Confederate privateer The Confederate privateers were privately owned ships that were authorized by the government of the Confederate States of America to attack the shipping of the United States . Although the appeal was to profit by capturing merchant vessels and seizing their cargoes , the government was most interested in diverting the efforts of the Union Navy away from the blockade of Southern ports , and perhaps to encourage European intervention in the conflict . At the beginning of the American Civil War , the Confederate government sought to counter the United States Navy in part by appealing to private enterprise to engage in privateering . This was the practice of fitting ordinary merchant vessels with modest armament , then sending them to sea to capture other , unarmed , merchant vessels . The captured vessels would be taken to the jurisdiction of a competent court . If the court found that the capture was legitimate , the ship and cargo would be forfeited and sold at auction . The proceeds would be distributed among owners and crew according to a contractual schedule . In the early days of the war , enthusiasm for the Southern cause was high , and many ship owners responded to the appeal by applying for letters of marque . Not all of those who gained authorization actually went to sea , but the numbers of privateers were high enough to be a major concern for US Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles . Many ships of the Union Navy were diverted from blockade duty in efforts to capture privateers . Most of the privateers managed to remain free , but enough were caught that the owners and crew had to consider the risk seriously . The capture of one privateer , schooner " Savannah " , resulted in an important court case that did much to define the nature of the Civil War itself . Initial enthusiasm could not be sustained . Privateers found it difficult to deliver their captures to Confederate courts , and as a result the profits dried up . By the end of the first year of the war , the risks far exceeded the benefits in the minds of most owners and crews . The practice continued only sporadically through the rest of the war . The Confederate government turned its efforts against Northern commerce over to commissioned raiders . The Civil War was the last time a belligerent power seriously resorted to privateering . The practice had already been outlawed among European countries by the Declaration of Paris ( 1856 ) . Following the war , the United States agreed to abide by the Declaration . More important than any international agreements , however , is the fact that the increased cost and sophistication of naval weaponry effectively removed any reasonable prospects for profit . Call for privateers . Following the 12 April 1861 bombardment of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor , President Abraham Lincoln called for raising 75 , 000 troops to put down the " rebellion " . In response , on the 17th Confederate President Jefferson Davis called both for raising troops and for the issuance of letters of marque . Although the Federal government had only 42 warships in commission , and most others that were laid up were unserviceable , the Confederate States had almost nothing to offer in opposition . With no navy yet established , they turned to the alternative of privateering . The issuance of letters of marque and reprisal was explicitly allowed by the Confederate Constitution and in fact was copied almost directly from the American Constitution . The privateeers were expected to prey upon commercial vessels of the enemy . Their pay would consist of the value of seized ships and cargoes , less legal costs . Two benefits would accrue to the Confederate government ; the disruption of commerce might persuade the European nations to pressure the North to end the conflict , and it would also force the North on its own to ease the blockade in order to chase down the raiders . By this time , the European maritime powers had declared the practice of privateering to be illegal , in the Declaration of Paris ( 1856 ) . According to the treaty , privateers were to be regarded as equivalent to pirates , meaning that they had the protection of no national flag . A privateer could be seized by the ships of any signatory nation and tried in that nation ' s courts . In 1856 , the United States had declined to ratify the treaty . When the Civil War broke out , the Lincoln government tried belatedly to make this nation a signatory . If the previous signatories had accepted American entry into the scope of the treaty , it would have meant that they were taking sides in the rebellion . Rather than do so , they insisted that the United States should get its own house in order first . The governments of the treaty participants , in order to avoid becoming involved in the conflict in North America , refused to regard Confederate privateers as pirates . In doing so , they had to acknowledge that a war existed , and therefore both parties had belligerent rights . Although