WHEN Commodore Preble was ordered home from the command of the Mediterranean squadron, and before he was relieved by Commodore Samuel Barron in September, 1804, he forwarded to the Secretary of the Navy a report of the operations of his famous squadron in which, among other things, he stated the following fact: “It affords me much satisfaction to observe that we have neither had a duel nor a court-martial in the squadron since we left the United States.” Commodore Preble did not know that in a short time there was to be a trial by a civil court of one of his promising young officers whom he had especially commended to the Secretary of the Navy, and a trial of an extraordinary character, of which we shall now give an account.
On board the little U. S. schooner Nautilus of the Mediterranean squadron, of 185 tons, 12 guns, and 103 men, commanded by Lieutenant John H. Dent, there was serving in January, 1805, an acting lieutenant, Charles Goodwin Ridgely, of Baltimore, only twenty years old, and already familiar several times over with the ordeal of battle. In the preceding August and September he had fought by the side of the immortal Somers in Gunboat No. 1 in five actions, and had earned the official praise of that officer. Somers and James Decatur had both been Ridgely’s intimate friends and shipmates on board the Nautilus, and both had been killed in war; so that Ridgely’s youth had already passed through more than its share of life’s experiences. Commodore Preble had on August 19, 1804, promoted him from midshipman to acting lieutenant for his gallantry in action; and the episode in his career to be here related must in no wise affect our estimate of him as an officer who for the rest of his life was to deserve the right to be considered a man of character and high professional ability. The various papers hereinafter quoted were recently discovered among the original manuscripts of the Navy Department, in a search which was made in order to learn the truth in regard to a charge which had once appeared in print some years ago that Lieutenant Ridgely had in his youth been formally accused of no less a crime than murder. The interest in the search grew with the discovery of one trace after another until a complete story was picked out from the manuscripts known as the “Captain’s Letters,” vols. 2 and 3, 1805, and vol. 1, 1806.
The Nautilus found herself on the evening of January 23, 1805, at anchor in the port of Messina, Sicily. Here Lieutenant Ridgely decided it would be a pleasant diversion to give a small dinner on shore, and he invited his shipmates, First Lieutenant George W. Reed and one or two other officers, to be his guests. The dinner, with the accompaniment of much merriment and much drinking, took place. After this pleasant event, and while Ridgely and Reed were strolling, not too steadily, about the plaza in Messina known as the “Marina,” they observed a small crowd of noisy, ruffianly looking Sicilians pressing about a foreigner, threatening to do him bodily harm. The object of their roughness was speaking English, and Ridgely, who was in uniform and wearing side arms, suddenly took it into his young head to jump into this row by drawing his sword and by commanding the Sicilians to leave the man alone. The details as to how Ridgely rescued the man, who turned out to be a mate on a British naval transport, by the name of George Hutchinson, will appear later in Ridgely’s story. The baffled Sicilians, who had evidently been prepared to do in their victim, perhaps because of something he had done to displease them and also because of a general hostility of the moment to all foreigners, were frightened into abandonment of their plans by the sword, and probably by the oaths of Lieutenant Ridgely. The anger of the latter may well have been heightened by the recollection that it was not the first time that an English-speaking person had been attacked by Sicilian roughs, for his own friend and recent commander, the lamented Somers, had once, when on shore at Syracuse with two other officers, been set upon by five Sicilian soldiers, and in the struggle which ensued Somers had with his own hand run a sword through one of his assailants.[1] Anyway, the immediate effect of Ridgely’s truculent interference with the roughs was that they scattered, and the English mate was left to himself. The affair apparently was over and the American officers later returned on board their ship.
Over? Not by a great deal, as we shall see. The next morning, what was the stupefaction of both Reed and Ridgely when the news was brought off to the Nautilus that the English mate, Hutchinson, had, after all, been foully murdered in Messina on the night before? The feelings of Ridgely, who had been the active one in the brawl on the Marina, were destined to turn into dismay when on the following morning a letter in Italian was delivered to his commanding officer by the governor of Messina, the Cavaliere Giovanni Guillichini, which letter is here translated as it appears today in the files of the Navy Department.[2]
Sir
It appearing from the enquiries which I have caused to be instituted, that two Officers belonging to the Schooner Nautilus under your Commd, are the Authors of the Homicide committed on an English Subject at the Marina of this Port, on the Evening of the 23d instant, I do therefore and in compliance with the pressing instances of Don Giovanni Bomester, His Britannic Majesty’s Consul here, request of you Sir, to take those steps which in like cases are prescribed for the punishment of the Delinquent as well as the satisfaction of the injured party by delivering up into one of the Castles of this City the perpetrators of so cruel a Murder.
