James Dunwoody Bulloch
Encyclopedia
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
's chief foreign agent
Foreign agent
A foreign agent is anyone who actively carries out the interests of a foreign country while located in another host country, but generally outside the protections offered to those working in their official capacity for a diplomatic mission. Foreign agents may be citizens of the host country...
in Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. He was the half-brother of a distinguished Confederate naval officer, Irvine Bulloch
Irvine Bulloch
Irvine Stephens Bulloch was an officer in the Confederate Navy and the youngest officer on the famed warship CSS Alabama. He fired its last shot before it was sunk off the coast of France at the end of the American Civil War. He was the half-brother of James Bulloch and a full brother of Martha...
and of Martha "Mittie" Bulloch Roosevelt. Mittie was the mother of future U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
and the grandmother of Eleanor Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and became an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to be an international...
.
Birth and early years
Bulloch was born near Savannah, GeorgiaSavannah, Georgia
Savannah is the largest city and the county seat of Chatham County, in the U.S. state of Georgia. Established in 1733, the city of Savannah was the colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later the first state capital of Georgia. Today Savannah is an industrial center and an important...
, the only child of Major James Stephens Bulloch
James Stephens Bulloch
James Stephens Bulloch was an early Georgia settler, planter and grandfather of Theodore Roosevelt and great-grandfather of Eleanor Roosevelt...
and Esther Amarintha Elliot, daughter of Senator John Elliott
John Elliott (Georgia)
John Elliott was a United States Senator from Georgia, serving from 1819 to 1825.Elliott graduated from Yale University in 1794 and returned to Georgia to practice law...
. After the death of his mother, his father enrolled James in private school in Hartford, Connecticut. Major Bulloch then married Martha (Stewart) Elliott on May 8, 1831. She was the second wife and widow of Senator John Elliott. James and Martha had four children: Anna Bulloch; Martha Bulloch; Charles Irvine Bulloch, who died at age two years nine months; and Irvine Bulloch
Irvine Bulloch
Irvine Stephens Bulloch was an officer in the Confederate Navy and the youngest officer on the famed warship CSS Alabama. He fired its last shot before it was sunk off the coast of France at the end of the American Civil War. He was the half-brother of James Bulloch and a full brother of Martha...
.
In 1838 Major Bulloch moved his family to Cobb County in the upper Piedmont to become a partner with Roswell King in a new cotton mill there. In what would become Roswell, Georgia
Roswell, Georgia
Roswell is a city located in northern Fulton County; it is a suburb of northern Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The 2010 Census population was 88,346. It is the eighth largest city in Georgia...
, the major had a grand home built, with the labor of craftsmen and slaves. When it was completed in 1839, the major and his family moved into Bulloch Hall
Bulloch Hall
Bulloch Hall is a Greek Revival mansion in Roswell, Georgia built in 1839. It is one of several historically significant buildings in the city and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This is where Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, mother of Theodore Roosevelt, 26th US President, lived as...
.
Major Bulloch, a planter, also had land in cotton cultivation. After his death, in 1849 Martha Bulloch still held 31 enslaved African-Americans, according to the Slave Schedules.
James D. Bulloch married Elizabethe Caskie in 1851. After her death, he married Hariott Cross Foster in 1857, and they had five children.
Naval service and European agent of Confederacy
Bulloch served in the United States NavyUnited States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
for 14 years before joining a private shipping company. When the southern states attempted to leave the Union
Union (American Civil War)
During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States, which was supported by the twenty free states and five border slave states. It was opposed by 11 southern slave states that had declared a secession to join together to form the...
and the Civil War began in 1861, one of the first acts of Washington was to begin a strangling Federal naval blockade
Union blockade
The Union Blockade, or the Blockade of the South, took place between 1861 and 1865, during the American Civil War, when the Union Navy maintained a strenuous effort on the Atlantic and Gulf Coast of the Confederate States of America designed to prevent the passage of trade goods, supplies, and arms...
on the Confederacy. With these developments, Bulloch decided to serve the southern cause. In 1861, he offered to assist the Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
by travelling to Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
, to arrange the Confederacy's foreign affairs in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Bulloch has been called the Confederacy's first secret service agent.
