Military Figure, Author. Alexander Porter Morse, as an officer in the Army of the Confederate States of America, received notoriety during the American Civil War as a prisoner of war on the “Maple Leaf,” a civilian steamboat chartered by the Union Army to transport prisoners north. The steamboat left Fort Monroe, Virginia at 1:30 pm on June 10, 1863 with Confederate prisoners, who were all officers from all Confederate states, and boarded in New Orleans or Norfolk headed north to Fort Delaware Prison. When the steamboat was about 10 miles away from Fort Monroe at 3 pm, the Confederate prisoners quickly overtook the the crew of the vessel along with Union soldiers and officers on board, which were all held at gunpoint. Orders were given to the pilot to head south, eventually docking the vessel near the shore. Seventy-one of the Confederate prisoners managed to escape off the steamboat, including a nineteen-year-old Lt. Morse, but leaving 27 prisoners who were in no condition to travel or elected to stay as they were due to be paroled. During the night the prisoners marched south 32 miles without food or water through the marsh of the low country. In the next couple of days, the escapees managed to travel, while dodging Union forces, another 71 miles with 68 of the them reaching behind Confederate lines in Richmond, Virginia on June 22nd. This morsel of American history is documented in an article in the “Southern Magazine” dated September of 1871, entitled: "The Capture of the Maple Leaf” and a detailed letter by Lt. Alexander Porter Morse to his mother. He was the youngest son of eight children born to Issac and Magaretta Wederstrant Morse and named in honor of Louisiana Senator Alexander Porter. As a student at Princeton University, he enlisted in 1861 in the Confederate Cavalry as a private in Company I the “Morgan Rangers,” 1st Louisiana Cavalry until but soon became an officer in Majors' Division Green's Cavalry Corps leaving in 1864 at the rank of captain. After the war in 1869, Morse relocated to Washington, DC to become a journalist and correspondent for several newspapers. Prior to the war, he had attended Mount Saint Mary's College in Emmittsburg, Maryland before attending Princeton University. He continued his education earning a PhD from Princeton University in 1885 and a law degree from Georgetown University in 1872, successfully practicing international and constitutional law in Washington, DC. He handled several complex cases, including acting for defense for Louisiana clients before the United States Supreme Court, such as the well-known Judge Howard Ferguson in the Plessy v. Ferguson case. He was counsel for the United States before the commission to arbitrate claims of the Venezuela Steam Transportation Company against government of Venezuela in 1894; the arbitrator under protocol between Haiti and the United States in the Van Bokkelen case in 1888; and an 1880 delegate from the United States to the Association of Reform and Codification of Laws of Nations in London, England. Speaking fluent French and Spanish, he was an associate counsel for the French Republic before the French-American Claims Commission from 1881 to 1884 and assistant attorney of the United States before the Spanish Treaty Claims Commission from 1901 to 1902. He was the author of several law books including in 1879 the “Citizenship by Birth and Naturalization,” in 1898 the “Rights and Duties of Belligerents and Neutral from the American Point of View,” and in 1900 the “Status of Inhabitants of Territory Acquired by Discovery, Purchase, Cession, or Conquest, According to the Usage of the United States.” Morse married Ellen Marie Clarke in 1883 and they had 5 children. He and his wife are buried in the Clark plot with her parents. Letters to his mother and other papers are archived at the Western Kentucky University, yet a four-page letter to his father was recently offered for sale to collectors for $125. The fate of the “Maple Leaf” came on April 1, 1864 when a Confederate torpedo or mine hit the vessel while crossing the St. Johns River near Jacksonville, Florida. From the damage, the steamship took-on water sinking with the total cargo being loss. Four crew members were killed in the sinking, which was the first of this type of casualty during the war. The site of the wreckage was declared on October 12, 1994 a National Historic Landmark. To clear the waterway, part of the wreckage was removed in 1880, and in 1984 the remaining well-preserved wreckage was removed from a wet grave to become part of the Smithsonian Museum collection, telling the morsel of American History.