With Sentiments of perfect Consideration, I have the Honor to be
Sir
Your Devoted & Hble Servt
(Signed) Cav; Gio Guilliciiini
Messina 25 Jany 1805.
To
John H. Dent Esqre
Comm’g the American
Schooner Nautilus."
The strange situation of affairs thus brought suddenly into the life of Lieutenant Ridgely by this letter and its sequences can be better understood by the explanation that the smoldering resentment of the Sicilian cutthroats with whom he had interfered on shore had developed quickly into a double determination, on their part, first to make away with the English object of their hatred, and next to punish the insolent foreign officer who had dared to draw a sword upon them. There were ten of these men, and ten perjuries meant nothing to them, provided they could torment and destroy Ridgely by putting upon him a murder which they themselves had committed. Their design was helped by the fact that he had worn side arms; and it was also further helped by the additional fact that in those days no dinner party of naval officers on shore—both in the British Navy and our own—was considered an agreeable or proper form of entertainment unless cheered and dignified by the conviviality that went with the deep drinking of healths to one’s president or sovereign, one’s country, one’s commodore, one’s captain, one’s ship, and finally to “each other and one other.” In other words it was a time, in both navies, not only of fierce fighters, but of deep drinkers.
And here we will put the reader right into the midst of our story by inserting next the letter written by Lieutenant Ridgely to his commander in chief, Commodore Barron, on April 13, or nearly three months later.
U. S. S. Nautilus Malta April 13 - 1805
Mr. Chas G. Ridgely To Commod. S. Barron
Sir:
From the information receiv’d this Evening from Captain Dent that you are only waiting for a demand from the Neapolitan Government for me & then will give me up is the cause of my now writing you.
Had I supposed that the business wou’d have been carried so far, I should not have hesitated in giving myself up, but thought I would wait your opinion on my Arrival at Syracuse from Messina relying on your Judgment and not wishing to be too premature; if you had then told me the propriety of giving myself up, I certainly should have done it, but on the contrary, your not thinking it proper at that time led me to suppose that by my returning to America the thing would have been entirely hushed up. As the Business has gone so far as to place you in disagreeable Circumstances, I am very willing to give myself up for Trial at Messina (provided you think proper) feeling perfectly conscious that I never committed a crime in my life that could cause me the least uneasiness. That I am innocent of the death of that Man, I am convinced within myself, and hope to be able to convince every person so, but allowing that I was the cause; from having some Gentlemen to dine with me, I drank too freely of Wines and Cordials, as to make me in an entire State of inebriety; And never did I know that I had injured the Man in the least until I was informed of it next Morning by Captain Dent; his informing me that the Man was stabbed by an American Officer, Mr. Read & myself being together that Night on shore, and his not having Side Arms with him, made me conclude if he was injured by one of us, it must have been me. - - I beg leave to mention to you that Spirituous Liquors I scarcely ever drink, have been intoxicated but seldom during my life, & then being in a party of young Men where I was necessitated. - - Mr. Read who was with me all the Evening & was with me when the accident happened did not himself know I had injured him until he was informed of it the next Morning, and he says that he recollects every thing that took place that Evening. - - As for myself I feel not the least fear from any punishment they can inflict, my Conscience being perfectly easy that I am innocent of anything criminal ; but my Mother, my Brothers and Sisters & my relations in general, ’tis for them I feel, knowing what great distress it will cause them, when they hear what has happen’d me; But Sir as the business has gone so far I am very willing to come forward for Trial, to reestablish my Character (as I am now convinced that it must be injured from the cause of my accusation) & hope Sir you will make use of every influence in your power in my behalf.
