Old naval days; sketches from the life of Rear Admiral William Radford, U. S. N.

Preface

H7

In offering these pages to the public I should like to express my thanks to the U. S. Navy Department authorities for the facilities extended me for examining the logs and other records concerning the life and services of my father, Rear Admiral Wm. Radford; and I desire furthermore to acknowledge my indebtedness to the members of the Navy Department Library staff for their valuable assistance in this work.

S. R. DE Meissner.

Contents

CHAPTEK PAGE

I. Introduction i

II. Early Days in St. Louis lo

Chapter I Introduction

To the indifferent orthography of former days, as well as to the destruction, during the Revolutionary period, of the records of Goochland County, Virginia, may be attributed, at least in part, the difficulties encountered in attempting to obtain authentic information concerning the Radford ancestry.

Once indeed I heard my father say that he believed his greatgrandfather was the first member of our family to come to this country; but, while that may have been the case, a study of the annals of Henrico Parish, Virginia, shows that the name was one well known there many years before that time.

Old records mention three youths of the name of Radford, of ages varying from sixteen to twenty years, who left England in the year 1635 to seek their fortunes in the Western world. Of these three but one came to Virginia, the others going respectively to '' ye Bermudos," and to the island of St. Christopher in the Lesser Antilles. He who came to Virginia was one Francis Ratford, who " embarqued in the Primrose, July 27th, 1635, ^g^ 20."

The Christian name " Francis " we find recurring through succeeding generations, while the family name is mentioned indifferently as Ratford, Redford, or Radford.

In a memorial volume of genealogy entitled: " The Cabells and their Kin," we read under the heading: " Redford (Radford)" :

"In 1726 Dr. William Cabell, in St. James Parish, Henrico, was Under Sheriff to Captain John Redford, who was High Sheriff of Henrico."

This same Captain John Redford appears upon the register of " Curie's Church " as Vestryman from 1730 until 1752, in which latter year " Mr. Samuel Duval was elected Vestryman in room of John Redford, deceased."

Captain John Redford left a numerous family, and the Vestry Book of St. James' Parish, Goochland County, bears upon its pages for the year 1771 the family name of Redford which, in connection with the same baptismal names, becomes in 1775 Radford.

The foregoing explains — in the United States War Department's record of the services of Sergeant William Radford of the Continental Army (my father's grandfather) — the interpolation of the words: "borne also as Redford."

While in my mind there exists no doubt as to the above mentioned Sergeant William Radford's being a grandson of Captain John — though from which of the latter's five sons, Francis, John, William, Milner or Edward he was descended it would be impossible to say — still, because of there being no documentary evidence we will simply dismiss the question and take up the history of the Radford ancestry from the point where we find definite data.

My father's grandfather, William Radford ist, was born in Goochland County, Virginia, in the year 1759, the only son of a widow of Tory proclivities. While visiting with his mother, during the summer of 1776, at the home of the Geddes Winstons' in Hanover County, this lad of seventeen went with a numerous party to hear a patriotic address delivered by the recently elected

INTRODUCTION 3

Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Patrick Henry. So carried away were his hearers by the eloquence of this orator, whom Eckenrode describes as " the first great Representative of the American Democracy and still its most splendid and magnetic Personality," that a company was then and there formed, which young Radford joined in direct opposition to his mother's will, nor could any subsequent pleading on her part induce him to reconsider his decision.

Mr. Charles Dabney, a Hanover man, speaks in a letter of that period of " The Independent Company of Hanover," formed at " Merry Oaks," a tavern in the neighborhood of Hanover Court House, where Patrick Henry " in a very animated speech pointed out the necessity of our having recourse to arms in defense of our rights, and recommended in strong terms that we should immediately form ourselves into a volunteer company."

In the records of the U. S. War Department, to which reference has already been made, we read : " One William Radford (borne also as Redford) served as Sergeant in Captain Holmon Mennis's Company, ist Virginia Regiment, Commanded by Colonel Burgess Ball, Revolutionary War. He enlisted August 4th, 1776, to serve during the war, and his name appears on the rolls for the period from June, 1777, to November, 1779."

