page 524 the profits from his Civil War activities may have financed his purchase of the New York & Harlem Railroad.  This line eventually became his dominant New York Central Railroad.  Sometime between October 20 and 27, Stanton summoned Vanderbilt to Washington.   He and Stanton and Banks met, and Vanderbilt learned that only the three of them were to know the destination of the Banks expedition.   To assure this secrecy, Vanderbilt would have exclusive control over the selection of ships, but Stanton insisted on having two navy people provide final inspection of the vessels.   Vanderbilt argued that the treasury department inspectors were adequate, but the wily Stanton would not budge.35   Vanderbilt and Banks then traveled by rail to New York City at about the time the telegrams went out to the governors.  Banks requested the navy department send him an experienced naval officer to supervise the outfitting of the fleet.36 Cornelius Vanderbilt Vanderbilt seems to have quickly subcontracted much of the project to one Thomas J. Southard, whose family lived in Richmond, Maine.37   This latter man supposedly had promised to do this service without charge.  Southard's son in New York City acted as agent for his father, obtaining vessels in New York from a variety of owners.  Some of these men later testified to Congress they had first contacted Vanderbilt, who said he did not need any vessels.  Yet it became common knowledge on the docks that Southard was eager to rent vessels for the expedition.   Southard in the process of obtaining boats added a five percent or larger commission for his services.38 35. Sen. James W. Grimes, citing Vanderbilt testimony, Congressional Globe, 37 Cong., 3 sess., p. 585. 36. Banks to Gideon Welles, Nov. 12, 1863, Natl. Archives RG 393, pt. I, entry 1753, Banks Expedition, Letters Sent. 37. George Ward, who had contacted Banks in October to promote a Texas expedition, was from Lewiston, Maine.  Richmond, Maine is only about ten miles from Lewiston.  Whether there is a connection between these two men is unknown. 38. Congressional Globe, 37 Cong., 3 sess., pp. 584-5, 609-11. One of Banks's correspondents warned him in November when the expedition was assembling that Southard had built the ship Southern Rights which contained the inscription "Let Us Alone."  The writer felt Southard was disloyal. (James Carpenter to N. P. Banks, Nov. 26, 1862, N. P. Banks papers, AAS.)

page 525 Yet Vanderbilt was a frequent letter writer in the correspondence of the Banks expedition, and it would be an exaggeration to describe him as having subcontracted everything to Southard.39   Some of the ships also originated from Boston, and General George Andrews arranged for the rental of those vessels.40 Many of the boats obtained during this process turned out to be fresh-water vessels, rather than the type needed for traversing the stormy North Carolina coast and the Gulf of Mexico.  The Niagara, for example, was a veteran Lake Ontario steamer.   Vanderbilt or Southard might have resorted to collecting inland vessels because those of the ocean-going variety were unavailable.  The United States did not have a large number of large ocean-going ships, and the smaller ones were usually not suitable for transporting soldiers and equipment.  The owners had pulled some ocean-going steamships from the New York-to-Panama route that serviced the Americans in California.  As late as December, sufficient vessels were still not available for the Banks expedition, but that does not explain why Vanderbilt allegedly evaded the ship owners who wanted to contract for the expedition. The two inspectors sent by Stanton, according to testimony, accepted old inspection papers and did not personally look at some or all of the boats.  One of the inspectors did not have any experience with steamships.  These inspectors also had no knowledge of the expedition's destination.   During the ocean voyage several of these steamers would get into trouble and have to head for port.41   One of the troubled boats was the Niagara, whose planks were so rotten they started coming out on the voyage.42   The men had to move to starboard to keep the boat from going down.43   Someone carried one of the rotten boards to Washington so that the senators could pass it around and see how obvious the problem was.44   Even before leaving, one regimental company had refused to board because the ship was overloaded.   The officers summoned 39. 1862, 1863 correspondence, Natl. Archives, RG 393, pt. 1, entry 1953, Banks Expedition, Letters Sent. See also Palfrey, Memoir of William Francis Bartlett, 1878, p. 56. 40. Vanderbilt to Andrews, Dec. 15, 1862, Natl. Archives, RG 393 pt.1, entry 1953, Banks Expedition, Letters Sent.. 41. Congressional Globe, 37 Cong., 3 sess., pp. 584-5, 609-11. 42. Officers of the 50th Massachusetts Regiments protest, Dec. 15, 1862, Natl. Archives, RG 393, pt. I, entry 1953, Banks Expedition, Letters Sent; New York Herald, Dec. 17, 1862. 43. Stevens, History of the Fiftieth Regiment of Infantry: Massachusetts Volunteer Militia in the Late War of the Rebellion, p. 20. 44. Congressional Globe, Ibid., pp. 584-5, 609-11.

