805

Three Biloxi Antebellum and Civil War Documents of Naval and Masonic Interest

including an account statement dated June 8, 1857, New Orleans, Louisiana, J. G. Robinson to C. Braisted & Co., the outside with signature of B. R. Clemens, for sails, tents, awnings, hatch covers, etc. for the yacht Gipsy, 12-1/8" x 7-13/16"; a letter dated October 16, 1864, near Sommerville, Georgia, from C. R. Cornelius to B. R. Clemens, in which Cornelius absolves Clemens of responsibility of a reconnaissance on Deer Island, on ruled notepaper 8-3/4" x 6-7/16"; a letter dated December 6, 1864, Horn Island, Mississippi, from James Maycock to B. R. Clemens, in which Maycock dismisses Cornelius' absolution of Clemens and rebukes Clemens for interrogating Maycock's wife and child during the reconnaissance and reminding him of their bonds as brother Freemasons, on ruled folio notepaper, 9-7/8" x 7-13/16".


Notes: Bruno Richard Clemens (1830-1915) was a native of Hanover, Germany and is very probably the 11-year-old B. Clemens of Hanover who is recorded as having arrived in New Orleans on June 3, 1843 on board the Maria von Cammenge out of Emden. Clemens became an accomplished boatman, and served as the sailing master of the yacht Gipsy, owned and built in 1857 by John G. Robinson (1801-1869), one of the founders of the New Orleans Yacht Club and its Commodore in 1858. The first document in the present lot suggests that Clemens was involved in the ship's rigging and may have worked directly with New Orleans sailmaker Charles D. S. Braisted (1825-1874). Robinson - English by birth - was sailing the Gipsy under British colors in June 1861 when it was seized by the USS Brooklyn in the Gulf of Mexico; Robinson was released, but Clemens and the crew were detained until forced to sign an oath pledging allegiance to the Union. After their release, Robinson petitioned then Confederate Secretary of War LeRoy Pope Walker to ignore the documents as having been signed under coercion.
There are no service records in the Confederacy for Clemens, but he claimed service as a member of the C.S.A. Torpedo Corps from 1863, stationed in the Gulf where he was able to spend much of his time at home and attend to his duties as called. Such duties are recorded in the second document, a letter from Captain Cader Raby Cornelius, C.S.A. (1839-1882) to Clemens, confirming that Cornelius sent Clemens on a reconnaissance mission to Deer Island off the coast of Mississippi. Clemens had evidently solicited the letter of Cornelius in August 1864, keen to have proof that the mission was not his doing.
His desire for this proof is evident in the third document, an extraordinary letter to Clemens from English-born Captain James Maycock (1825-1892), who despite his many commonalities with Clemens - they were both immigrants, both boat pilots, and fellow freemasons - found himself serving as a pilot for the Union Navy, who were keen to recruit pilots familiar with the Gulf and Mississippi River. During the reconnaissance on Deer Island (at which time Maycock was serving as a pilot in the Western Gulf blockade) Clemens met with Maycock's wife, Mary Carson Maycock (1827-1900), and daughter Elizabeth Maycock (1850-1905). Maycock is enraged at this transgression: "You must have known that if I was captured it would result in my ignominious death . . . being unable to intrap me [you] searched the Persons of my Wife and Daughter expecting to find letters about them that would lead to My capture". In much of the letter Maycock reminds Clemens of his oath as a fellow Mason: "[You] forget one great obligation of the F. & A. M. which is to warn a brother of any danger to himself Wife Daughter Mother or Sister, to do them no injury yourself, and permit another to do so if in your power to prevent it". Maycock also invokes the fraternal order as the guide of his conscience during the conflict: "My Brother you must be aware that Masons must never be concerned in plots and conspiracies against the government under which he lives, nor to behave himself undutifully to the magistrates of that government. Have you my Brother fulfilled that obligation? I fear that you have not, but of your guilt and innocence the Great Architect of the Universe will justly judge and will reward either good or evil as each of us may deserve."
Both Clemens and Maycock remained in Biloxi and lived to advanced ages. Whatever wounds may have been made in the war that pitted Masonic brother against brother were eventually healed; in the 1895 petition of Mary Maycock for a widow's pension, one deponent was "one of the oldest, most truthful and respected citizens of Biloxi, B. R. Clemens".


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