HIS PART IN THE CIVIL WAR 145 



Maury suffered from casting his fortunes with Virginia 

 and the South, these hostile condemnations by former 

 fellow officers and scientists, made in the midst of the 

 animosities of civil strife, were perhaps the most damag- 

 ing, for they cast a cloud upon his good name and the 

 fame which he had won in the field of oceanography, — a 

 cloud of misrepresentation which after more than half a 

 century has not been entirely removed. 



Upon Maury's arrival at Richmond, he lost no time 

 in offering his services to Governor Letcher, who granted 

 him a commission as commander in the Navy of Vir- 

 ginia, dated April 23, 1861. At about the same time he 

 appointed him a member of his Executive Council, 

 only just authorized by an ordinance of April 20. Its 

 other members were : Honorable John J. Allen, President 

 of the Court of Appeals; Colonel Francis H. Smith, 

 Superintendent of the Virginia Military Institute; R. L. 

 Montague; and Thomas S. Raymond. This council, 

 ordered to devise plans for the arming and protecting 

 of the state in the shortest time possible, continued to 

 function until June 19 of the same year, when its manu- 

 script minutes come abruptly to a close. On April 25, 

 Virginia had joined the Confederate States and adopted 

 their provisional government; and on April 29 Richmond 

 had become the Capital of the Confederacy. The Vir- 

 ginia State Navy was then incorporated with that of 

 the Confederacy, and on June 10 Maury received his 

 commission in the Confederate States Navy. 



On the following day Maury wrote, 'T begin to feel 

 very useless. I am afraid there is too much red tape 

 yet left in the world. I hope it may not tie us down". 

 After remarking that there were small men in the Con- 

 federate government, and that there had been conflicts 



