, USS Montgomery, the third ofsix naval vessels namedfor the capital ofAlabama. Built in New York in 1858, the 20lfoot wooden screw steamer served in the Union Navy's blockading squadrons in aLL theaters du ring the Civil War. crew and that the cargo belonged to the Confederates, hence the United States had no liability. The Blanche was initially an American vessel, se ized by the Confederates and turned over to the English, so the waters were muddied as to the legal ownership. The Mixed Commission on British and American claims rejected the claims of the sh ip's owner, and by the late 1860s the case was closed. 6 Hunter strongly defended his actions regarding the Blanche. If the Montgomery had not stopped the vessel, he argued , he would h ave been blamed for not doing so; thus, he was doing what any conscientious naval officer wo uld have done in wartime. When he received notification that he was to relinquish command of the Montgomery, he found it "killing, overwhelming after suffering so much and doing all in m y power to aid the government in putting down the rebellion-to be disgraced and degraded is indeed hard." 7 H e was "grieved and sorrowful" at his treatment. In January 1863, Secretary Welles proceeded with a draft of charges agai nst Hunter for a court-martial to be held in Boston, Massachuserrs. The charges included: violating the territory of a neutral government, ordering the Blanche to be set on fire, insulting the Spanish officials, and forcing Robert C lement to sign an oath that it was the Blanche's own crew that set the fire.
Commander David G. Farragut (left in photo) aboard his flagship, USS Hartford, 1864. Farragut was serving as the flag officer ofthe West GulfBlockading Squadron when the Blanche affair took place in the fall of 1862. Lt. H unter sent a report to Farragut-his superior officer-who was aboard the Hartford in Pensacola, Florida.
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The court-martial of C harles Hunter was held at the Boston Navy Yard in January and Febru ary 1863. Hunter pleaded not guilty to the charges and testified in his own defense. He admitted to being overzealous, but asse rted that he had done nothing unworthy of a naval officer. On 16 February, Hunter was found guilty of viol ating the territo ry of a neutral nation and taking possession of the ship within the jurisdiction of the Spanish government. The other charges were dropped . The cou rt recommended that he be di smi ssed from the Navy. 8 Once the trial was over, Hunter returned to Newport and his fam ily; he settled into civi lian life, but his case was not forgotten by naval officers, politicians, and the media. The Newport Daily News stated th at the decision to remove Hunter from the Navy was overly harsh and unnecessary, as he had erred on the side of right. Even Admiral David Farragut regretted the court's decision and felt that Hunter had been sacrificed to preserve relations with Spain. In June 1863, the members of the court martial h ad a change of hea rt and asked President Lincoln to issue a grant of clemency, but he did not. Hunter achieved a small victory when he was appoi nted commander on the retired list on 30 June 1865, and captain on the retired list on 12 March 1867. H e also received three yea rs' back pay that he had accrued when he was promoted to commander in 1862. In the end, he h ad some profess ional and monetary compensation for what he considered a travesty of justice. Hunter, his wife, and daughter drowned when their ship, the Ville du Havre, was struck by the Loch Earn on 22 November 1873 on their way to France. It is ironic and tragic that a naval officer with twenty-six years of ac tive duty in war and peace lost hi s life at sea while on a pleas ure trip to Europe. A memorial to C harles Hunter and the fa mily members who perished with him at sea is in Newport's Island Cemetery. ,!, Evelyn M. Cherpak served as curator of the Naval War College's Naval H istorical Collection for 40 years. She has edited three books, including A Diplomat's Lady in Brazil: The Diary of Mary Robinson Hunter, 1834-1848, published by the Newport H isto rical Society. NOTES I Lette r, C harles Hunter to Mary Hunter, Jun e 23, 1861, Hunter Famil y Papers, Newporr (RI) Historical Society. 2 Stuart L. Bern ath, Squall Across the Atlantic: American Civil War Prize Cases and Diplomacy (Berkeley, CA: Un iversity of California Press, 1970), p. 48. 3 Report of Cha rles Hunter to Rea r Admiral David Farrag ut, October 11 , 1862, Official Record of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, Series 1, Vol. 19, p. 269. 4 Bern ath, SquallAcross the Atlantic, 104-106 . 5 Letter of Lord Ri chard Lyons to Secretary of State W illiam Sewa rd , January 8, 1863, Official Record of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, Series I, Vol. 19, 273-274. G Bernath , Squall Across the Atlantic, l 06-l 07. 7 Gleaves, Alben, "The Affair of the Blanche (October, 1862) An Incident of the Civil War," US Nava l Institute Proceedings 48, No. 10 (1922):1 669. 8 Finding of th e court-martial, Februa ry 16, 1863, Official Record ofthe Union and Confederate Navies in the War ofthe Rebellion, Series I, Vo l.
19, 276-277.
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