U.S. Navy recaptures the Boston schooner "Enchantress" taken as a Confederate prize two weeks before

The Confederate privateer Jeff Davis had captured the Cuba bound 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. 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) 
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Confederate privateer encounters the loaded Boston schooner "Enchantress" and takes her as a prize

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) 
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In Philadelphia, the Committee on the Safety and Defense of the City reports on its preparations

The Philadelphia press reported that up to October 18, 1861, the Committee of Councils on the Safety and Defense of the City had purchased 1,600 infantry rifles, including a thousand Enfields, 1,800 muskets, 250 sabres, 500 pistols, and ten artillery pieces to arm local militia units.  The Committee had acquired a former market house on Broad and Race Streets as an armory for citizen organizations defending the city.  (By John Osborne).
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Secretary of State Seward urges Great Lakes governors to fortify their lakeside ports against foreign threats

Secretary of State William Seward made public a circular issued to all the governors of the states bordering the Great Lakes between the United States and Canada recommending strongly that their harbors along the lakes be fortified against a possible attack from a foreign power.  British and Canadian officials told the United States that this caused "uneasiness" and saw no need for such an order.  (By John Osborne)   
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Future Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes survives a near-fatal wound at Ball's Bluff

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., was a twenty-year old junior officer of the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry when he was struck twice by rifle fire half way up the steep slope at Ball's Bluff.  The first round was spent and merely winded him, the second passed through his chest, perforating a lung and missing his heart by a quarter of an inch.  Almost left for dead, he recovered to return to action where he was wounded once more at Antietam.  Again, he survived to become a famous associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.  He died in 1932.  (By John Osborne) 
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