When I saw the Man that Evening he was surrounded by ten or twelve Men, two of whom had him by the Collar, & seeing him in a Mob, & hearing him speak English led me to suppose (as I remark’d to Mr Read) that he either was an American or an Englishman in a scuffle with those Sicilians, and went off for the purpose of rescuing him, which I did & then let him go after talking with him about ten minutes, & so far from supposing that I injured him, thought on the contrary that I had been of service to him in getting him out of the hands of those fellows, but next Morning was informed the Man was dead, & those very fellows who I drove from him, had taken their Oaths that I killed him. - -
I have stated to you Sir every thing that happened & wait entirely your Commands. - -
I have the Honor to be with deference,
Your obedient Servt,
(Signed) Cha[3] G. Ridgely.”
Here let us call attention to the good sense, manliness, and frank penitence of this letter, also to its tone of maturity in a young man not yet twenty-one years of age.
The fiendish plan of the Sicilian plotters, however fantastic it may appear today, was not, in the sequel, without success in causing genuine distress of mind to their intended victim, as we can perceive by many expressions in his letter to Commodore Barron. The commodore was much troubled as to what course to pursue in regard to surrendering Ridgely to the custody of a foreign power, and for months he hesitated to comply with the request of the governor of Messina, meanwhile having detached Ridgely from the Nautilus and ordered him on board the U.S.S. Congress, to remain in confinement under Captain Stephen Decatur. On April 29 Captain Decatur wrote the following report to Commodore Barron :
U. S. Smr Congress Messina April 29, 1805.
Captain S. Decatur jr To Commod. S. Barron.
Sir:
I arriv’d here on the 24th after touching at Syracuse to obtain Pratique. - -
I am happy to inform you there is no doubt that Mr Ridgely will be acquitted of the charge; He is still on board the Congress, where the Governor has been good enough to permit him to remain until the Ship is about departing, when he will be comfortably lodged in the Citadel. - - Mr Broadbcnt’s’ influence with the Government as well as with the English Consul & Merchants here is great, all of which he has exerted on the present occasion - - from what I have observed I feel it a duty to state to you Commodore that had not Mr. B. interested himself in the manner he has, the decision of the Tribunal would have been widely different from what there is no doubt it will now be. - -
I have been waiting for a Wind to carry me thro’ the Straits two days - - the moment it comes I shall dep’t.
I have the honor to be Sir!
Your Obedient Servt,
(Signed) Stephen Decatur Jr.
The delays of the Sicilian law kept Ridgely confined on board the Congress until May 6, when Captain Decatur delivered him up to the civil authorities on shore to be confined in a prison known as the “Citadel.” From this prison on May 26 Ridgely writes the following letter:
Citadel Messina 26 May 1805. Mr. Charles G. Ridgely To Commod. S. Barron.
Sir:
The Congress frigate Captain Decatur sailed from this place on the 6 of the present Month, on which day I left the frigate & was confined in the Citadel of Messina; my confinement is not very close, having permission to walk thro’ the Citadel two or three hours every day. - - The Governor had written to Palermo, to know what Tribunal was to take Cognizance of my Offence; (there being two Tribunals, the one civil, the other military) from Palermo they referred to Naples & receiv’d an Answer To-day, that the military Court will decide the affair. - - Mr Broadbent intends waiting on the Judge today, to know whether he will admit me to bail, & to expedite the business as much as possible. - - I shall make use of everything in my power to get the affair settled as expeditiously as possible, but it is impossible to say when it will be settled, these Sicilians having a great deal of form in all their transactions. - - With pleasure I inform you of the active part Mr Broadbent has taken in my affair, & it is to him I am indebted for the lenity I receive in my Confinement. - -
I am in hopes to be able to leave Messina in the course of two or three Weeks, & will make all haste to put myself once more under your Command, and shall endeavor to make my Conduct for the future deserving of your Approbation. - - I have the Honor to be with Respect Your obdt Servt,
(Signed) Chas. G. Ridgely.
By the seventeenth of June we know that the trial had already begun, for Mr. Broadbent thus writes to Commodore Barron:
Messina 17 June 1805.
John Broadbent Esqre To Commod. S. Barron.
