Western Carolina Democrat and French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1913-1915, 1915-09-09
LAST LIVING SURVIVOR OF
.CONFED SHIP ALABAMA HERE
S. j. GallamOre, Who Once Lived Here
Tells Interesting Story of His Life

161S 1MbUECStAMS spgOAy VA AAS INT
Silas J. Gallamore, the last living
survivor of the crew of the privateer
Alabama, the little ship that sailed
the seas for the Confederacy in the
Civil war, and whose daring drove he
Union commerce from the ocean, is in
Hendersonville.
Seventy seven years old he is
remarkably well preserved, and the
calmness Of his countenance tells moth
ing of the young adventurer, who ship
ped with theaudasious Alabama in
England, 1863, which lived through the
most tempesIuous career of any Of the
old time wooden men-of-war.
Just the old sailor he appears, and
his presence here now is due to the
fact that he wants on the pension
roll, so that he may get the $40 a
month that the bill passed by the low
er house will give the old Confederates
of Oklahoma State.
There is not single record of the
crew of the Misunderstanding went
down with the Ship" said the old man
today. That's why came up here
to see about 1t, and my old tar-heel
friend, Bill Alexander. is going to help
me-" ~
About GaIIamOre.
Gallamore was born in Buncombe
county, North Carolina in 1887, While
still in his teens he went to jack
sonville, Florida and began life as a
sailor. From there he drifted to New,
York, where he signed with a whaling
ship, rounded Cape Horn, and went as
far as San Francisco. Here he tired
of the whaler, and by stealing boat,
he went ashore and stayed
At Frisco he became one of the
crew of the Primadonna, a merchant
packet of an English company, and
on this ship he cruised the world.
The Primadonna took him to Liver
pool finally, and from here he made
trip to Glasgow, Scotland.
At this time England had just
commissioned the Alabama to fight for
the cause of the South in the Civil
war. In Glasgow, the crew was being
signed. and Gallamore signed with
them. For eighteen months thereafter
he lived on the liveliest little war
boat that floated at that time.
We were out to capture anything
from the Yankees that would help the
South's soldiers live" says the old man
in recounting his story. "We were
either fighting or running all the time.
We sank several ships, and off Mobile
bay, we put the Hatteras to the bottom.
We made things so hot for Yankee
commerce that we drove it from the
seas"
Finally. on the 10th of May, 1864,
the Kearsarge, a Union warship, under
Captain WinsIow: found us at Claus
burg, OF the coast of France. We
fought 'em hard, and we would agot
'em. but we were just a wooden ship,
while they had their steel cables wrap
ped around her hull for armor. Any
way, our last shot tore her rudder
off,"
One of Last Two.
Captain Sims and myself were the
last men to leave the ship Ct was the
quartermaster, the man who steered)
and when we jumped, the water was al
ready up to our hips on the deck. Half
the crew was lost, but the rest of us
were picked out of the water by an
English yacht. the Deerhound, which
took us to Glasgow again. left the
captain there and that is the last I
ever saw of him. I think he died at
his home in Alabama"
Gallamore is the only one left of his
fathers family. He Quit seafaring and
came to Oklahoma City in 1900 and
has lived in Pinsburg county ever
since.
DR.. Lew Allen, the surgeon of the
Alabama, died in Dallas two or three
years ago." he said. eff I'd known
there was one that close, would have
walked all the way to see him. Cap
tain Sims was the last one of the boys
saw"
am a democrat" he continued,
and never voted anything but the
straight democratic ticket, and I've
voted in places where was the only
democrat there. I never voted for but
two presidents that were elected
Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson.