CHAPTER I.
_The Question at issue--An unexpected point of attack--Captain Semmes--The President's instructions--Creating a navy--From the old to the new--An important mission--Appointed to the Sumter--True character of the Confederate "pirate."_ The President of the American States in Confederation was gathering an army for the defence of Southern liberty.

Where valour is a national inheritance, and an enthusiastic unanimity prevails, this will not prove a difficult task.

It is otherwise with the formation of a navy.

Soldiers of Southern blood had thrown up their commissions in a body; but sailors love their ships as well as their country, and appear to owe some allegiance to them likewise.

Nevertheless, if Mr.Davis had not a great choice of officers, he had eminent men to serve him, as the young history of the South has abundantly shown.