[Enclosure 1 in No.
1.]
Mr. Gardner to Mr. Hamilton.
Custom-House,
November 19,
1863.
Sir: I am directed to acquaint you, for
the information of the lords commissioners of her Majesty’s
treasury, that a rumor having reached the collector of this
revenue at Cork that the United States war sloop Kearsarge,
which put into that port on the 2d instant, had taken on board
and proceeded to sea with several men, being British subjects,
from the neighborhood of Queenstown, he caused inquiry to be
made, with a view of ascertaining whether any infringement of
the provisions of the foreign enlistment act had taken place.
The person from whom the rumor emanated was a person named
Samuel Dunn, a pensioner, residing at Ringaskiddy. Upon being
questioned by the collector, Dunn stated that James Haley, a
native of Ringaskiddy, and who lived at that place about twenty
years ago, at which time he was in the British service on board
of the Shamrock, afterwards joined the American service, and is
now an officer on board the Kearsarge. On the recent arrival of
that vessel, Haley went on shore at Ringaskiddy to visit his
relatives, and while on shore remained at the house of his
sister. It is alleged that during his stay there he persuaded
the following persons to go to sea in the Kearsarge, but under
what agreement no evidence appears: John Sullivan, Edward
Pyburne, Thomas Murphy, George Patterson, Dennis Leary, natives
of Ringaskiddy.
It is also alleged that Michael Ahern, of Queenstown, joined the
said vessel. The five persons first named, who are from 17 to 18
years of age, were taken on board the ship by John Dunn, the son
of Samuel Dunn, whose declaration to that effect is enclosed. It
does not appear how Michael Ahern (a clerk lately dismissed from
the service of Messrs. Scott, of Queenstown) was taken on board.
The reports of the officers at Cork and the declaration of John
Dunn having been referred to the solicitor of this revenue, he
has reported that the circumstance of the men having been put on
board and sailed away in a vessel-of-war of the United States
affords a strong inference that they have entered into the
American war service, but that the proofs are not very strong to
support such a case, and there is no person known ashore who has
been shown to be concerned in enlisting the men so as to render
him amenable to prosecution under the second section of the
foreign enlistment act, unless it be John Dunn himself, whose
statement is very vague.
He appears, according to his own statement, to have acted as an
unpaid volunteer, and does not explain wherefore or by whose
instructions he put the men on board.
I am, &c.,
[Enclosure 2 in No.
1.]
Declaration of John
Dunn.
Queenstown,
November 12,
1863.
I, John Dunn, of Ringaskiddy, do declare that on Wednesday, the
4th day of November, I took on board the American sloop-of-war
Kearsarge, in Queenstown
[Page 433]
harbor, John Sullivan, Edward Pyburne, Thomas Murphy, and
George Patterson, and on Thursday, the 5th of November, Dennis
Leary, all of whom lived at Ringaskiddy, none of whom have
landed to my knowledge. I got no pay for taking them on board,
they being too poor to pay, and I am not aware of any payment
made to them on board.
Read over to the party in our presence, who witness his mark
hereto ths 12th of November, 1863, at Queenstown.
J. MOORE, Surveyor,
N. SEYMOUR.
P. DUNN.