The date of August 4, 1776, evidently refers to that of the formation of this volunteer company, and that of June, 1777, to the time of his transference to the ist Virginia Regiment of the Continental Army.

We have no further record of his service, beyond that of a paper received from the Virginia State Library which certifies '• that William Radford enlisted in the ist Va. Cont'l Regm't, in the year 1777, that he re-enlisted for the war and served as Serg't and Serg't Maj'r till the day of Buford's defeat, when he was wounded and died of his wounds while in tlie service of the United States,

(signed) Ballard Smith, late Lt. ist, Va. Regm't,

Despite the apparent finality of this statement everything points to the fact that the above mentioned paper relates to our ancestor, with, however, the essential difference that instead of " dying of his wounds " he was made a prisoner and sent with other captives to England. For similar cases we have but to glance at the records of the recent war, where numbers reported as dead have since returned safely to their homes.

In his "History of the American Revolution," Fiske writes: " Charleston having surrendered " — in May, 1780, — " to an overwhelming superiority of British force, Clinton sent expeditions to seize other strategic points in the interior of South Carolina. A regiment of the Virginia line, under Colonel Buford, that had been hastening to the relief of the beleaguered city turned back upon hearing of its fall and retreated northward." But Tarleton — " England's hunting leopard," — was too swift for them, and " overtaking Buford at Waxhaws, near the North Carolina border, he there cut the Virginia force to pieces, slaying 113, and capturing the rest. Not a vestige of an American army was left in all South Carolina."

Fiske furthermore quotes an item from Tarleton's report of this engagement which is not without interest in connection with our subject.

" In it," writes the historian, " he (Tarleton) represents that his advance guard overtook and charged a Sergeant and four of Buford's cavalary in rear of their infantry and took them prisoners."

That battle, as the report shows, was a terrible massacre, and

INTRODUCTION 5

what more natural than that errors should have occurred in the lists of those killed or taken prisoners. It must furthermore be borne in mind that Lieut. Ballard Smith's report was written seven years after the battle, and that memory oft-times plays us treacherous tricks.

Certain it is that Sergeant William Radford was made prisoner by Banastre Tarleton, and sent with other prisoners to England, where they were confined, according to family tradition, in the Tower of London. After a long imprisonment Radford, together with a comrade by the name of Floyd, managed to escape, and crossing the Channel, the two young men presented themselves to their country's great friend and ally. General La Fayette, who, " treated them with the utmost hospitality, and furnished them with ample funds to enable them to return to Virginia." ^

While in Paris William Radford was presented by General La Fayette to Queen Marie Antoinette, and there are in the family a brace of pistols and a pair of golden buckles said to have been received by him as presents from this gracious and unhappy Queen, whose ever fervent admirer he proved himself by giving her name to one of his own daughters (Marie Antoinette Radford — Mrs. Henry Edmundson), which name is perpetuated in that branch of the family to the present day.

Returning to Virginia, Radford found that his mother had married a Colonel Prather, and had gone with him to the West, and, *' despite diligent inquiry " he was never able to learn anything further about her. While such a thing appears incredible today, all family records testify as to the accuracy of this statement. It must furthermore be remembered that Sergeant Radford had been officially reported as killed in the battle with Tarleton's forces, and this report, had she seen it, would have definitely eliminated from his mother's mind all hope of his possible return.

1 George Wythe Munford: "The Two Parsons," a family record.

In his distress he bethought him of his mother's friend Mrs. Winston, and going to Laurel Grove, the Winstons' beautiful home in Hanover County, he, although unable to obtain tidings of her whom he sought, met there, and shortly afterward married, Rebecca, eldest daughter of the household.

" Within the first quarter of the century," writes the historian William Wirt Henry, " three brothers of the ancient and honorable family of Winston, of Yorkshire, England, emigrated from Wales to the Colony of Virginia. They were named William, Isaac, and James, and from them have descended a numerous posterity, which has embraced many of the most distinguished of American citizens."

William, or William Essex, to give his full name, married Sarah Geddes, and it was their son, Geddes Winston, who was the OA^ner of Laurel Grove, where he lived with his family.

