Charles Manigault Morris

First Lieutenant Charles Manigault Morris, CSN

Charles Manigault Morris (7 May 1820 – 22 March 1895) was an officer in the United States Navy and later in the Confederate States Navy. He was a son of Colonel Lewis V. Morris of New York and his wife Elizabeth Manigault of South Carolina. He a great grandson of both Lewis Morris and Ralph Izard.

Biography

Morris was born in South Carolina and entered the United States Navy as a midshipman in December 1837. He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in 1851, but resigned his commission in January 1861 following South Carolina's secession. In March, he was appointed a First Lieutenant in the Confederate States Navy.

Morris served on the Savannah, Georgia Station in 1861 to 63 and commanded CSS Florida from January 1864 until her illegal capture in a Brazilian harbor by the Union Navy the following October. 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.

During the remainder of the American Civil War, he served abroad as an agent of the Confederate States government.

Following the war, Morris and his family settled in England. In 1880 he returned to the United States and lived the rest of his life in Baltimore, Maryland.

He was a distant cousin of Confederate General Arthur Middleton Manigault, a great nephew of Arthur Middleton.

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