the government of US President Abraham Lincoln objected that this gave legitimacy to what they considered to be properly merely an insurrection , the policy actually worked to the advantage of the Federal government because it meant that British , French , and Spanish courts , including those in colonies in the Caribbean , were closed to the privateers . They would therefore , in order to make good their prizes , have to take them into Confederate ports for adjudication . Shipowners throughout the South , and perhaps some from the North as well , responded with enthusiasm to the call . The initial burst of ardor was great enough that the Confederate government could lay down some rather stringent conditions , such as requiring the deposit of large bonds , to insure that the practice did not degenerate into outright piracy . The holders of letters of marque were also required to be the actual owners of the ships ; this was to discourage speculation in the letters . An anomalous feature of the legislation governing Confederate privateering was that it considered attacking enemy warships . To give an incentive in the absence of valuable cargoes of merchant vessels that could be sold for profit , the law provided for fixed monetary awards for capturing or destroying ships of the US Navy , with the size of the awards to be based on the numbers in the crews and the value of the ships taken or destroyed . This provision was never applied , as no Union warships were destroyed by privateers . A near exception was provided by the armored ram " CSS Manassas " , which was converted into a warship at New Orleans by riverboat Captain John A . Stevenson . Before he could take his ship into battle , however , she was seized by the Confederate Navy and put under the command of Lieutenant Alexander Warley . " Manassas " performed creditably at the Battle of the Head of Passes and Battle of Forts Jackson and St . Philip , but Stevenson and his backers got no reward . Privateering activity was strongest at the major ports , Charleston , Savannah , and New Orleans , and off the North Carolina coast where the trade of Northern cities with Caribbean and South American countries made use of the Gulf Stream to speed their northward voyages . The first capture of the war was made on 16 May 1861 , when the bark " Ocean Eagle " was taken by privateer " J . C . Calhoun " at the mouth of the Mississippi River . " Ocean Eagle " was registered in New England , so the capture was legal , but it is not clear that it aided the South , as she was carrying her cargo of lime to New Orleans . By disrupting the New Orleans trade , the privateers there aided the blockade . Privateering activity near Cape Hatteras , on the coast of North Carolina , was particularly irksome . Northern shipowners either dropped out of the Caribbean trade or transferred their registry to Great Britain . Insurers pressured the Federal government to defend their interests . In response , the Union sent a combined Army - Navy expedition to take possession of two Confederate forts at Hatteras Inlet . This was the first reclamation of seceded territory by the Union , and was also the first notable Union success of the war . Union suppression of privateers : three Charleston vessels . Charleston provided a large fraction of privateering activity , and it is fitting that the fates of three of them were particularly important in its early demise . The three vessels were " Petrel , " " Jefferson Davis , " and " Savannah . " Privateer " Savannah " . First to leave Charleston Harbor , on 2 June 1861 , was the privateer " Savannah " . Her second day at sea , she captured brig " Joseph , " and thereby became the first Charleston privateer to take a prize in the war . Later the same day , she chased another sail , but discovered too late that it was USS " Perry " , an armed brig . After a brief running gun battle , Captain Harrison Baker of " Savannah " surrendered his lightly armed ship . He and his men were put in irons and were taken to New York , where they were imprisoned and tried for piracy ( see below ) . Privateer " Jefferson Davis " . " Jefferson Davis " was a 187 - ton brig , originally named " Putnam " at her launching in about 1845 . Sometime later she was renamed " Echo , " and under that name was used in the illegal African slave trade . On 21 August 1858 she was captured by USS " Dolphin " off the coast of Cuba with 270 Africans aboard ; the Africans were transported to Liberia , where they were set free . " Echo " was taken to Key West , where a court held that her seizure was valid , and she was confiscated and sold at auction . Her new owners restored her original name and applied for a letter of marque at the start of the Civil War . A week later , they amended their application to rename their ship the " Jefferson Davis " in honor of the Confederate president . Despite the name changes , Northern newspapers consistently referred to her as " the former slaver " Echo . " " On 28 June 1861 , " Jefferson Davis " slipped out of Charleston Harbor and