Governor Henry's mother was Sarah, daughter of Isaac Winston, who married first Colonel John Syme, and after his death John Henry, father of Patrick. Geddes Winston and Sarah Winston Henry were consequently first cousins.

William Radford and his young wife settled in Richmond, where they " for some time resided in a large frame building, with a twostory portico in front, which then stood on the corner of Grace and First streets."

Amongst other activities Mr. Radford " became joint owner with his brother-in-law, Mr. Thomas Rutherford, of the Albion Mills in Richmond."

That William Radford was a member of the Episcopal Church is shown by an old prayer book still owned by the family, bearing his name with the years of his birth and marriage and the date of his death. On April 4, 1803, after twenty happy married years, he departed this life, leaving his wife comfortably pro-

INTRODUCTION 7

vided for as to fortune, and with six children, one of whom was my grandfather, John Radford.

The other children of William and Rebecca Radford were: Carlton, who moved to Kentucky, where he and his family were lost sight of; William II, born May 27, 1787, a prominent citizen of Bedford County and president of a bank in Lynchburg; (it M-as for his branch of the family that the town of Radford, Va., was named) ; Mary (Mrs. John Preston) ; Sarah (Mrs. Wm. Munford) ; and Marie Antoinette (Mrs. Edmundson), born in 1793, the youngest of the family.

Rebecca Radford outlived her husband by seventeen years; and Colonel Wythe Munford, her grandson, who remembered his grandmother perfectly, said of her: " She had a wonderful talent for description and anecdote, and there were few children she could not attract by telling them incidents of the Revolutionary War."

On December 23, 1806, John Radford (son of William and Rebecca), then twenty-one years of age, married Harriet Kennerly, a bride of eighteen, at the home of her uncle. Colonel George Hancock, at Fincastle, Va.; and by the same ceremony that united this young couple Colonel Hancock's eldest daughter, Mary, became the wife of John Caswell Griffin, of Fincastle.

Samuel Kennerly, father of Harriet, came of a family claiming descent from one James Kennerly who was knighted on the battlefield of Falkirk, in 1298. Responding immediately to the call for volunteers at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, he had served in the Cherokee Expedition, and was present at the battle of Guilford, March 15, 1781, where, as a War Department record tells us, he was wounded in the head. He was promoted for rescuing a regimental flag at the battle of the Cowpens, which flag was in the family's possession until 1829 when the house in Fincastle was destroyed by fire, and this, with other valuable relics, was lost.

Samuel Kennerly's wife was Mary Hancock, sister of the Colonel. The Hancocks were amongst the founders of the Colony of Virginia; the first William Hancock came over with Captain John Smith, " in search of Forrest for his buildings of ships," and was " massacred by ye salvages at Thorpes' House, Berkeley Hundred."

In 1630, Augustin, son and heir of William, came to Virginia to claim his father's estate, and from him, as is shown by the Hancock family Bible, is descended the Virginia family of that name.

Harriet's uncle, George Hancock, served through the Revolutionary War, and, being on Pulaski's staff, the young Colonel received the body of the illustrious Pole as he fell at the siege of Savannah. The war ended, George Hancock studied law, married Margaret Strother, niece of Samuel Kennerly, and settled at Fincastle. He attained great distinction as a lawyer, and served under General George Washington's administration as member of Congress from Virginia.

Harriet Kennerly, born July 25, 1788, was but a child when her mother died, and from that time she became a member of her uncle's household, growing up as one of his family, but because of this suffering no estrangement from her father or her brothers George and James. To her cousin Julia Hancock, who was one year younger than herself, Harriet was devotedly attached, this attachment, which was reciprocal, remaining unbroken throughout their lives.

John and Harriet Radford settled in Fincastle, Va., and there on September 9, 1809, William Radford, the subject of these records, was born.

Of his earliest years we have no account, and only know that

INTRODUCTION 9

when he was but two years old his parents moved to Maysville, Ky., where, on March 5, 18 12, a daughter, Mary Preston, was born. Four years later — on June 6, 18 16, — another son, John Desborough, was added to the family, and v/ithin a year after that event John Radford — then but thirty-one years of age — was killed in a hunting accident. Having shot a wild boar, he was bending, knife in hand, to despatch his prey, when the beast, rallying unexpectedly, made a last desperate lunge and gored his would-be captor in a vital spot.

