Mr. McCorkle was a veteran sailor who first served in the U.S. Navy under commodore Mathew Perry during the Mexican war. Walter Butt, a native Virginian, fought under Tucker during the Civil War. A veteran from the battle of Hampton Roads, Butt was a graduated from the 1859 Class of the Annapolis Naval Academy, which included a successful group of students, many of whom become full Admirals of the U.S. Navy, including the famous maritime geo-strategist Alfred T. Mahan. From the beginning there was a positive relationship between the Peruvian authorities and the American mariners. Tucker was hailed as a first class sailor. President Mariano Prado declared that Mr. Tucker was "a complete gentleman, quiet and circumspect, with the best good faith and unlimited enthusiasm for the cause we defend". An impressed Raleigh Butt wrote to his relatives in Virginia "the warmth of our reception impressed us most favorably". Admiral Tucker also requested that another ex Confederate naval officer who served with him at the James River squadron, Captain Hunter Davidson, an expert in torpedo warfare, be commissioned in the Peruvian Navy and assigned as flag captain of the ironclad Independence. The Peruvian authorities, however, rejected this request. Other two ex Confederate naval officers were also serving in the fellow Chilean fleet: Tucker's son, Engineer John Taleton Tucker and Lieutenant James Norris.
This particular relation between Peru and the Confederates did not end there. Peru never recognized the Jefferson Davis Government, and considered slavery as an abomination. It had in fact a very close relationship with Washington, and the Peruvian people were sympathetic with the Union's cause. However, there were a number of coincidences that one way or another linked Peru's Navy with that of the Confederate States of North America. During the Civil War, the Confederate Government ordered the construction of two 1,600-ton beautifully modeled wooden corvettes, armed with several 68-pounder guns, to the Vernes House in Nantes, France. They were going to be commissioned as the CSS Texas and the CSS Georgia. However the U.S. Government impeded the transaction. The French offered the twin ships to a third power, and Peru seized the opportunity, purchasing them immediately. This way, the Texas was commissioned in the Peruvian Navy as the "America" and the Georgia, sarcastically for the Confederates, became the "Union". Coincidences did not end there. When Tucker, McCorkle and Butt arrived in Valparaiso in July 1866 to assume their positions in the allied squadron, they found out that the Peruvian ironclad Independence –Tucker's flagship- was almost identical to the USS "New Ironside", the federal flagship that menaced Charleston, defended by Tucker during the Civil War. Furthermore, Raleigh Butt, who classified the allied fleet as a formidable naval force, discovered that the corvette America was the one mend to become the CSS Texas, a ship that he was supposed to serve as Executive Officer during the war of the secession. Also, during the preparations for the offensive against Spain, depicted in the previous chapter, some of the technology used in the torpedo-devices of the Peruvian fleet was Confederate.
The presence of Admiral Tucker as commander of the allied squadron also was the origin of a quarrel with the U.S. Navy that almost erupted in a diplomatic incident between Peru and the United States. In October 1866, in Valparaiso, Captain Fabius Stanley, skipper of the USS Tuscarora, which was part of the main United States South Pacific Squadron at Callao, informed his superior, Admiral George Pearson, that Mr. Tucker had been discourteous towards him. Pearson considered that the Peruvian Admiral had violated the conduct required between naval officers of friendly nations and demanded an apology. Tucker offered his explanations from a different point of view, saying that he did not intended to offend Stanley. The truth is that both men, Tucker and Stanley detested each other. The first considered Stanley, a native of North Carolina, as a traitor to the South, while the later, saw in Tucker a traitor to the Union. The quarrel did not end with Tucker's explanations. When Tucker formally raised his flag on the Independence as a Peruvian Admiral, he received courtesy calls from the Commanders of the British and French warships in Valparaiso. The Americans however did not salute him.
