HOWELL-BECKET

SERVED  IN  MARINE  CORP  OF  U.S.  &  THE  CONFEDERACY

Records of the Naval Historical Center, Department of the Navy, reflect that Becket Kempe Howell, a native of Mississippi, was commissioned in August 1860 as a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps.  At least one historical record reports that Howell was the brother-in-law of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. 

Howell resigned from the U.S. Corps in March 1, 1861, and joined the Confederate States Marine Corp (CSMC) as a Second Lieutenant on March 29, 1861.  He was one of about 16 USMC officers who resigned their commissions to join CSMC.  Second Lieutenant Howell organized and commanded the Marine Guard of about a dozen marines aboard CSS SUMTER from March 1861 to mid-1862 during the ship’s commerce raiding cruise.  In mid-1862 he was reassigned to the new screw sloop-of-war CSS ALABAMA, apparently at the request of his former SUMTER commander who became commander of the ALABAMA.  Lieutenant Howell was reportedly the only marine who served aboard ALABAMA and was a gun commander.  He served aboard ALABAMA until she was sunk in a battle with USS KEARSARGE on June 19, 1864, off the coast of Cherbourg, France. 

During ALABAMA’s active life she met with great success as a commerce raider attacking Union merchant and naval ships off New England, Gulf of Mexico and the Southern Atlantic.  ALABAMA was credited with burning 65 Union vessels of various types, most of them merchant ships.  During ALABAMA’s raiding ventures, captured ships’ crews and passengers were never harmed, only detained until they could be placed aboard a neutral ship or placed ashore.

Lieutenant Howell was wounded during the battle with KEARSARGE but he was rescued after the sinking of ALABAMA and after recovering in England from his injuries, then Captain Howell returned to the South and served in posts ashore during the rest of the Civil War.  Records reflect that he died on September 12, 1882.

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)