page 526 Commodore Vanderbilt, and he agreed they would not fit.45 There were also other complaints of overcrowding.   Poor accommodations and service were rather commonplace on Atlantic steamships in that era, but the situation was worse on these vessels.46   Some troop transports had been cargo ships, the holds of vessels covered by planking to make the transition.   Down in the hold the soldiers had to content themselves with salt-water spray dripping down into their berths through this planking.47   Three to four men typically had to share the same bunk which lacked mattresses.48   In one case, the newly constructed bunks came apart during a storm.49 In early December, Banks told Vanderbilt to avoid overestimating the capacity of the vessels.50   An internal memo accused Vanderbilt of always overestimating a vessel's capacity, sometimes by 100 percent.51  Vanderbilt indicated he was paying owners by the ton per month with a minimum ninety-day rental.52   If he was referring to cargo tonnage, presumably the more tonnage he could crowd on a ship, the more money was to be made.  If not, he was perhaps just trying to retain his close relations with the war department by finding passage for all the soldiers even though not enough ships were available.   He packed in the soldiers much closer than was allowed for steerage passengers on transatlantic voyages, nearer instead to the standards of the old slave ships.53 Then there was the question of overcharges.  Many of the vessels had recently been rented for half the rate charged to the government.   The charges on the Banks expedition, however, were not much different from what was charged to the army throughout the war.54   Agent Southard obtained the 45. Stevens, Ibid., pp. 15-16. 46. Kemble, The Panama Route, 1848-1869, pp. 156, 160-1, 165. 47. Bosson, History of the Forty-Second Regiment Infantry, Massachusetts Volunteers, 1862, 1863, 1864, pp. 41-9. 48. James T. Graves diary entry of Dec. 15, 1862, James Taylor Graves papers, Midwest Manuscript Collection, Newberry Library; Woodward, Historic Record and Complete Biographic Roster, 21st Me. Volunteers, p. 17. 49. Willis, The Fifty-Third Regiment Massachusetts, p. 49. 50. Banks to Vanderbilt, Dec. 1862, Natl. Archives, RG 393, pt I, entry 1953, Banks Expedition, Letters Sent. 51. Irwin to George Andrews, Dec. 4, 1862, Ibid. 52. Vanderbilt to George Andrews, Dec. 15, 1862, Ibid. 53. Bosson, History of the Forty-Second Regiment Infantry, Massachusetts Volunteers, 1862, 1863, 1864, pp. 31-32. 54. Kemble, The Panama Route, 1848-1869, pp. 214-52. He listed the fee rates of a number of the vessels chartered by the government.

page 527 highest tonnage rates for his own vessels.  In January 1863, the U.S. Senate debated a resolution condemning Southard, Vanderbilt and the two inspectors, but nothing came of it.   Vanderbilt clearly bore the major responsibility for this chicanery, but Senator John Hale removed Vanderbilt's name from the resolution without providing any reasonable explanation for doing so.  One reason might have been Vanderbilt's donation of a steamer to the government.   This gift and his exceedingly powerful political influence apparently made it an issue too hot to tackle.   Assistant Secretary John Tucker had provided some undisclosed, secret testimony to Congress.  More importantly, no one had done anything illegal.  The bad publicity forced Southard to pledge to give his commission to the merchants (not to the government),55 but all the parties knew thereafter that the shipping arrangements would be under more scrutiny. Commodore Gershom J. Van Brunt, who was one of the naval inspectors, provided Banks a certificate saying that he had "carefully examined" the Niagara and other boats.56   Banks found Van Brunt "earnest, cordial and competent."57    Charles H. Haswell, whose job it was to conduct the most detailed inspection, wrote congressional investigators that it was impractical to fully inspect boat frames because of the large number of steamers he had to inspect.   Among all the boats he checked, the Niagara was the only one with preventable problems that were missed during an inspection.   He had graded the Niagara in fair condition and cleared her for navigation of short routes in accordance with the vessel's 5, A 2 classification.   He vouched also that the frame of the vessel was throughout entirely sound and the rotten boards were not part of the hull or supporting structures.   The installed sponsons for artillery would have failed installation if either the boat's frame or deck had been rotten, he said.   Only frames of deck hatches were determined now to be defective.  This was Haswell's explanation,58 but that does not explain why the soldiers had to shift positions in the ship to keep it afloat. One of those contributing ships to the expedition was the pudgy, balding entrepreneur Marshall Owen Roberts.  Roberts did not get a mention during the Senate debate though he had one steamer carrying 1,000 men in the first wave of the Banks expedition.   He said Banks and Commodore Vanderbilt requested the inclusion of his ships, including the Empire City and Illinois, in the expedition.   If so, Roberts avoided going through Southard.   Before departure of his ships, Washington informed Roberts the Empire City was rotten and 55. Congressional Globe, 37 Cong., 3 sess., pp. 584-5, 609-11. 56. N. P. Banks papers, LOC, box 25. 57. Banks to Gideon Welles, Dec. 19, 1862, Natl. Archives, RG 393, pt. I, entry 1953, Banks Expedition, Letters Sent. 58. 37 Cong., 3 sess., Misc. Doc. 27. "The Banks Expedition," pp. 2-3.

