Brain inrended to bring Roanoke inro Bermuda's port of Sr. George's, where they would land and parole the passengers, officers , and crew. From there they would take on provisions and coal, then sail rhe vessel to Wilmington. They reached the waters off Bermuda on 4 October and transferred Roanoke's crew and passengers to the Danish brig Mathilde, which they encountered some five miles off the coast. After several unsuccessful attempts at obtaining provisions and being denied enrry inro rhe British port, the Confederate band made the decision to burn the ship. Brain and his men then came ashore at Sr. George's to face charges of piracy. 11 The men were tried and subsequently released on the grounds that their action took place under the fl.ag of the Confederacy. Maintaining their official position of neutrality in this conflict, the officials had no legal reason to hold them. Parr somehow found his way back to the United Stares on 31 December 1864 and managed to cross the picker lines at Richmond, where he reported on the failed Roanoke mission.12 Despite the lack of success in this recenr mission, Parr now had a reputation as a specialist in seizing Union ships at sea. Parr rejoined Brain for his last privateering mission under the name of "H . A. Paw," perhaps a misreading of handwriting. They captured the schooner St. Mary in the Chesapeake Bay near the mouth of rhe Patuxenr River and sailed her to Nassau to acquire a much-needed cache of guns and ammunition. The misappropriated St. Mary became the last Confederate raider to operate in the Caribbean. Since the last Confederate troops had surrendered in May 1865, Parr and Brain burned the vessel on 7 July 1865 and returned to Canada via the Confederate network that guided southern escapees to freedom .13 Brain was listed as living in Monrreal shortly thereafter, then disappeared into the muddy backwaters of history.
Finding safe refuge in Canada, in December 1865 Parr formed a druggist partnership with Alfred Bush in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, known locally as "Parr & Co." Evidenrly he had been exposed to the pharmacy business when he was a teenager; therefore his early undercover position may have been a logical one. He married Ellen Martha Robbins in 1869 and fathered four children-Florence, Sarah, Henry and Marion. Parr later formed a new pharmacy partnership in 1875 with C. C. Richards that became known as "C. C. Richards and Company." 14 In 1878 Parr made a return trip to the United States, unaware of an outstanding federal warrant for his arrest. Upon his arrival in Boston, he was taken into custody and charged with the murder of the Chesapeake's chief engineer, Odin Shaffer, "during the piratical seizure" of that vessel. 15 The trial starred in July and produced neither evidence that Parr was the raider's leader of the expedition, only an officer, nor proof that he actually killed Shaffer. Also, President Andrew Johnson's amnesty proclamation of 1868 had granred an unconditional pardon to all participants in the Civil War regardless of their acts during the conflict, to help foster postwar reconciliation. As a result, all charges were dropped. After the trial, Parr returned to Yarmouth. In 1879 he dissolved his pharmacy partnership with Richards. Without formal training, "Doctor" Parr suddenly started a dental practice. Demists of the era, especially those outside of the United Stares, could practice without certified credenrials. The next year the building in which he practiced was destroyed by fire. Perhaps feeling ill-prepared for his new profession, Parr left Canada and matriculated at the Baltimore College ofDenral Surgery.16 At the age of thirty-eight Parr earned the degree of DDS, graduating with the class of 1884 and receiving a gold medal for aca-
11 Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Part II {Related to Great Britain), Second Sess ion 38ch Congress, Washington, Government Printing Office, 1865. 364-365. 12 Ac his trial before che Queen's Magistrates in Bermuda, Parr referred to him self as Dr. Parr. Although he would lacer ea rn this academic des ignation, in his youth he had worked in a pharmacy and evidently ca me to people's aid when cheywere injured during his privateer adventures. Corpsmen and/or medics in the armed services are still ca lled "doc" by their fellows under arms. 13 D avid Hay and Joan Hay, The Last of the Confederate Privateers (N ew York: C rescent Books, 1977), 98 , 102-105, 132-1 34. 14 L. V. H arris, "A Brief History of Pharm acy in Yarmouth Councy," in Proceed-
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demic distinction .17 Highly regarded in his field, he served on the faculty as a clinical instructor at his alma mater. Parr practiced dentistry in New York City, where he became a distinguished and wealthy clinician. 18 The former rebel was very inventive. He was granted patents on various dental devices, updated versions of which are still used roday. In addition, Parr parenred many non-dental inventions. Having published several papers in denral professional journals in the United States and abroad and innovated laboratory mechanical techniques, Parr became a popular lecturer at dental society meetings. Among his New York parienrs was former presidenr Ulysses S. Grant. Apparently neither Gram nor Parr had reservations about doctor/ patient relationships between former enemies. Dr. Parr died in New York City on 6 August 1932 at the age of eighty-six. As evidence that he remained a loyal son of the Confederacy, among his possessions was a labeled lock of]efferson Davis's hair. Parr's remains rest in Philadelphia's Laurel Hill Cemetery, but his grave is unmarked. 19 Why he is buried in a city in which he had not lived and why his grave site is unknown is one more mystery added to an enigmatic, but exciting life story. J. Dr. Louis Arthur Norton, a native ofGloucester, Massachusetts, is a maritime historian andfrequent contributor to Sea History. He is the author of] oshua Barney: Hero of the Revolution and 1812 (Naval Institute Press, 2000) and Captains Contentious: The Dysfunctional Sons of the Brine (University of South Carolina Press, 2009). Dr. Norto n is a professor emeritus ofthe University ofConnecticut Health Center in Farmington. Among his literary awards are the 2002 and 2006 Gerald E. Morris Prize fo r maritime historiography from Mystic Seaport and the Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association's 200912010 and 2010/2011 awards for fiction and essay writing respectively.
ings of the 62"' Annual Meeting of the Nova Scotia Pharmaceutical Society, 1936, 22-3 0. 15 Boston H erald, 16, 25 June; 16, 22 July; 23 September 1878. Articles related to United States vs . H enry Parr. 16 Now the University of Maryland School of D entistry. " The degree DDS is an acronym fo r the title Doctor of Deneal Surgery. An alternate co mmon unive rsity conferred dental deg ree is DMD, stand ing for Doctor of D eneal M edicine. They are academi ca lly equiva lent. 18 Wynbrandt, The Excruciating H istory ofDentistry, 132. 19 H yson and Swanson, "Portrait of a Co nfederate Secret Agene," 59.
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