John Taylor Wood
C.S.S. Tallahassee
C.S.S. — Confederate Steam Ship
C.S.S. — Confederate States Ship
American Civil War 1861 – 1865
Captain John Taylor Wood Confederate States Navy
Colonel John Taylor Wood Confederate States Army
Swashbuckling coastal raider
Tombstone
Camp Hill Cemetery Halifax, Nova Scotia
This stone in Camp Hill Cemetery is Lot 52, U U north.
It is six rows east of the fence off Robie Street, and is
two thirds south from the central access road off Robie Street.
This location description is that given by Arthur Thurston
on page 383 of his 1981 book “Tallahassee Skipper”.
GPS location: 44°38’31″N 63°35’14″W
In memory of J. Taylor Wood Died July 19, 1904 Aged 74 years
Also his wife Lola Died Sep. 26, 1909 Aged 74 years
Erected by his sons
Perpetual Care
John Taylor Wood was the grandson of United States President
Jefferson Davis, President
of the American Civil War broke
out in 1861, Wood received a lieutenant’s commission in the
Confederate Navy. He was best known for his raids against
Union ships. In August 1864, Wood was given command of
CSS Tallahassee, with
which he terrorized the North, from
New York to Maine, capturing or destroying 31 Union vessels
before his raiding career was through. He received the
rank of Captain in February 1865. Between raids he served
on President Jefferson’s staff, and was captured with Davis in
May 1865, at the end of the war. He escaped, made his way
to Cuba, and eventually settled in Halifax, Nova Scotia,
where he went into the shipping business. Taylor Wood’s
adventures inspired Robert Louis Stevenson‘s work.
The above photographs were taken on 1 June 2004
Zachary Taylor (1784-1850)
Twelfth President (1849-1850) of the United States
John Taylor Wood (1830-1904)
Aide-de-camp to Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy
Confederate naval officer, merchant, and insurance broker
Vice-commodore of the Royal Halifax Yacht Club
Zachary Taylor Wood (1860-1915)
Acting Commissioner of the Royal North-West Mounted Police (RNWMP)
Stuart Taylor Wood (1889-1966)
Commissioner (the highest rank) of the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)
Donald Zachary Taylor Wood (1918-1944)
Killed on 14 October 1944 when the plane
he was piloting on a mission from England to
Germany crashed after its engine caught fire.
Herschel Taylor Wood (1925-1950)
Books about John Taylor Wood
John Taylor Wood: Sea Ghost of the Confederacy
by Royce Gordon Shingleton,
The University of Georgia Press, 1979
ISBN 0820304662
Confederate Seadog: John Taylor Wood in War and Exile
by John Bell
McFarland & Company, 2002
ISBN 0786413522
Tallahassee Skipper
by Arthur Thurston
Lescarbot Press, 1981
Appendix 67 Tallahassee
Journal and Proceedings of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly
The Tallahassee is an iron vessel of about 300 tons,
manned by 125 men, with a double screw, very fast,
and carrying three guns: 100, 30, and 12-pounder…
A vessel called the Tallahassee, which has for the last few
days unlawfully been committing depredations upon the property and
commerce of the people of the United States, by burning and destroying
vessels and property belonging to her citizens, is now in Halifax…
A fleet of 13 Federal cruisers immediately started
from United States ports on receiving by telegraph
information of Tallahassee’s arrival at Halifax…
Cast:
•
Right Hon. Edward Cardwell M.P., Downing Street, London, England
Her Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies
•
Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell, Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia
•
Sir James Hope, Vice-Admiral, Halifax
•
Mortimer M. Jackson, United States Consul at Halifax
•
Hon. Charles Tupper, Provincial Secretary, Nova Scotia
•
John Taylor Wood, Commander of Confederate Cruiser Tallahassee
•
Rochfort Maguire, Captain, H.M.S. Galatea
• Robert H. Thompson, Lieutenant, H.M.S. Galatea
Note: In the letter above, J. Taylor Wood to Lieutenant Governor R.G. MacDonnell
dated “August 11, 1864, 5:30 P.M.”
Source: Early Canadiana Online
CIHM: Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions
Early Canadiana Online is a digital library containing
2,009,084 pages in 13,554 volumes (as of 20 October 2005).
Dean Jobb: The tale of the Tallahassee
National Post, August 13, 2014
“At one place there was hardly room between the keel and the bottom for your open hand.”