page 528 unsafe.  The boat was rechartered for taking horses to New Orleans but found unsafe even for that.   Roberts appealed to the president and to Stanton, charging these statements were "utterly false and malicious."   He blamed all the complaints on a quartermaster's clerk who had made a claim on the vessel eleven years ago, which Roberts had then rejected.59 Marshall O. Roberts Roberts later claimed that a May 1863 certificate proved the safeness of the vehicle, but his own accompanying insurance papers showed it had undergone extensive repairs prior to the issuance of that certificate.60   Workers refitted The Empire City, and it and the Illinois were regular charters to and around New Orleans during the remainder of the war.   The Empire City was among the steamers that carried Banks's troops from New Orleans to Texas in late 1863.61   Roberts had bought the Empire City for a bargain $12,000 at auction.62   The two vessels were now valued at under $450,000 but brought Roberts $1,280,000 in charter fees during the war.   It would have been cheaper for the government to have bought the vessels from him, and this was belatedly done in 1865 with the payment of about $400,000 for the Illinois.63 59. Memorial to the President and Secretary of War, N. P. Banks papers, LOC, box 98 . Not a great deal is known of the truth of either side of these arguments. 60. Ibid. 61. OR, I, 26, pt. I: 425. 62. Kemble, The Panama Route, 1848-1869, pp. 224-5. 63. 45 Cong., 2 sess., 1878, House Exec. Doc. 92, pp. 13-21.  Although these figures seem to indicate a large profit, prewar steamboats often paid for themselves in several years.  A basic Mississippi River steamboat could be obtained for $30,000 to $50,000, with the better boats not costing more than $200,000, but wartime scarcity necessarily raises prices of needed services unless there are price controls.  For prewar boat prices and profits, see Nevins, The Ordeal of the Union, vol. II, pp 215-16.  An unflattering report after the war indicated that Lincoln himself authorized the purchase of Roberts's boats and that they had commanded higher rental rates during the war than that paid for other vessels of larger capacity.  A committee in October 1864 submitted a new, unanimous appraisal of the Illinois for $400,000, up from $225,817 in an 1863 appraisal.  However, John S. Nichols opined that the government could obtain similar vessels for less money.

page 529 Roberts had built the largest American steamship of its time in the 1840s.  In 1841, a ship chandler complained in print that Roberts had a deal with New York's navy agent that gave Roberts contracts at thirty to forty percent more than the going rates.64  Only two years older than Nathaniel Banks, he had already made his real fortune on Mexican War contracts65 while the former speaker had been grubbing for petty cash in the Boston area.   Roberts and "Live Oak" George Law had then administered the first oceanic mail route from the United States to Panama which had been awarded to the United States Mail Steamship Company and Albert G. Sloo.   Roberts and Law were part owners of this company.66   Both men were curiously also involved in the 1856 presidential campaign.   Law was a New York leader of the North Americans who got the New York delegation to vote for Banks; and Roberts was a delegate to the Republican convention. Between the first mail shipment and 1856, Roberts became president of that United States Mail Steamship Company.  This company became associated indirectly with Vanderbilt by paying the commodore $56,000 a month not to activate a steamship route to Nicaragua in competition with their route to Panama.  Despite the fact Roberts did not always deliver the mail in return for his subsidy, the United States Steamship Company does not seem to have been an economic success.   It did not seek a renewal of its ten-year monopoly of the mail route to Panama in 1859.67  Roberts may have recovered his losses by buying several of the company's steamships at auction at bargain rates.  Vanderbilt also was active in buying some of these ships.68   By 1860, Vanderbilt was actively involved in the route again.69   Untangling relationships among the steamship magnates in the 1860s is truly a mind-boggling task.  For example, Roberts and men from the Pacific mail route were directors of Vanderbilt's company, and Roberts seems to have leased the boats he bought to any interested party.70  When the Civil War began, the Confederates seized about $1 million of (39 Cong., 2 sess., House Exec. Doc. No 65, "Steamship Illinois," pp. 1-6.)  It is unclear from this whether Lincoln authorized the purchase of Roberts's boats as a favor or because the scarcity of vessels was allowing Roberts to charge the government exorbitant rates. 64. Albion, The Rise of New York Port, 1815-1860, p. 233. 65. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, p. 350. 66. Kemble, The Panama Route, 1848-1869, pp. 15-16. 67. Kemble, Ibid., pp. 83, 86-88. 68. Kemble, Ibid., p. 92. 69. Lane, Commodore Vanderbilt: An Epic of the Steam Age, pp. 135, 167. 70. Kemble, Ibid., pp. 85, 94.