Left a widow with three children, of whom William the eldest was only in his eighth year, Harriet determined she would no longer remain in Maysville; nor was she long in coming to a decision as to her destination. Her brother James was then living in St. Louis, where was also her beloved cousin Julia, who, one year after her own marriage, had become the wife of General William Clark, then Territorial Governor of Missouri, and what more natural than that her thoughts should turn to them? Her father, having remarried, had no need of her, therefore, with the briefest possible delay, she set forth upon that momentous journey which was to take her forever from the spot where she had spent the few happy years that had met with so tragic a termination.

Chapter II Early Days In St. Louis

It was a stirring time for a wide-awake boy of William Radford's age to arrive in this great frontier town and to find himself plunged, as it were, into the very heart of its teeming activities.

Harriet Radford and her children made their home with her brother James Kennerly, who was then private secretary to Governor Clark. Whether they arrived in time for his wedding we do not know, but on June loth, of that year, 1817, James Kennerly married filise Marie Saugrain, daughter of a distinguished French scientist, who was the first permanent physician to settle "in St. Louis. He it was who had furnished Captains Lewis and Clark with thermometers, scientific apparatus and medicines, as well as with the first known sulphur matches, which proved so valuable an asset upon their memorable journey. The famous transcontinental expedition of Captains Lewis and Clark left Pittsburg in the autumn of 1803 ; wintered at River Dubois, opposite the mouth of the Missouri, during the winter of 1803-04; started up the Missouri in May, 1804; wintered in 1804-05 at Fort I^Iandan, on the ^Missouri; reached the Pacific Ocean, by way of Columbia River, in November following; spent the winter of 1805-06 at Fort Clatsop, near the mouth of the Columbia; and returning reached St. Louis September 23, 1806.

It was during the final days of one of the greatest Indian councils ever held in the Mississippi Valley that Mrs. Radford and her

EARLY DAYS IN ST. LOUIS ii

children reached St. Louis, This council, which had been called together by Governor Clark for the purpose of acquainting the Indian chiefs with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent in December, 1 8 14, and the consequent cessation of hostilities between the United States and Great Britain, lasted three years.

In summoning together the tribes for this important occasion James Kennerly had played no insignificant role, as he had volunteered — when the most intrepid of the scouts faltered — for the hazardous duty of bearing the Governor's message to the hostile Sioux and Chippewas. At the risk of his life the faithful secretary went up the Mississippi to bring in the absent tribes, saying grimly upon his return: " The Chippewas would have murdered me but for the timely arrival of the Sioux,"

Deputations to the number of two thousand came down the river in barges to make treaties and settle troubles arising out of the war of 18 12. The streets of St. Louis swarmed with red warriors, making the town resplendent with life and color as they moved with stately stride to and from the Government House, " The Chiefs brought with them their squaws and children; Sioux from the Lakes, in canoes of white birch, light and bounding as cork; Sioux of the Missouri in clumsy pirogues; Mandans in skin coracles, barges, dug-outs, and cinnamon-brown fleets of last year's bark." ^

'' About the first of July," writes Mrs. Dye, " Governor Clark of IMissouri, Governor Edwards of Illinois, and Auguste Chouteau of St. Louis opened the Council — all in queues, high collared coats, and ruffled shirts, facing each other and the chiefs."

In front of their tents sat the tawny warriors, listening with dignified attention to the interpretation of each sentence.

" The long and bloody war is over. The British have gone

* jMrs. E. E. Dye, " The Conquest."

back over the Big Water," said Governor Clark, " and now we have sent for you, my brothers, to conclude a treaty of peace."

That first summer and the next, and yet again the next, were spent in making treaties, until at last there was peace along the border and all the haughty chiefs had signed. And it was during the final days of this greatest of Indian Councils that William Radford made his first acquaintance with St. Louis. Many happy hours of his boyhood days must have been spent in the Government House, which was then the Rene Kiersereau cottage on the Rue Royale, of which Mrs. Dye says: "The old French house of Rene Kiersereau dated back to the beginning of St. Louis. Built of hea\y timbers and plastered with rubble and mortar, it bade fair still to withstand the wear and tear of generations. With a long low porch in front and rear, and a fence of cedar pickets like a miniature stockade, it differed in no respect from the other modest cottages of St. Louis. Back of the house rushed the river; before it, locusts and lightning bugs flitted in the summer garden. Beside the Kiersereau house Clark had his Indian office in the small stone store of Alexis Marie."

