During the same week that the Confederate navy made history, one of its sailors was murdered in Richmond. He was serving on the CSS Patrick Henry. In May 1862 the ship “was modified for use as a school ship, and from October 1863 housed the Confederate States’ Naval Academy, under the command of First Lieutenant William H. Parker.”
From the Richmond Daily Dispatch February 17, 1864:
Murder of a Sailor.
–A seaman, named James Kelley, one of the crew of the shipship
Patrick Henry, lying in James river, near Drewry’s Bluff, was murdered yesterday morning, about 7 o’clock, at the house of two white women of easy virtue, named Emma Brown and Maggie Jones, located on 24th, between Mam [Main?] and Cary sts. The deceased received two stabs in the left breast from a small bowie or sheath knife, either one of which was sufficient to have ultimately caused his death. Kelley, after receiving the wounds was removed to the C. S. Marine Hospital, on Governor st, where he lingered in great pain for more than an hour, when death put an end to his sufferings.
Soon after the wounded man breathed his last a jury of inquest was summoned, who, upon an investigation of the affair, returned as their verdict that he came to his death from stabs received at the hands of some person to them unknown.
training ship
