Enchantress off the coast of Delaware in one of the earliest such actions of the war. A prize crew was put aboard and charged with sailing the seized ship, loaded with food and other supplies worth around $13,000, to Charleston, South Carolina. On July 22, 1861, the Enchantress was recaptured by the U,S.S. Albatross off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina and escorted to Hampton Roads in Virginia. The prize crew was sent to Philadelphia to be tried for piracy. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
D.F. Murphy, The Jeff Davis piracy cases: full report of the trial of William Smith for piracy, as one of the crew of the confederate privateer, the Jeff Davis : before Judges Grier and Cadwalader, in the Circuit Court of the United States, for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, held at Philadelphia, in ... (Philadelphia, PA: King & Baird, 1861), 12-13
Record Data
Date Certainty
Exact
Type
Battles/Soldiers