Here, then, it was that William Radford played in his youth with his cousin Meriwether Lewis Clark, born some months earlier but in the same year. It is easy to picture to oneself the eager interest these two venturesome boys must have taken in all the daily happenings of the time. A wonderful event, during that summer of 1817, was the arrival of the first steamboat at St. Louis. To greet it the entire population flocked to the river brink, and the Indians, alarmed lest it should climb the bank and pursue them, rushed pellmell into Clark's Council House to implore protection from the monster.

Young Radford had ample opportunity, during those early years, to become well acquainted with the aborigines, whose visits

EARLY DAYS IN ST. LOUIS 13

to St. Louis in no wise ceased with the closing of the Council. As regularly as the coming of spring friendly Indians would appear and settle themselves around the lake at " Maracasta," Governor Clark's farm west of St. Louis, until the grounds would be fairly covered with wigwams. Furthermore, James Kennerly, (who, in addition to his other duties had been appointed Indian Deputy), kept open house for the chiefs at Cote Plaquemine (Persimmon Hill), his country home, which was also, as has been said, the home of Harriet Radford and her children.

To those early associations William Radford's life-long fondness for hunting was undoubtedy due, as well as his more than ordinary skill with the rifle and shot-gun. One animal there was, however, which in later years, he invariably declined to shoot, and that was a deer, giving as a reason that having, when a young man, shot one of these lordly denizens of the wilds, he had been met, in stooping to give the animal its coup-de-grace, by so humanly imploring a glance that he never had the heart to kill another.

"In 1818 Governor Clark built an imposing residence with a large hall which for many years was used as a Council Room for Indian Treaty Conventions, and as a Museum of Indian curiosities. Here were Indian dresses decorated with feathers; weapons, such as bows and arrows; battle clubs and stone axes; birch bark canoes suspended from the ceiling; skins of animals; the bones of a mastodon and other interesting specimens and relics. This hall was also the scene of numerous banquets, patriotic celebrations and other popular gatherings, thus largely entering into the daily life of St. Louis three quarters of a century ago. . . . The General was also prominent in the Indian fur trade of the great region whose gates Lewis and himself had opened to commerce. He was one of those who helped to establish Christ Church in St. Louis, thus becoming one of the founders of the Protestant Episcopal Communion west of the Mississippi." ^

In this house William Radford spent many of his early days in St. Louis and it later became his home. INIany a time have I heard my father speak of that great Council Hall and of the stirring scenes he had witnessed there, as the Indians came to Governor Clark for the settlement of every difficulty, and to them his word was law.

There was one story which my father always enjoyed telling. After he had grown to manhood, being present one day in the Council Hall during one of these stately gatherings, he beheld an officer of the United States Army step up to an imposing chief, and heard him (evidently desirous of making friendly advances) say: " We should be friends, for I also have Indian blood in my veins."

Calmly the chief scrutinized the speaker, and then drawing himself haughtily aloof and pointing to the latter's curly ebon locks, he said gravely:

"No Indian— NIG! "

When, as a young girl, I was visiting at the old Clark place on the outskirts of St. Louis, then the property of my uncle Mr. Jefferson Clark, my uncle in speaking to me of what a wonderful shot my father was, told me that he himself, when a lad, had one day done something in that line which he considered very creditable, but upon appealing for commendation to an old family servant had been able to elicit from him only the words: " 'Tain't bad, Mar'sr Jeff, but you'll never shoot like Mar'sr William."

In the spring of 1819 there came from Paris to St. Louis a

1 Extract from address of Prof. Reuben G. Thwaites, secretary of the Historical Society of Wisconsin, and editor of the Lewis and Clark journals, at the unveiling of the Memorial Tablet which marks the spot where stood the former residence of Governor Clark, at Broadway and Olive Street. This ceremony took place on September 23, 1906, the one hundredth anniversary of the return of the expedition.

