Unsigned printed Navy Department document, one page both sides, 5.5 x 8.5, May 3, 1864, regarding results of the court-martial of Commodore Charles Wilkes. Headed "General Order No. 33," the document outlines the five charges against Wilkes, noting that he was found guilty on each one. In fine condition.
The USS San Jacinto under Captain Charles Wilkes seized Confederate emissaries James M. Mason and John Slidell from the British mail packet RMS Trent off Cuba on November 8, 1861. The San Jacinto arrived at Hampton Roads, Virginia, on November 15, and reported the capture to Washington. Authorities ordered Wilkes to proceed to Boston to place Mason and Slidell in Fort Warren with other captured Confederates. The ship arrived in Boston on November 24.
The public and the northern press hailed Wilkes as a hero, and many attorneys justified the detention of the ambassadors. Some dissenting voices recalled that the seizure of Mason and Slidell resembled the search and impressment practices that led the United States into war with Great Britain in 1812. In addition, the British government demanded an apology for the violation of its neutral rights and insult to its national honor, as well as the release of the prisoners. The British public called for war. Initially enthusiastic about Wilkes’s actions, President Abraham Lincoln soon realized that the incident could result in British recognition of the Confederacy, or worse, war with Great Britain.
Declaring that Wilkes had acted on his own authority and that releasing the prisoners was consistent with the traditional American position on neutral rights, American authorities released Mason and Slidell at the end of the year. They boarded a Royal Navy ship for St. Thomas, where they took a British mail packet to England. Their release eased tensions and ended the crisis.
Wilkes continued in the service of the U.S. Navy and was promoted in rank from captain to commodore and placed in command of an important squadron in the West Indies to combat privateers. However, his combative personality and open conflict with Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles resulted in his court-martial in 1864. The nine members of the court martial included Rear Admiral Francis H. Gregory, Rear Admiral Silas H. Stringham, Rear Admiral Hiram Paulding, Rear Admiral Louis M. Goldsborough, four commodores, and a captain.
After the court-martial found him guilty of all five charges, including disobedience of orders and insubordination, the judges sentenced him to be publicly reprimanded and suspended from duty for three years. President Lincoln reduced the sentence to one year, at the end of which Wilkes retired from the Navy.
