Washington Gwathmey

Capt. Henry A Adams commanded a squadron standing off Fort Pickens, Florida the last weakly held Union outpost in seceded Florida. Fort Sumter had not yet been fired upon. Adams had troops aboard his ships. The Army captain in charge of the troops held orders from Washington to put them ashore but Adams refused. During the last day days of President Buchanan's administration, back in January, the North had promised not to reinforce Fort Pickens as long as the South did not attack it. Adams felt he had to honor the agreement. He drafted a message to Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles saying that he believed the order to land troops would start a war. He entrusted the message to one of his officers, Lieutenant Washington Gwathmey. Lt. Gwathmey proved to be a man of honor; although his sympathies lie with the Confederacy, he smuggled the message North hidden under his shirt. He delivered it to Welles and then, his last official Federal duty done, he resigned his commission and headed back South.

"Iron Dawn" by Richard Snow