Charles Manigault Morris
Charles Manigault Morris (May 7, 1820 – March 22, 1895)<ref name="BSObit1895">Template:Cite news</ref> was an officer in the United States Navy and later in the Confederate States Navy. Morris was a descendant of several of the most prominent Northern and Southern families in colonial America.
Early life
Morris was born in Adams Run, South Carolina, on May 7, 1820. He was the youngest son of Col. Lewis Morris (1785–1863) of New York and his wife Elizabeth (née Manigault) Morris (1785–1822) of South Carolina, who married in 1807.<ref>W. W. Spooner, The Morris Family of Morrisania, American Historical Magazine I, nos. 1-5 (1906), 136-142, 321-323, 427-428.</ref> Among his siblings was Gabriella Manigault Morris (wife of John Mease Butler and sister-in-law of Pierce Mease Butler),<ref name="Dusinberre2000">Template:Cite book</ref> Margaret Ann Morris (wife of John Berkley Grimball),<ref name="uncDiaries">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Henry Manigault Morris (who married M. Georgia Edwards),<ref name="ngaGentleman">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and Richard Lewis Morris (who married Anne Elizabeth Dunwoodie).<ref name="Americana1906"/> In 1822, when Charles was just two years old, his mother and older brother Lewis were killed during a hurricane on Sullivan's Island.<ref name="Reynolds1914"/> In 1837, his father remarried to Amarinthia Lowndes, a daughter of James Lowndes and granddaughter of Gov. Rawlins Lowndes.<ref name="Reynolds1914"/> From his father's second marriage, he had three half-siblings, including Lewis Morris (b. 1842), who lived in Paris.<ref name="Americana1906"/> Although they lived in the South, his father maintained control of Morris family property around Morrisania in New York.<ref name="uncDiaries"/>
His paternal grandparents were Maj. and Brevet Lt. Col. of the Continental Army Lewis V. Morris (eldest son of Continental Congressman and signer of the Declaration of Independence Lewis Morris who was the third and last Lord of Morrisania Manor)<ref name="Met2013"/><ref name="AHoen1897"/> and Ann B. (née Elliott) Morris (a sister-in-law of U.S. Representative Daniel Huger).<ref name="Reynolds1914">Template:Cite book</ref> His maternal grandparents were architect Gabriel Manigault (a son of Peter Manigault, the wealthiest person in British North America in 1770)<ref name="NCHR">Template:Cite book</ref> and Margaret (née Izard) Manigault (a daughter of Continental Congressman and U.S. Senator from South Carolina Ralph Izard).<ref name="unc">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He was also distant cousin of Confederate General Arthur Middleton Manigault, and a great-nephew of Arthur Middleton.<ref name="USNHC"/>
Career
In December 1837, he entered the United States Navy as a midshipman.<ref name="BSObit1895"/> He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in 1851, serving "with honor during the Mexican War."<ref name="AHoen1897"/> In 1853, he was Lieutenant on the USS Mississippi with Commodore Matthew C. Perry's expedition to Japan.<ref name="LMObit1940"/> While in Japan, Morris received gifts from Emperor Kōmei.<ref name="LMObit1940"/> In 1860, he was First Lt. of the USS Marion with the Africa Squadron off the coast of Africa.<ref name="AHoen1897"/>
He resigned his commission on January 29, 1861, following South Carolina's secession and was ordered to the command of the CSS Huntress, side-wheel steamer, in Savannah.<ref name="Evans1947">Template:Cite news</ref> In March, he was appointed a First Lieutenant in the Confederate States Navy. From 1861 to 1863, Morris served on the Savannah, Georgia Station where he married his second wife.<ref name="Melton2012">Template:Cite book</ref>
After John Newland Maffitt became ill at Brest, France, Morris took over in January 1864 as commander of the CSS Florida.<ref name="AHoen1897"/> As commander, he captured Electric Spark, Harriet Stevens, Golconda, Margaret Y. Davis, and USS Mondamin along the coast of the United States. Morris then crossed the ocean to Tenerife in the Canary Islands before cruising back to Brazil capturing the B.X. Hoxie, Cairaissanne, David Lapsey, USS Estella, George Latimer, Southern Rights, Greenland, Windward, William C. Clark, and Zelinda.<ref name="AHoen1897"/> In October 1864, however, his ship was illegally captured in a Brazilian harbor by the Union Navy. Morris and most of his crew were ashore when his ship was boarded in the middle of the night while at anchor in neutral waters.<ref name="McKenna2010">Template:Cite book</ref> During the remainder of the American Civil War, he served abroad as an agent of the Confederate States government.<ref name="USNHC">First Lieutenant Charles Manigault Morris, CSN at the U.S. Naval Historical Center</ref>
Later life
Following the war, Morris and his family settled in England. After the War, his wife took an interest in the education of President Jefferson Davis' daughter, Margaret "Maggie" Davis at the convent in France.<ref name="Davis2008">Template:Cite book</ref> In 1880, he returned to the United States and lived the rest of his life in Baltimore, Maryland.<ref name="AHoen1897">Template:Cite book</ref>
Personal life
Morris was twice married. His first wife was Hannah Heyward Troup (1830–1854), a daughter of Camilla Heyward Brailsford and James McGilvary Troup.<ref name="gibbesmuseum">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> After her death in 1854, he married Clementina Hansen McAllister (1832–1907), a daughter of George Washington McAllister of Strathy Hall, Georgia (and namesake of Fort McAllister), in November 1861.<ref name="Americana1906">Template:Cite book</ref> His second wife was a first cousin of Archibald McAllister, a U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania during the Civil War. Together, they were the parents of:<ref name="Prioleau2010">Template:Cite book</ref>
- Elizabeth Manigault Morris (1863–1910),<ref name="Americana1906"/> who never married and died while abroad with her sister.<ref name="1910Funeral">Template:Cite news</ref>
- Henry Manigault Morris (1865–1884), who was born in Caen, France and died unmarried.<ref name="Americana1906"/>
- Lewis Morris (1867–1940),<ref name="LMObit1940">Template:Cite news</ref> a doctor and Captain in the United States Navy who married Mary Gibbs Murphy,<ref name="A&NPress1906">Template:Cite book</ref> a daughter of Thomas and Mary (née Gibbs) Murphy of New York, in 1906. After his first wife's death, he married Ella Willard (née Bingham) Duffy (Template:Circa–1953),<ref name="MrsMorris1953">Template:Cite news</ref> a daughter of Jacob Willard Bingham,<ref name="Prioleau2010"/> in 1911.<ref name="1911Wedding">Template:Cite news</ref>
- Clementina Rosalie Morris (1873–1919), who was born in Brighton, England.<ref name="Americana1906"/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> She died unmarried in 1919 and left her dog, Tommy Moonface, a legacy of $10 month of the rest of his life for his "board and keep".<ref name="1919Will">Template:Cite news</ref>
Morris died at his home, 908 St. Paul Street in Baltimore, on March 22, 1895.<ref name="SMBObit1895">Template:Cite news</ref> His funeral service, led by the Rev. Dr. John Sebastian Bach Hodges, was held at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Baltimore.<ref name="1895Funeral"/> His pall-bearers were Gen. John Gill, Henry Thompson, Capt. Fitzhugh Carter, John Carey, Capt. Yates Stirling, John W. Williams, John I. Middleton and Gen. Joseph Lancaster Brent. After the funeral, his body was sent to New York where was laid to rest in the family vault at St. Ann's Church in Morrisania.<ref name="1895Funeral">Template:Cite news</ref> His widow died on August 24, 1907.<ref name="1907Will">Template:Cite news</ref>