My research continues on the surname Cannonier in my husband’s family tree from St Kitts. One Kittitian named Andrew Cannonier came to the United States in the 1860s and fought in the Civil War. A newspaper clipping that recently popped up online gave me more information about the route that led him to Brooklyn, NY, and how his travels were related to the Civil War.
I knew that he joined the 159th Infantry in Brooklyn on October 11, 1862. In what was probably not a coincidence, he was arrested after a stabbing incident just two days before. In the Brooklyn Daily Times of October 10, 1862, the following short news story appeared:
“Stabbing Affay on Shipboard. A Desperate affray occurred last night on board the ship J. P. Whitney, lying at the Atlantic Dock, between two of the sailors, named Andrew Cannonier and Hanse Hansemann, during which Cannonier drew a case-knife and stabbed Hansemann in the neck and heart, inflicting two very dangerous wounds, from which Hansemann’s recovery is deemed very doubtful. Cannonier was given in custody of officer Holliday, of the 43rd, and he was locked up to await the result of the injuries.”
Although I haven’t been able to find anything on the fate of Hanse Hansemann, the ship name, along with the date, provided quite a bit of background information. The clipper ship J. P. Whitney was built in 1853 in the shipbuilding town of Castine, Maine. It was named for one of two brothers from Maine who founded the mercantile shipping company J. P. Whitney and Company based in New Orleans. The Whitney carried salted fish from Maine and cotton from New Orleans, among other cargo. Its trade routes would also bring the ship to Liverpool in England.
My first thought on finding that the Whitney was traveling between New Orleans to New York City in 1862, was the question of how this could occur during the Civil War. Turns out that in April of 1862, New Orleans fell to Union forces, so trade between the two cities had begun again. A NY Times article published in July of that year said that a second cargo shipment from New Orleans had arrived in New York, carrying 278 hogsheads of sugar that hadn’t been destroyed in the recent fighting. It was unknown when cotton would become available, but the paper patriotically stated that
“It will be a long time yet before the Crescent City attains to anything like the commercial prosperity it enjoyed before secession times; but we are glad to see that, as its loyalty is growing, so its trade and commerce also are gradually awaking from the torpor and death into which they have been plunged.”
Our Andrew Cannonier was a sailor in 1862. Is it possible that some time prior, he sailed from St Kitts to New Orleans, where he would have signed on to the crew of the J. P. Whitney? When he joined the army in October, he was listed as age 19. It’s possible that he lied about his age to join the army, but assuming 19 years old was approximately true, he wouldn’t have been working as a sailor for more than a few years before his arrival in Brooklyn on the Whitney. There was certainly shipping trade going on between New Orleans and islands like St Kitts. The salted, cured cod produced in New England was used as a staple food for the enslaved of the Caribbean before the abolition of slavery, as it provided protein needed for hard physical labor, although only the poorest quality fish, not acceptable to European customers, was brought to the West Indies.
Historic accounts also provide information on another experience Andrew Cannonier had on his sea voyage from New Orleans to Brooklyn. Newspaper accounts from August of 1862 told of a collision that occurred between the Whitney and theWappoo, just off the coast of southern Florida. In another NY Times notice dated September 13, 1862, the incident was described:
“On Thursday, 28th, arrived from the Gulf the ship J. P. Whitney, Capt. Avery, from New Orleans for New York, in distress having been in collision with the brig Wappoo, from Cardenas [Cuba], by which the ship’s cutwater is carried away, and her jib-booms broken off with other slight damage, all requiring repairs here. The brig lost her mainmast, with other damage, having put back for Key West, and is now ashore within sight from the island, and the wrecker assisting her. Friday morning 29th, the brig Wappoo has been brought into port by the steam tug Gen. Raney, and has suffered but little damage except to her spars and rigging. Capt. Wilkinson, of the Wappoo, reports that when he left Cardenas, on the 25th, there was in that port a bogus English steamer called the Florida, mounting eight large rifled guns, commanded by Capt. J. N. Maffit, with a crew of one hundred and fifty men. She was discharging arms and ammunition, which apparently were secretly removed and stored.”
The mention of the “bogus steamer” also relates to the American Civil War. The Florida, formerly called the Oreto, was a swift, well-armed steamship built in England and used by the confederacy as a very effective blockade runner. The ship had docked in Cardenas, Cuba in August of 1862 seeking medical help, because yellow fever had infected numerous crew members, including Captain Maffit.
Andrew Cannonier had made it to New York in October of 1862, when he was involved in a nasty-sounding encounter with a fellow sailor. Two days later, he had enlisted in the army. I haven’t found whether he did this with the blessing of the local Brooklyn authorities, or if he somehow escaped from jail and used the army as a fast ticket out of the city. In any case, by December he found himself sailing back to Louisiana, where he would spend several years embroiled in his adopted country’s war.
Sources
- Castine Historical Society, The Castine Visitor, Frances and Felicia: Poetry Spans the Atlantic Ocean, Summer 2020
- NY Times, Trade with New-Orleans, June 29, 1862
- Marina Life, The History of Maine’s Cod Fisheries – Once a Bustling Industry, Now Almost Gone, 2016
- U. S. Naval Institute, The Confederate Cruiser “The Florida”, 1916
- New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center, 159th Infantry Regiment, 2025
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