Sir:
Mr Ridgely’s Trial is now in a very good train & I have not the least doubt but he will soon be able to return to the Squadron. - - It is to be hoped that this misfortune will be of Service to him for the remainder of his days, & that it will make some impression also on the minds of other young Men in the Service, inducing them to guard against the vice of Intoxication, particularly when they arc on shore in foreign Countries. - -
His Sicilian Majesty has declared himself highly pleased with thee, in recommending the young Man to present himself in the very honorable way he has done for Trial, and had the facts and depositions been so strong against him as necessarily to condemn him, I am certain that the King would have pardoned him, having prohibited the Tribunal from executing any Sentence upon him without knowing first His Majesty’s pleasure.
Thy friend
(Sign’d) John Broadbent
Months were to crawl by, most trying for the impatient and guiltless young prisoner, whose genial and attractive person (for such it was, as attested all through his life by his brother officers), arouses our sympathy as we picture him forced into inaction and gloomy reflection.
Meanwhile, what had Commodore Barron, who was in ill health and greatly worried by this whole affair—what had he been doing in regard to it? The following report from him to the Secretary of the Navy will explain:
U. States Frigate President[4] at Sea August 24, 1805.
Sir:
I have the Honor to transmit you under Cover of the Present sundry papers relating to the Situation of Mr Chas. G. Ridgely, an acting Lieutenant lately attached to the U. States Schooner Nautilus, with some particulars of which report may probably ere this have made you acquainted. Nothing Sir is more distressing to the feelings of a Commander than to be under the necessity of representing in the language of regret and censure the Conduct of those serving under him; more especially when that Conduct is not confined to the faults of the Individual but tends to commit the reputation of the Service & the National honor - - the occurrence to which I allude is one of those which imposes on me this unpleasant duty. - - The Letter annexed of 13 April from Lieut. Ridgely with the demand of the Governor of Messina addressed to Captain Dent will best explain the circumstances of this unhappy affair, to these therefore I beg leave to refer you without entering into further details as to the facts; I conceive it proper however officially to acquaint the Navy Department that on a view of the nature of the offence complain'd of & the formal Demand of Governor Guillcchini, I felt myself called upon by every principle of right & justice no less than the acknowledged laws & usages among civilized Nations to deliver up the Officer in question to a judicial investigation. It will be seen by a reference to the accompanying papers that this determination was not form’d without due & sufficient deliberation, & that it was chearfully acquiesced in by Mr Ridgely himself, who while he strongly asserted his innocence of the crime laid to his charge, felt in common with myself & the Officers of the Squadron in general the necessity of coming forward & publicly clearing his own Character as well as that of the Service from the imputation of an act, so heinous in itself & so abhorrent to Society; In consequence of this determination, I placed him in charge of Captain Decatur comm' the Congress frigate (who was instructed to touch at Messina on his way to Leghorn) & having the highest confidence in the judgment of that Officer, who interested himself warmly in the matter, I left the management of it to him. At the same time I addressed a Letter to Mr Broadbent our Agent at Messina, the respectability of whose Character & standing in life joined with a great share of active benevolence constituted him a fit Advocate on such an occasion, recommending the young Man in the most impressive terms to his friendly protection, & earnestly soliciting the exertion in his behalf of the powerful influence which he possesses with Individuals & with the Government.
You will perceive by my Correspondence with Commodore Rodgers that at my suggestion he sent the Nautilus to Messina immediately after Peace was concluded, in order that Captain Dent & his Officers might appear on the Trial & render all the assistance in their power; Her return was hourly expected when the President left Syracuse, & I doubt not but the Commodore will make known the issue by the earliest Conveyance.
It is not without deep reluctance that I make this Communication to you, the subject of which is the more painful as Mr Ridgely’s general Character is in every respect deserving of the Esteem of his Brother officers—active, brave and generous, he has given flattering indications of those qualities which matured by experience wou’d form a valuable & distinguished Officer, and I cannot sufficiently lament that in an imprudent hour he should bring me as Commander of the Squadron into circumstances productive of so much difficulty & anxiety, & himself into a Situation which might have annulled the promise of his early years, & placed an insuperable bar to his future advancement and fame; I hope however that an honorable acquittal will dissipate this cloud & restore him again to the Service of his Country, and it is greatly to be wished that He as well as other young Men in the Service may not remain unadmonished by this unfortunate occurrence, which should teach them to be more upon their guard when on shore in foreign Countries, where it becomes them to consider that they are not the Depositaries of their own reputations only, but of the reputation of the Navy, and the Honor of the Nation whom they represent.