In 1861, almost immediately after the attack on Fort Sumter
Fort Sumter
Fort Sumter is a Third System masonry coastal fortification located in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. The fort is best known as the site upon which the shots initiating the American Civil War were fired, at the Battle of Fort Sumter.- Construction :...
, Bulloch traveled to Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
, England, and established a base of operations there. Britain was officially neutral in the conflict between North and South, but private and public sentiment favored the Confederacy. Britain was also willing to buy all the cotton that could be smuggled past the Union blockade
Union blockade
The Union Blockade, or the Blockade of the South, took place between 1861 and 1865, during the American Civil War, when the Union Navy maintained a strenuous effort on the Atlantic and Gulf Coast of the Confederate States of America designed to prevent the passage of trade goods, supplies, and arms...
, which provided the South with its only real source of hard currency. Bulloch established a relationship with the shipping firm of Fraser & Trenholm to buy and sell Confederate cotton; Fraser Trenholm became, in effect, the Confederacy's international bankers. Bulloch arranged for the construction and secret purchase of the commerce raider CSS Alabama
CSS Alabama
CSS Alabama was a screw sloop-of-war built for the Confederate States Navy at Birkenhead, United Kingdom, in 1862 by John Laird Sons and Company. Alabama served as a commerce raider, attacking Union merchant and naval ships over the course of her two-year career, during which she never anchored in...
as well as many of the blockade runner
Blockade runner
A blockade runner is usually a lighter weight ship used for evading a naval blockade of a port or strait, as opposed to confronting the blockaders to break the blockade. Very often blockade running is done in order to transport cargo, for example to bring food or arms to a blockaded city...
s that acted as the Confederacy's commercial lifeline. Bulloch arranged for cotton to be converted to hard currency, which he used to purchase war material including arms and ammunition, uniforms, and other supplies. Bulloch also arranged for the construction of the CSS Florida
CSS Florida
At least three ships of the Confederate States Navy were named CSS Florida in honor of the third Confederate state:* The blockade runner was commissioned in January 1862, captured by the U.S. Navy in April 1862, and became...
and with the Alabama, these two ships were destined to prey upon the Union's merchant shipping. James' brother, Irvine, would serve and fight on the CSS Alabama. James also purchased a large quantity of naval supplies. Next, realizing that he must arrange for a steady flow of new funds before he could go much farther with his purchasing program and also prompted by the fact that the materiel of war that he had already acquired would be useless to the Confederate cause as long as it remained in England—he decided to buy a steamship (the CSS Atlanta), to fill it with the ordnance that he and an agent of the Southern War Department had accumulated, and to take her to America. Bulloch returned to England and continued his business relationship with Fraser & Trenholm in Liverpool. Bulloch was also involved in constructing and acquiring a number of other warships and blockade runners for the Confederacy, including purchase of the Sea King which was renamed the CSS Shenandoah
CSS Shenandoah
CSS Shenandoah, formerly Sea King, was an iron-framed, teak-planked, full rigged ship, with auxiliary steam power, captained by Commander James Waddell, Confederate States Navy, a North Carolinian with twenty years' service in the United States Navy.During 12½ months of 1864–1865 the ship...
. Bulloch instructed Captain James Iredell Waddell
James Iredell Waddell
James Iredell Waddell was an officer in the United States Navy and later in the Confederate States Navy.-Biography:...
to sail “into the seas and among the islands frequented by the great American whaling fleet, a source of abundant wealth to our enemies and a nursery for their seamen. It is hoped that you may be able to greatly damage and disperse that fleet.” The CSS Shenandoah
CSS Shenandoah
CSS Shenandoah, formerly Sea King, was an iron-framed, teak-planked, full rigged ship, with auxiliary steam power, captained by Commander James Waddell, Confederate States Navy, a North Carolinian with twenty years' service in the United States Navy.During 12½ months of 1864–1865 the ship...
fired the last shots of the war on 28 June 1865 during a raid on American whalers in the Bering Sea.
