Irvine Bulloch
Encyclopedia
Irvine Stephens Bulloch (25 June 1842 – 14 July 1898) 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 Bulloch Roosevelt. Martha was the mother of future U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt
and the grandmother of Eleanor Roosevelt
.
to James Stephens Bulloch
and Martha Stewart Elliott, and was the half brother of James D. Bulloch
. His family had moved to Roswell, Georgia
in 1839, and he grew up in the beautiful antebellum
mansion, Bulloch Hall
.
in England
. The Nashville returned to the Confederate States of America
, and the James River squadron, where she was renamed the Rattlesnake.
Midshipman Bulloch was then posted to England for foreign service and he served with distinction aboard the CSS Alabama. Irvine's illustrious nephew, President Theodore Roosevelt, maintained that Irvine fired the last two shots from that vessel.
After the loss of the Alabama, Irvine returned to Liverpool
and was sent out on the Laurel in October 1864 to join the Shenandoah as sailing master. It was Irvine who navigated the Shenandoah from just off San Francisco
back to Liverpool, arriving on November 6, 1865. Upon his return to Liverpool, Irvine discovered that he had been promoted to lieutenant
, but had no government to serve in that capacity as the Civil War was over and the Confederacy had collapsed into history.
In 1869, when his sister Mittie and the Roosevelt family toured Europe, the first port they reached was in Liverpool where a joyous reunion took place. Although TR at first seem to show no interest in his uncle's exploits, he was no johnny-come-lately to naval topics and history. In fact, Bulloch's nephew's childhood had been filled with stories told him by Bulloch's sister, Mittie. TR would write that his mother used "to talk to me as a little shaver about ships, ships, ships and the fighting of ships, until they sank into the depths of my soul."
Filled with his mother and uncle's stories, by the time TR went to Harvard
, he was already dreaming of writing a book on a neglected aspect of American Military History
, role played by the US Navy during the War of 1812
. Indeed, right in the middle of classes on mathematics at Harvard, (Morris TR Vol 1, 565) TR's mind would wander from his tedious mathematics classes to the accomplishments of the infant US Navy, the clash of the "fighting tops".
When TR's father took the family on what they called their "grand tour" in 1869, TR spent time with those uncles in Liverpool, their first stopping port on their trip. When TR graduated from Harvard, he published his first book, the excellent story of the US Navy's origins and actions in the War of 1812
called The Naval War of 1812, which, in part, was an outgrowth of the influence of his two Bulloch uncles and the more direct influence of Irvine's brother, James.
on the Confederacy. With these developments, Irvine and his brother James decided to serve the southern cause. In 1861, Irvine became a midshipman on the CSS Alabama
, its construction having been arranged by his brother James and secret purchase by the Confederacy as a raider to prey upon Union shipping. Irvine fought against the United States government long after the surrender of Lee. He fired the last gun on the Cruiser CSS Alabama
before it went down in the harbor of Cherbourg, France. His sword is still in the Confederate Museum in Liverpool, England. It would be seen by president and Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt
upon their visit to the city. At that same museum, it was of his gallant uncle that Mr. Roosevelt spoke in such affectionate and with such high praise.
and Cerebral Hemmorage. Irvine Stephens Bulloch, CSN (Ret), was buried in Toxteth Park Cemetery Liverpool, in a grave alongside that of his brother's family.
toured the South. After spending October 19 in North Carolina
and skipping South Carolina
, TR 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 Dunwody Bulloch was an admiral 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 TR's autobiography, he mentions his Bulloch uncles in this way:
"My mother's two brothers, James Dunwody 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 Newcome
. He was an Admiral 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. "
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...
. He fired its last shot before it was sunk off the coast of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
at the end of 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 James Bulloch
James Dunwoody Bulloch
James Dunwody Bulloch was the Confederate States of America's chief foreign agent in Great Britain during the American Civil War. He was the half-brother of a distinguished Confederate naval officer, Irvine Bulloch and of Martha "Mittie" Bulloch Roosevelt. Mittie was the mother of future U.S...
and a full brother of Martha Bulloch Roosevelt. Martha 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...
.
Childhood
Irvine was born in Roswell, GeorgiaRoswell, 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...
to 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 Martha Stewart Elliott, and was the half brother of James D. Bulloch
James Dunwoody Bulloch
James Dunwody Bulloch was the Confederate States of America's chief foreign agent in Great Britain during the American Civil War. He was the half-brother of a distinguished Confederate naval officer, Irvine Bulloch and of Martha "Mittie" Bulloch Roosevelt. Mittie was the mother of future U.S...
. His family had moved to 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...
in 1839, and he grew up in the beautiful antebellum
Antebellum architecture
Antebellum architecture is a term used to describe the characteristic neoclassical architectural style of the Southern United States, especially the Old South, from after the birth of the United States in the American Revolution, to the start of the American Civil War...
mansion, 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...
.
Naval service in the Confederacy
In 1861 Bulloch served as a midshipman aboard the CSS Nashville, visiting the port of SouthamptonSouthampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
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...
. The Nashville returned to 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...