During the first round of diplomatic correspondence over this affair, Peru's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs expressed to the U.S. representative in Lima his deep concern about the matter and informed that his Government was investigating the incident. He hoped that the problem would be considered as a personal, not official matter. Some days later, Peru's Chancellor wrote to U.S. Minister Alvin P. Hovey about his hopes that the affair be put to rest, but at the same time warned that Peruvian naval officers could not initiate salutes unless they were certain that these would be returned. In September 1866, Rear Admiral John Dahlgren replaced Mr. Pearson as commander in chief of the U.S. South Pacific Squadron and things become worst. Dahlgren was a bitter man, with a deep hate towards ex Confederate officers and soldiers. For him, Admiral Tucker was just a rebel, liable still to trail for treason. In a letter to the U.S. Secretary of the Navy, he also questioned Peru for having hired "a criminal offender".
The silly controversy even become a personal matter for U.S. President Andrew Johnson, and Dahlgren was authorized to waive, at his discretion, paragraph 96 of the U.S. Navy Regulations, regarding the required exchange of courtesies with foreign officers, in his relations with Admiral Tucker. When more U.S. warships of the South Pacific Squadron arrived in Valparaiso, none of their officers paid courtesy calls on Tucker. Peru formally protested the behavior of the American officers. The Peruvian Minister of Foreign Affairs wrote that their failure to salute Admiral Tucker was not merely a discourtesy to the Admiral but also one to Peru, whose colors he showed in his pennant and to Chile too, for Tucker represented both nations. The Minister warned that the Peruvian Government would not permit the matter to continue. In this respect, Rear Admiral Dahlgren reported to the Secretary of the Navy that Mr. Tucker was succeeding very well in making his own quarrel that of the Peruvian Government.
Tucker realized that the affair was becoming a diplomatic crisis. He also saw that the Chilean-Peruvian alliance was becoming weaker each day. Peru wanted to press the war further, but the Chilean Government, under intense internal pressure started to back off. Also at that moment, the American Government was proposing a peace plan which, unlike those presented by the United Kingdom and France was preferred by Lima because it did not require an armistice. Simultaneously a court martial was being held in Lima against the naval officers that had rejected Tucker’s command. It became an intense trial that divided public opinion. One officer called Tucker a “pro slaver and unknown rebel”. Another branded him as a mercenary.
On February 9, 1867, during the court-martial of Captain Miguel Grau, one of the Peruvian officers who rejected Tucker’s command, his lawyer, the famed Luciano Benjamin Cisneros, said about the American officer:
“Mr. Tucker, despite his qualifications and the scientific knowledge which I recognize on him, is not superior to our sailors in the necessary skills to command a squadron. It is not my intention to offend him, on the contrary; I appreciate him because of his professionalism. But a person that not even speaks our language can’t represent us in a naval conflict. And I am not only denying him that quality, but other no less important, which is fundamental for a soldier during war: I am referring to nationalism, to the love to the motherland, to that feeling that transforms men and makes them superior. Could Mr. Tucker feel the same as our naval officers for this unfortunate country that we love so much? Can he cry with us our misfortunes, enjoy our glories or have the same expectations that only we could understand? Mr. Tucker has a noble and valiant heart; but he does not have a Peruvian heart and that is what we mainly need when the time comes to fight for the honor of Peru”.
It was obvious that from a domestic and diplomatic point of view the situation was becoming unbearable, and the Admiral could not even command in battle the force he had organized with so much enthusiasm. In order to prevent a further deterioration of relations between Washington and Lima as well as internal divisions, Mr. Tucker resigned his commission. The Peruvian President accepted his resignation with regret on March 1867.
The expedition to the Philippines was aborted, the alliance was de facto broken and the Peruvian squadron lifted anchors from Valparaiso and returned to Callao (1).
Just few weeks after his resignation, Admiral Tucker was appointed by President Prado as President of the “Hydrographic Commission of the Amazon”. It was a scientific commission created to explore the unknown Peruvian headwaters of the Amazon Basin and to prepare hydrographic charts of the Amazon system within the limits of the Republic. Tucker, who kept his Peruvian Naval rank, held this post until 1874, when he decided to return to the United States, after providing valuable services to Peru. He died in his native country in June 1883 (2).
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(1). A Peace Treaty between Peru and Spain was finally signed in Paris on August 14, 1879, during the Governments of King Alfonso XIII and President M. Prado.
(*) Excerpts on this chapter from Mr. David P. Werlich's "Admiral of the Amazon".