Work for the Confederate Secret Service in North America
In the summer of 1864, future presidential assassin, John Wilkes BoothJohn Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth was an American stage actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. Booth was a member of the prominent 19th century Booth theatrical family from Maryland and, by the 1860s, was a well-known actor...
met with several well-known Confederate sympathizers at The Parker House in Boston, Massachusetts. In October 1864, Booth made a trip to Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Canada which has never been fully explained. At the time, Montreal was a well-known center of clandestine Confederate activities. He spent ten days in the city and stayed for a time at St. Lawrence Hall
St. Lawrence Hall
St. Lawrence Hall is a meeting hall in Toronto, Canada next to the St. Lawrence Market. It was built, alongside the new city hall, in 1850 after an 1849 fire destroyed much of the market. The Renaissance Revival style building was designed by William Thomas. It was created to be Toronto's public...
, a meeting place for the Confederate Secret Service
Confederate Secret Service
Confederate Secret Service is an umbrella term for a number of official and semi-official secret service operations conducted by the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War.-Overview:...
, and met at least one blockade runner there. Several historians indicate that it is possible that it was here that he also met Confederate Secret Service director James D. Bulloch as well as George Nicholas Sanders
George Nicholas Sanders
George Nicholas Sanders was a former official of the United States who was believed to have some involvement in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Sanders was born in Lexington, Kentucky. His father was Lewis Sanders, and his mother was Ann Nicholas.During his early career he was involved in...
, a one-time U.S. ambassador to Britain.
Writes Memoir and helps teach Theodore Roosevelt about early 19th Century naval warfare
As secret Confederate agents, James and Irvine Bulloch were not included in the general amnesty that came on the heels of the Civil War. They therefore decided to stay in Liverpool, where they became cotton importers and brokers, and became quite successful.During the 1880s, Theodore Roosevelt persuaded his uncle "Jimmie" to write and publish an account of his activities during the Civil War. The Secret Service of the Confederate States in Europe was published in two volumes published in 1883. TR wrote to his mother telling of his success with the project saying, "I have persuaded him [James Bulloch] to publish a work which only he possesses the materials to write." In return, Uncle Jimmie spent considerable time schooling his energetic nephew on the operations of wind-powered ships of the Age of Sail
Age of Sail
The Age of Sail was the period in which international trade and naval warfare were dominated by sailing ships, lasting from the 16th to the mid 19th century...
and explained much about ship-to-ship fighting tactics as Theodore had no personal experience or training in early 19th Century Naval warfare. This tutoring and Roosevelt's long hours spent in libraries and in researching the official records of the US Navy culminated in TR's book, "The Naval War of 1812."
Theodore Roosevelt on the Bullochs
In 1905, Theodore Roosevelt toured the South. After spending October 19 in North Carolina, and skipping South Carolina, Roosevelt visited Roswell, Georgia the next day. He spoke to the citizens there as his "neighbors and friends" and concluded his remarks as follows:- “It has been my very great good fortune to have the right to claim my blood is half southern and half northern, and I would deny the right of any man here to feel a greater pride in the deeds of every southerner than I feel. Of all the children, the brothers and sisters of my mother who were born and brought up in that house on the hill there, my two uncles afterward entered the Confederate service and served with the Confederate Navy.
- “One, the younger man, served on the Alabama as the youngest officer aboard her. He was captain of one of her broadside 32-pounders in her final fight, and when at the very end the Alabama was sinking and the Kearsarge passed under her stern and came up along the side that had not been engaged hitherto, my uncle, Irvine Bulloch, shifted his gun from one side to the other and fired the two last shots fired from the Alabama. James Dunwoody Bulloch was a commander in the Confederate service. …
- “Men and women, don’t you think I have the ancestral right to claim a proud kinship with those who showed their devotion to duty as they saw the duty, whether they wore the grey or whether they wore the blue? All Americans who are worthy the name feel an equal pride in the valor of those who fought on one side or the other, provided only that each did with all his strength and soul and mind his duty as it was given to him to see his duty.”