, and the James River squadron, where she was renamed the Rattlesnake.
Midshipman Bulloch was then posted to England for foreign service and he served with distinction aboard the CSS Alabama. Irvine's illustrious nephew, President Theodore Roosevelt, maintained that Irvine fired the last two shots from that vessel.
After the loss of the Alabama, Irvine returned 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...
and was sent out on the Laurel in October 1864 to join the Shenandoah as sailing master. It was Irvine who navigated the Shenandoah from just off San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
back to Liverpool, arriving on November 6, 1865. Upon his return to Liverpool, Irvine discovered that he had been promoted to lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
, but had no government to serve in that capacity as the Civil War was over and the Confederacy had collapsed into history.
Postbellum influence and collaboration with nephew Theodore Roosevelt
Denied amnesty, Irvine remained in Liverpool after the war, working as a cotton merchant with his brother as the Bullochs realized that they could not return to the U.S.In 1869, when his sister Mittie and the Roosevelt family toured Europe, the first port they reached was in Liverpool where a joyous reunion took place. Although TR at first seem to show no interest in his uncle's exploits, he was no johnny-come-lately to naval topics and history. In fact, Bulloch's nephew's childhood had been filled with stories told him by Bulloch's sister, Mittie. TR would write that his mother used "to talk to me as a little shaver about ships, ships, ships and the fighting of ships, until they sank into the depths of my soul."
Filled with his mother and uncle's stories, by the time TR went to Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, he was already dreaming of writing a book on a neglected aspect of American Military History
Military history
Military history is a humanities discipline within the scope of general historical recording of armed conflict in the history of humanity, and its impact on the societies, their cultures, economies and changing intra and international relationships....
, role played by the US Navy during the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
. Indeed, right in the middle of classes on mathematics at Harvard, (Morris TR Vol 1, 565) TR's mind would wander from his tedious mathematics classes to the accomplishments of the infant US Navy, the clash of the "fighting tops".
When TR's father took the family on what they called their "grand tour" in 1869, TR spent time with those uncles in Liverpool, their first stopping port on their trip. When TR graduated from Harvard, he published his first book, the excellent story of the US Navy's origins and actions in the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
called The Naval War of 1812, which, in part, was an outgrowth of the influence of his two Bulloch uncles and the more direct influence of Irvine's brother, James.
Roosevelt visits Irvine and James Bulloch
Irvine and his brother James Dunwody Bulloch, who had served in the U.S. Navy for 14 years before joining a private shipping company, both were seafaring men. When the southern states attempted to leave the Union and the Civil War began in 1861, one of the first acts of Washington was to begin a strangling Federal naval blockadeUnion 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, Irvine and his brother James decided to serve the southern cause. In 1861, Irvine became a midshipman on the 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...
, its construction having been arranged by his brother James and secret purchase by the Confederacy as a raider to prey upon Union shipping. Irvine fought against the United States government long after the surrender of Lee. He fired the last gun on the Cruiser 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...
before it went down in the harbor of Cherbourg, France. His sword is still in the Confederate Museum in Liverpool, England. It would be seen by president and Mrs. 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...
upon their visit to the city. At that same museum, it was of his gallant uncle that Mr. Roosevelt spoke in such affectionate and with such high praise.
Final years in Liverpool
Irvine lived in Sydenham Avenue, Liverpool, and died at the age of 56 at Selby Tower, Llandrillo-yn-Rhos, Colwyn Bay, Wales. The cause of his death was Bright's DiseaseBright's disease
Bright's disease is a historical classification of kidney diseases that would be described in modern medicine as acute or chronic nephritis. The term is no longer used, as diseases are now classified according to their more fully understood causes....
and Cerebral Hemmorage. Irvine Stephens Bulloch, CSN (Ret), was buried in Toxteth Park Cemetery Liverpool, in a grave alongside that of his brother's family.
Nephew Theodore Roosevelt on his uncles
In 1905, Theodore RooseveltTheodore 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...
toured the South. After spending October 19 in North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
and skipping South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
, TR visited 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 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 Dunwody Bulloch was an admiral 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 TR's autobiography, he mentions his Bulloch uncles in this way:
"My mother's two brothers, James Dunwody 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 Newcome
The Newcomes
The 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 an Admiral 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. "
See also
- Martha Bulloch Roosevelt
- James Dunwoody BullochJames Dunwoody BullochJames Dunwody Bulloch was the Confederate States of America's chief foreign agent in Great Britain during the American Civil War. He was the half-brother of a distinguished Confederate naval officer, Irvine Bulloch and of Martha "Mittie" Bulloch Roosevelt. Mittie was the mother of future U.S...
- 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...
- 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...
External links
- http://www.mersey-gateway.org/server.php?show=ConNarrative.101
- http://www.civilwarcourier.com/news/view_article.asp?idcategory=9&idarticle=261
- http://www.csa-dixie.com/liverpool_dixie/irvine.htm - British Account of Irvine's life
- http://www.csa-dixie.com/liverpool_dixie/bulloch.htm
- http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?
- http://www.bartleby.com/55/1.html Theodore Roosevelt Online Biography