Captain Semmes at once replied that he would attend upon the committee
immediately. His next act was respectfully to resign his commission as
Commander in the Navy of the United States; which resignation was
accepted in the same terms. He ceased similarly to be a member of the
Lighthouse Board. These matters concluded, he telegraphed to the Hon.
J.L.M. Curry, in Montgomery, where the Confederate States' Congress was
sitting, that he was now a free man to serve his struggling country.
Forthwith he was deputed by President Davis to return to the Northern
States, and make large purchases and contracts "for machinery and
munitions, or for the manufacture of arms and munitions of war;" as also
to obtain "cannon and musket-powder, the former of the coarsest grain,"
and to engage with a certain proprietor of powder-mills for the
"establishment of a powder-mill at some point in the limits of our
territory." This letter gives a good idea of the business-like qualities
brought by Mr. Davis to his high office. "At the arsenal at Washington,"
he writes, "you will find an artificer named Wright, who has brought the
cap-making machine to its present state of efficiency, and who might
furnish a cap-machine, and accompany it, to explain its operations."
Throughout the letter, which is full of minute instructions and weighty
commissions, Mr. Davis shows the fullest confidence in the loyalty and
fitness of the man in whom he placed trust.

Captain Semmes was engaged in the performance of these immediate duties,
when a confidential communication from Mr. S.R. Mallory, of the Navy
department, gave him warning of two or more steamers, of a class desired
for present service, which might be purchased at or near New
York--"steamers of speed, light draught, and strength sufficient for at
least one heavy gun."