With great Respect & perfect Consideration I have the honor to Subscribe myself,
Sir,
Your Mo. Obt. Servt.,
(Signed) Sam1- Barron
To
The Honble R. Smith Secretary of the Navy of the U. S. of America.
The anxiety of the commodore would have been lifted from his troubled soul if he could have foreseen the existence of the following letter, to be written to his successor in command of the fleet by the gentle Quaker, Mr. Broadbent:
Messina the 24th Sept' 1805.
Dear Sir
I have now the pleasure of transmitting thee, an authenticated copy of the sentence pronounced by the Tribunal appointed by His Sicilian Majesty for trying L' Charles G. Ridgely of the accusation brought against him, as Author of the homicide committed upon the person of George Hutchinson, which sentence declares his innocence & restores him spotless to his Country, to his family and to thy esteem.
Notwithstanding all the severity of the Criminal Code of Sicily, the ability of the fiscal advocate, and the cunning made use of by him in the prosecution of this affair, not even the shadow of a proof has been brought against him; indeed his having voluntarily come forward to demand his trial redounds highly to his credit as a young man of honorable principles and jealous of his reputation and was from the beginning a strong Omen of his Innocence.
With the sincerest regard,
I have the honor to be thy most obedient and very humble Servant,
(Sign’d) John Broadbent
John Rodgers Esqr Com' in Chief of the U S Squadron in the Mediterranean
Here comes to an end this interesting and unique—even if not very important— incident. Ridgely was restored to duty and ordered to the Constitution by Commodore John Rodgers. Three months later he received news from Baltimore that his presence was required there in connection with the settlement of some property which had been left to him, and he wrote a letter to Commodore Rodgers requesting permission to sail for home, in which he thus refers to his Sicilian escapade:
I will not trouble you again with a repetition of my reasons for desiring to return to relieve my mother’s anxiety for the unfortunate affair in Messina.
Commodore Rodgers granted the desired request, but before Ridgely departed, he wrote to the Secretary of the Navy as follows:
From a personal knowledge I have of Mr. Ridgely both as a Gentleman and Officer. I am not only authorized by his merely having done his duty but bound in common justice to his merits to recommend him to your Notice as a young Man deserving well of his Country.
A few more remarks on the officer who, after the lesson learned in his youth which has been here described, became a well- known commodore in the Navy may not be amiss. He had not the good luck of some of his colleagues in the War of 1812, for he was stationed on Lake Ontario in command of the U. S. brig Jefferson, where he never succeeded in his efforts to bring a British ship to action. In 1822 on the Pacific station he joined with the British Navy in protecting the rights of foreigners in Peru, where he became the friend of Commodore Sir Thomas Hardy, R.N., Nelson’s Hardy. In 1833, he was made a member of a board to revise the laws and regulations of the Navy. From 1833 to 1839 he commanded the important navy yard at Brooklyn, New York. During this period he was well known for his hospitality. New York society in those days liked to gather at the fine old house of the commandant with its colonial rooms and verandas, its architectural dignity and spaciousness. In Mr. Philip Hone’s diary we find him mentioned. Later we find him in command of the Brazil station on his flagship, the frigate Potomac. In 1846 Fenimore Cooper, writing of the band of officers who had fought so desperately under Preble in the war with Tripoli, remarks: “Of all these gallant young men Ridgely alone survives.”[5] In 1848, in his sixty-fourth year, he died in his native city of Baltimore, where to this day his memory is cherished.
In this well-behaved age, perhaps the blunder of his youth may loom rather large; but so will the valor of his youth in this, and in other ages.
[1] Vide Cooper’s History of the Navy, 1839, vol. II, p. S3, note.
[2] The exact spelling and capitalization of the time and of the individuals concerned are reproduced in this and the later-quoted letters. Variations, or misspellings of the proper names are noticeable.
[3] John Broadbent was the U. S. consular agent at Messina, and was by religion a Quaker.
[4] This report was written on the U.S.S. President after Commodore Barron had turned over the command of the Mediterranean Squadron to Commodore John Rodgers and while the President was homeward bound.
[5] Lives of Distinguished Naval Officers, Phila., 1846, vol. 1, p. 91.