Military Figure, Author. Alexander Porter Morse, as an officer in the Army of the Confederate States of America, received notoriety during the American Civil War as a prisoner of war on the “Maple Leaf,” a civilian steamboat chartered by the Union Army to transport prisoners north. The steamboat left Fort Monroe, Virginia at 1:30 pm on June 10, 1863 with Confederate prisoners, who were all officers from all Confederate states, and boarded in New Orleans or Norfolk headed north to Fort Delaware Prison. When the steamboat was about 10 miles away from Fort Monroe at 3 pm, the Confederate prisoners quickly overtook the the crew of the vessel along with Union soldiers and officers on board, which were all held at gunpoint. Orders were given to the pilot to head south, eventually docking the vessel near the shore. Seventy-one of the Confederate prisoners managed to escape off the steamboat, including a nineteen-year-old Lt. Morse, but leaving 27 prisoners who were in no condition to travel or elected to stay as they were due to be paroled. During the night the prisoners marched south 32 miles without food or water through the marsh of the low country. In the next couple of days, the escapees managed to travel, while dodging Union forces, another 71 miles with 68 of the them reaching behind Confederate lines in Richmond, Virginia on June 22nd. This morsel of American history is documented in an article in the “Southern Magazine” dated September of 1871, entitled: "The Capture of the Maple Leaf” and a detailed letter by Lt. Alexander Porter Morse to his mother. He was the youngest son of eight children born to Issac and Magaretta Wederstrant Morse and named in honor of Louisiana Senator Alexander Porter. As a student at Princeton University, he enlisted in 1861 in the Confederate Cavalry as a private in Company I the “Morgan Rangers,” 1st Louisiana Cavalry until but soon became an officer in Majors' Division Green's Cavalry Corps leaving in 1864 at the rank of captain. After the war in 1869, Morse relocated to Washington, DC to become a journalist and correspondent for several newspapers. Prior to the war, he had attended Mount Saint Mary's College in Emmittsburg, Maryland before attending Princeton University. He continued his education earning a PhD from Princeton University in 1885 and a law degree from Georgetown University in 1872, successfully practicing international and constitutional law in Washington, DC. He handled several complex cases, including acting for defense for Louisiana clients before the United States Supreme Court, such as the well-known Judge Howard Ferguson in the Plessy v. Ferguson case. He was counsel for the United States before the commission to arbitrate claims of the Venezuela Steam Transportation Company against government of Venezuela in 1894; the arbitrator under protocol between Haiti and the United States in the Van Bokkelen case in 1888; and an 1880 delegate from the United States to the Association of Reform and Codification of Laws of Nations in London, England. Speaking fluent French and Spanish, he was an associate counsel for the French Republic before the French-American Claims Commission from 1881 to 1884 and assistant attorney of the United States before the Spanish Treaty Claims Commission from 1901 to 1902. He was the author of several law books including in 1879 the “Citizenship by Birth and Naturalization,” in 1898 the “Rights and Duties of Belligerents and Neutral from the American Point of View,” and in 1900 the “Status of Inhabitants of Territory Acquired by Discovery, Purchase, Cession, or Conquest, According to the Usage of the United States.” Morse married Ellen Marie Clarke in 1883 and they had 5 children. He and his wife are buried in the Clark plot with her parents. Letters to his mother and other papers are archived at the Western Kentucky University, yet a four-page letter to his father was recently offered for sale to collectors for $125. The fate of the “Maple Leaf” came on April 1, 1864 when a Confederate torpedo or mine hit the vessel while crossing the St. Johns River near Jacksonville, Florida. From the damage, the steamship took-on water sinking with the total cargo being loss. Four crew members were killed in the sinking, which was the first of this type of casualty during the war. The site of the wreckage was declared on October 12, 1994 a National Historic Landmark. To clear the waterway, part of the wreckage was removed in 1880, and in 1984 the remaining well-preserved wreckage was removed from a wet grave to become part of the Smithsonian Museum collection, telling the morsel of American History.
Bio by: Linda Davis
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