easily evaded the rudimentary blockade that was then in place . She remained at sea for nearly two months , making nine captures : the schooner " Enchantress , " brig " John Welsh , " schooner " S . J . Waring , " brig " Mary E . Thompson , " ship " Mary Goodell , " ship " John Carver , " bark " Alvarado , " schooner " Windward , " and brig " Santa Clara . " Of these , " Enchantress " was recaptured , " Alvarado " was chased ashore and destroyed by a blockader , " Windward , " " Mary E . Thompson , " and " Mary Goodell " were released with prisoners , " John Carver " was burned at sea , and the black cook of " S . J . Waring " killed three sleeping members of the prize crew and sailed her to New York City , where he was received as a hero . Only " John Welsh " and " Santa Clara " were taken into Southern ports for adjudication . " Jefferson Davis " attempted to enter St . Augustine , Florida , but arrived off the coast during a gale . Unwilling to risk capture by nearby blockaders , her captain chose not to ride out the storm . " Jefferson Davis " ran aground and could not get free . Her crew were saved , but the ship was a total loss . Privateer " Petrel " . " Petrel " had been Revenue Cutter " Aiken " before the war . Seized by the state of South Carolina , she was offered to the Confederate States Navy , but was rejected as unsuitable . Renamed " Petrel , " she was sold to private interests who outfitted her as a privateer . On 28 July 1861 , she left Charleston and the same day encountered USS " St . Lawrence " . Unable to escape , Captain William Perry decided to fight . In a twenty minute gun battle , " Petrel ' s " hull was holed and she began sinking . Perry then hauled down his flag . Four members of the crew were lost with the ship . The rest , including Perry , were put in irons and taken to Philadelphia , where they , like the crew of " Savannah , " were to be tried for piracy . Trial of the officers and crew of the privateer " Savannah " . Through much of the first year of the war , the government in Washington continued to regard the conflict as merely an insurrection , and that the Confederate government had no legal standing . According to the view of the Lincoln administration , the letters of marque issued by Jefferson Davis or the seceded states had no legal force , and the privateersmen who relied upon them did not represent a legitimate authority . Taking merchant vessels on the high seas therefore was piracy , with the penalty of death upon conviction . The first trial for piracy was of the 13 men , including Captain Thomas H . Baker , captured on privateer " Savannah . " The trial was held in the United States Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York . It began on 23 October 1861 , and from the start attracted wide public notice . The mere fact of the trial drew outrage in the Confederacy , where the government threatened retaliation , life for life . To increase pressure on Washington , the prisoners of war who would have been executed in retaliation were selected and their names made known . The trial went to the jury on the seventh day , but the next day the jury announced that it was deadlocked . The prisoners were sent back to prison to await a second trial . The United States government , however , had decided that it would no longer press the charges . The thirteen men would not be regarded as pirates , but as prisoners of war . They later were exchanged . The decision in effect meant that Washington was conceding the rights of belligerency to those who took up arms against it at sea . The end of privateering . With the examples of " Petrel , Jefferson Davis , " and " Savannah " before them , shipowners realized that privateering was no longer profitable , and the practice soon died out . Some privateers sailed during the remainder of the war , but none had even the qualified success of " Jefferson Davis . " The reason for the demise was not purely economic . Privateering represented a decentralization of power that was inconsistent with both technology and the evolution of the modern state . It fell victim to changes : steam power and gunnery in ships , more rapid communications that enabled greater central control , and the increasing reluctance of governments everywhere to relinquish power . It was this last that doomed privateering , according to Robinson , the primary modern historian of the Confederate privateers ; his opinion is echoed by Luraghi . The effort of the Confederate government turned from privateers to their regularly commissioned raiders , which had spectacularly more success in attacking the northern mercantile fleet . Long before the war was over , privateering could be evaluated , and clearly it was of minor importance . Only a handful of vessels fell victim , and these were balanced by losses of the privateers themselves . Two attempts at privateering on the west coast , the J . M . Chapman Plot and that of the Salvador Pirates resulted in capture and trials for piracy . References . Abbreviations used in these notes :