This painting by an unidentified artist depicts the naval battle between the Confederate privateer, C.S.S. Petrel, and the Union frigate, U.S.S. St. Lawrence. The engagement took place on July 28, 1861, just outside Charleston Harbor, and resulted in the sinking of the Petrel and capture of its crew.

This two-masted schooner was originally built as a harbor pilot boat called the Eclipse. In 1853 the vessel belonged to the United States government and served in Charleston as a revenue cutter. After the fall of Fort Sumter in April 1861, the state of South Carolina confiscated the Eclipse and renamed it the William Aiken. In May 1861, the state offered the vessel to the Confederate government but the offer was not accepted because the ship was of no military value to the fledgling government. The state then sold the William Aiken to a consortium of ten Charlestonians who obtained letters of marque from the Confederate government, and fitted out the vessel as a privateer, a privately-owned vessel commissioned to capture or destroy enemy shipping on behalf of the Confederacy. Traditionally, owners and crews of privateers were permitted to keep a majority of the goods and vessels they captured, making them both businessmen and naval combatants. The new owners, Henry Buist, Maier Triest, William Whaley, George A. Locke, Thomas J. Legare, A. J. Salinas, William M. Martin, George W. King, Daniel Haas, and Z. B. Oakes, renamed the vessel the Petrel and mounted two deck guns on it.

The Petrel undertook its maiden voyage on July 28, 1861, under the command of Captain William Perry. Shortly after crossing the bar of Charleston Harbor, the Petrel was intercepted by the U.S.S. St. Lawrence, a Union frigate that had recently taken up blockade duty off of the rebel city. Armed with fifty cannon and commanded by Captain Hugh Purviance, the St. Lawrence was a powerful warship and much outmatched the Petrel. After a brief chase and an exchange of cannon fire, the Petrel was struck by an exploding shell and quickly sank. The crew of the St. Lawrence rescued all but two of the Petrel's crew and the Union ship returned to its station off of Charleston Harbor. The painting of the Petrel and St. Lawrence is identical in composition to a woodcut which appeared in Harper's Weekly on August 24, 1861, and accompanied an article on the engagement.

Although the illustration is unsigned, it was likely made from an on-the-scene sketch by Theodore Russell Davis, one of the foremost illustrators of the American Civil War. Davis created many illustrations for Harper's and his work matched in quality that of Alfred R. Waud, Thomas Nast, Alexander Simplot, Winslow Homer, and W.T. Crane. Davis's presence with the United States fleet off Charleston in July 1861 is not fully verified, but in the weeks previous he had been making illustrations along the Atlantic coast and, four months later, extensively documented for Harper's the Union capture of Port Royal Harbor and the South Carolina town of Beaufort on November 7, 1861. The depiction of the Petrel and St. Lawrence is strikingly similar to illustrations by Davis of the Confederate privateers Sumter and Savannah that were published in June 1861 issues of Harper's. It is likely that an unknown painter used the woodcut to create the work some time after July 1861. In this painting the Petrel's sails are riddled with cannon shot and a shell is depicted exploding on the deck of the ship. The decks are awash and crew members have begun to abandon ship. All of these features appeared in the Harper's Weekly version of the battle.

Provenance
The Old Print Shop, New York, NY
Altmayer Limited Partnership, Mobile, AL

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