In Roosevelt's autobiography, he mentions his Bulloch uncles as follows:
- "My mother's two brothers, James Dunwoodie Bulloch and Irvine Bulloch, came to visit us shortly after the close of the war. Both came under assumed names, as they were among the Confederates who were at that time exempted from the amnesty. "Uncle Jimmy" Bulloch was a dear old retired sea-captain, utterly unable to "get on" in the worldly sense of that phrase, as valiant and simple and upright a soul as ever lived, a veritable Colonel NewcomeThe NewcomesThe Newcomes is an novel by William Makepeace Thackeray, first published in 1855.-Publication:The Newcomes was published serially over about two years, as Thackeray himself says in one of the novel's final chapters...
. He was a commander in the Confederate navy, and was the builder of the famous Confederate war vessel Alabama. My uncle Irvine Bulloch was a midshipman on the Alabama, and fired the last gun discharged from her batteries in the fight with the Kearsarge. Both of these uncles lived in Liverpool after the war. "
- My uncle Jimmy Bulloch was forgiving and just in reference to the Union forces, and could discuss all phases of the Civil War with entire fairness and generosity. But in English politics he promptly became a Tory of the most ultra-conservative school. Lincoln and Grant he could admire, but he would not listen to anything in favor of Mr. Gladstone. The only occasions on which I ever shook his faith in me were when I would venture meekly to suggest that some of the manifestly preposterous falsehoods about Mr. Gladstone could not be true. My uncle was one of the best men I have ever known, and when I have sometimes been tempted to wonder how good people can believe of me the unjust and impossible things they do believe, I have consoled myself by thinking of Uncle Jimmy Bulloch's perfectly sincere conviction that Gladstone was a man of quite exceptional and nameless infamy in both public and private life."
Later years
James died in LiverpoolLiverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
at 76 Canning Street, Canning, Liverpool
Canning, Liverpool
Canning is an area of Liverpool, England. It lies on the borders of Toxteth and the city centre and bounded to the south by Upper Parliament Street, to the east by Grove Street, to the north by Myrtle Street and to the west by Hope Street....
, England in 1901 at 77. In his will he left $30,000 to his nephew, Theodore, soon to become the 26th US President
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
. On his grave marker is the inscription, "an American by birth, an Englishman by choice."
The grave site can be visited at Totexth Cemetery
Toxteth Park Cemetery
Toxteth Park Cemetery is a graveyard on Smithdown Road, Liverpool, United Kingdom. It was opened on Monday 9 June 1856. It was the responsibility of the Toxteth Park Burial Board, which had been established by at least 1855....
, Smithdown Road
Smithdown Road, Liverpool
Smithdown Road is a street in Liverpool, England, which forms part of the A562. It is the location of Toxteth Park Cemetery and Wavertree Playground. Penny Lane junction, the subject of The Beatles song Penny Lane, is situated at the junction of Smithdown Road, Smithdown Place and Penny Lane...
, Toxteth
Toxteth
Toxteth is an inner city area of Liverpool, England. Located to the south of the city, Toxteth is bordered by Liverpool City Centre, Dingle, Edge Hill, Wavertree and Aigburth.-Description:...
, Liverpool, England.
See also
- Irvine BullochIrvine BullochIrvine Stephens Bulloch was an officer in the Confederate Navy and the youngest officer on the famed warship CSS Alabama. He fired its last shot before it was sunk off the coast of France at the end of the American Civil War. He was the half-brother of James Bulloch and a full brother of Martha...
half-brother - Martha "Mittie" Bulloch sister and mother of Theodore Roosevelt
- Theodore RooseveltTheodore RooseveltTheodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
nephew and 26th US President - Eleanor RooseveltEleanor RooseveltAnna Eleanor Roosevelt was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and became an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to be an international...
grandniece
External links
- Bulloch Hall - Historic Roswell, Georgia at www.bullochhall.org Bulloch Hall (Official Site)
- Port Cities: - James Dunwoody Bulloch at www.mersey-gateway.org
- When Liverpool Was Dixie at www.csa-dixie.com
- New Georgia Encyclopedia: James D. Bulloch (1823-1901) at www.georgiaencyclopedia.org