—John Taylor Wood
Appendix 68 Belligerent Cruisers
Journal and Proceedings of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly
Regulations instituted for the preservation of the neutral
attitude of Her Majesty’s Government should be enforced…
Officials at all Nova Scotia ports where Tallahassee could be
supplied with fuel have been directed to warn her off, and to
prevent her from receiving any such supplies for three months
after her departure from Halifax…
Cast:
•
Right Hon. Edward Cardwell M.P., Downing Street, London, England
Her Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies
•
Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell, Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia
•
Hon. Charles Tupper, Provincial Secretary, Nova Scotia
•
Hon. William Alexander Henry, Attorney General, Nova Scotia
•
Hon. John William Ritchie, Solicitor General, Nova Scotia
• Hon. James McNab, Receiver General, Nova Scotia
•
Hon. Isaac LeVesconte, Financial Secretary, Nova Scotia
•
Hon. Samuel Leonard Shannon QC, DCL, MLC
• James H. Thorne, C.E.C. (Clerk of the Executive Council, Nova Scotia)
• Sir James Hope, Vice-Admiral, Halifax
• Edward Pelham Brenton Von Donop, Captain, H.M.S. Jason
• Lieutenant Samuel Magaw, Commander, U.S. Warship Florida
•
Right Hon. Richard Lyons, 1st Viscount Lyons, British Ambassador to the United States
• J. Hume Burnley, Her Britannic Majesty’s Charge d’Affairs, Washington, D.C.
•
William H. Seward, United States Secretary of State, Washington, D.C.
•
Gideon Welles, United States Secretary of the Navy, Washington, D.C.
Source: Early Canadiana Online
CIHM: Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions
Early Canadiana Online is a digital library containing
2,009,084 pages in 13,554 volumes (as of 20 October 2005).
The combat of the Merrimac and the Monitor
(March 1862) made the greatest change in sea-fighting
since cannon fired by gunpowder had been mounted on ships…
— Winston Churchill, History of the English-Speaking Peoples
The day before the Battle of Hampton Roads, the Royal Navy
“had available for immediate purposes 149 first-class war-ships”,
but the day after, “we have two,” these two being Warrior and Ironside.
— The Times of London, commenting on the effect of this naval battle
Source: http://www.shsu.edu/~his_ncp/Merrimac.html
During the Battle of Hampton Roads, 8 March 1862,
Taylor Wood was on board CSS Virginia a.k.a. Merrimack
The First Fight of Iron-Clads published 1887
by John Taylor Wood, Colonel, Confederate States Army
The First Fight of Iron-Clads published 1888
by John Taylor Wood, Colonel, Confederate States Army
The Story Of The Confederate States Ship Virginia (formerly Merrimac)
Her Victory Over Monitor published 1879
…The Federals, previous to their flight from Norfolk, had burnt all
the United States Government vessels; and we, taking from the mud
the hulk of the frigate Merrimac, built over it a roof of two-inch iron
plates, and cleaning up the hull and overhauling the engines,
we formally named the new craft Virginia…
The Battle of Hampton Roads Confederate Military History, Volume 12
The Birth of the Ironclads Confederate Military History, Volume 12
Battle of Hampton Roads by Wikipedia
Battle of Monitor and Merrimack Civil War Harper’s Weekly, 22 March 1862
Battle of Hampton Roads 8-9 March 1862
Longwood Alumna Monitors Relics of Naval History
Longwood University Alumni magazine, Autumn 2002
…In the only damage to either vessel, a Confederate artillery shell,
fired at no more than ten yards, struck the Monitor’s pilothouse, ripping
off the top… The shot was fired by Lieutenant John Taylor Wood…
Halifax and the American Civil War
Halifax and the American Civil War by Allan King
Michigan Social Studies Journal, vol. 14 #1, Spring 2003, pages 11-13
Captain John Taylor Wood, Confederate States Navy
by United States Navy, Naval Historical Center, Washington DC
John Taylor Wood by Wikipedia
John Taylor Wood Dictionary of Canadian Biography
…Wood’s death in 1904 was front-page news in Halifax…
Ironclads and Blockade Runners of the American Civil War
C.S.S. Tallahassee Makes Daring Escape by Ron Low
Taylor Wood’s famous escape from Halifax Harbour
during the night of 19-20 August 1864
CSS Tallahassee 1864, Captain John Taylor Wood
Marauders of the Sea, Confederate Merchant Raiders during the American Civil War
Confederate Seadog: John Taylor Wood in War and Exile
Review by Dave Page, The Civil War News
The True Story Of The Capture Of Jefferson Davis published 7 July 1877
…Colonel John Taylor Wood and myself were under a pine tree,
some fifty to one hundred feet off. Our camp was surprised…
The Last Capital of the Confederacy – Danville
The Charles Seddon, engine #14, a 4-4-0 steam locomotive
on the Richmond-Danville Railroad, pulled the train that carried
Jefferson Davis, the Confederate Cabinet, the Confederate treasure
(believed to have been more than half a million dollars in gold)
and archives to Danville in April of 1865…
The following is a list of passengers:
President Jefferson Davis
Colonel Frank R. Lubbock
Colonel John Taylor Wood
Colonel William Preston Johnston…
These links were accessed and found to be valid on 23 April 2010.
Camp Hill Cemetery
Camp Hill Cemetery by Wikipedia
Marble bust of Zachary Taylor United States Senate
Bought in 1909 from Lola Wood, widow of John Taylor Wood
(then living in Nova Scotia)