EARLY DAYS IN ST. LOUIS 15

young American artist, one Chester Harding, who painted manyportraits there.

Among his sitters were Governor Clark and his wife Julia, as also Harriet Radford, and those three portraits are in the possession of the family today.

Hardly were these portraits completed, however, before Julia was taken ill, and in accordance with the advice of their physician, Governor Clark took his wife and their three boys, Meriwether Lewis, George Rogers (named for Governor Clark's distinguished brother), and Julius, to Fotheringay, the beautiful home built by Colonel Hancock in the mountains of Virginia shortly after Julia's marriage. There for a time Mrs. Clark appeared to rally, so much so indeed that when, the succeeding winter, important matters demanded Governor Clark's presence in St. Louis, he left her with no apprehension of danger.

Hardly, however, had he reached his journey's end before a swift m.essenger came bearing the dread tidings that his wife had been taken from this world. Returning immediately to Fotheringay he there attended a double funeral, Colonel Hancock having survived his daughter but a few days.

High on the hillside overlooking the Happy Valley, where flow the head waters of the Roanoke, in the white mausoleum he had himself caused to be excavated from the solid rock, the earthly remains of Col. George Hancock and his daughter Julia were laid, and to this day the darkies of that region say with trembling: " De Cunnel, he set up dah in a stone chair so's he cud look down de valley and see his slaves at deir work."

When General Clark returned with his three little boys to St. Louis, Missouri had become a State, a new governor had been elected, and the seat of government had been transferred to St. Charles. But although governors came and governors went, the officer who had held the position through seven Territorial years was always addressed as Governor Clark.

Family tradition has it that Julia, upon realizing the serious character of her illness, had suggested to General Clark that, should he think of remarrying he would " bear in mind " her cousin Harriet.

Be that as it may, the fact is that a little over one 3^ear after Julia's death, in the autumn of 1821, — to quote IMrs. Dye — " the most noted citizen of St. Louis married the handsome widow Radford." Again, in speaking of this event, the author of " The Conquest " writes that the " vivacious Creole girls gossiping over their tea in their wide verandas exclaimed, ' From Philadelphia she haf a wedding trousseau,' and yet again, ' she haf de majesty look, like one queen.' "

From the home of her brother, James Kennerly, taking her two younger children, Mary and John, with her, went Harriet to take her place as the wife of the ex-Governor, then Superintendent of Indian Affairs, " whose word was Indian law from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean."

And what of Harriet's twelve year old son William at that time? Just why he should have elected to act as he did upon the occasion of his mother's marriage to General Clark has always remained a mystery, but, for whatever cause it may have been, he stoutly refused to leave his uncle's home for that of his stepfather, and so determined was he about the matter that his mother was obliged to follow the one course remaining open under the circumstances, and that was, to send him away to boarding-school.

Thus, by ways devious and unlooked-for, does an All-Wise Providence lead man to the fulfilling of his destiny.

Chapter III La Fayette

On the yth of September, 1825, the U. S. frigate Brandywine lay at anchor at the mouth of the Potomac River.

Built at the Washington Navy Yard for the special service of bearing General La Fayette and his suite on their return journey to France, the Brandywine had been launched on June i6th, and Commodore Morris says in his autobiography that the " officers had been selected so that there should be at least one from each state, and when practicable, descendants of persons distinguished in the Revolution."

She was named for Brandywine Creek, Delaware, the scene of the battle in which La Fayette was wounded on September II, 1777.

" It is customary," wrote President Adams to La Fayette, " to designate our frigates by the names of the rivers of the United States; to conform to this custom, and make it accord with the desire we have to perpetuate a name that recalls that glorious event of our revolutionary war, in which you sealed with your blood your devotion to our principles, we have given the name of Brandywine to the new frigate to which we confide the honorable mission of returning you to the wishes of your country and family. The command of the Brandywine will be intrusted to one of the most distinguished officers of our Navy, Captain Charles Morris, who has orders to land you under the protection of our flag, in whatever European port you please to designate."