Availing themselves of the invitation to do so, a number of citizens of Charleston equipped the pilot boat _Savannah_ with an eighteen-pounder, mounted on a pivot; procured a crew of thirty men, all told, under Capt. Thomas H. Baker; supplied them with small arms and ammunition, and sent them out under a commission which, because it was the first issued, shall be given in full, as follows: “_Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, To all who shall see these Presents, Greeting_: “Know ye, That by virtue of the power vested in me by law, I have commissioned, and do hereby commission, have authorized, and do hereby authorize, the schooner or vessel called the _Savannah_ (more particularly described in the schedule hereunto annexed), whereof T. Harrison Baker is commander, to act as a private armed vessel in the service of the Confederate States, on the high seas, against the United States of America, their ships, vessels, goods, and effects, and those of their citizens, during the pendency of the war now existing between the said Confederate States and the said United States. “This commission to continue in force until revoked by the President of the Confederate States for the time being. “Given under my hand and the seal of the Confederate States, at Montgomery, this eighteenth day of May, A.D., 1861. “(Signed) JEFFERSON DAVIS. “By the President. R. Toombs, Secretary of State. “SCHEDULE OF DESCRIPTION OF THE VESSEL. “Name--Schooner _Savannah_. Tonnage--Fifty-three 41/95th tons. Armament--One large pivot gun and small arms. No. of crew--thirty.” [Illustration: THE SAVANNAH THE CONFEDERATE STATES PRIVATEER SAVANNAH, LETTER OF MARQUE No. 1, CAPTURED OFF CHARLESTON, BY THE U.S. BRIG PERRY, LIEUT. PARROTT. _Entered according to act of Congress in the Year 1861 by E K KIMMEL 59 NASSAU ST. N.Y. in the Clerks Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York._ ] The _Savannah_ sailed out of Charleston on the night of Sunday, June 2, 1861, and, eluding the Federal frigate _Minnesota_, went cruising for Northern merchantmen. The schooner was small, and the weather hot. The crew slept on deck that night, and, as was testified in court later on, they were not feeling very well next morning. In fact, “being on a flare-up the night before, not much was said,” even when a sail was seen, and it became certain that the sail “was a Yankee vessel.” Eventually the sail was overhauled. It proved to be the brig _Joseph_, of Rockland, Maine, Capt. Thies N. Meyer, bound, sugar laden, from Cardenas, Cuba, to Philadelphia. The brig had a crew of six, all told. She was easily taken, and with a prize crew of six men was sent to Georgetown, South Carolina, where she was condemned and sold in the usual form.