MMPAGE4

In the fall of 1862, Matthew was sent to England on a mission to procure and man ships to be used as Confederate raiders, such as the Alabama commanded by Admiral Semmes. Matthew took his young son, Matsy, with him, and they would spend the rest of the war years in England, in mostly futile efforts. Matthew had made strong enemies of many of the political leaders of the Confederacy over the years, and his assignment to England was one way for them to avoid conflict with him, yet give him an assignment worthy of him, at least to some degree. Matthew was thought very highly of in shipping and sailing communities throughout the world. The few ships Matthew managed to secure and man turned into bitter disappointments. There were just too many obstacles. In August of 1862, he was told he could return to the South or stay in England. He chose to stay in England and work secretly to further develop land mines.

Conditions for his family worsened quickly. He received the tragic personal news that his son “Davy Jones” had died when he happened upon a Union scouting party at Vicksburg; the circumstances of his death and his body were never discovered. His family had fled from Fredericksburg, losing most of their furniture and possessions, and were actually fortunate in securing an old house at the University of Virginia which had been used as an infirmary. By Christmas of 1863, Matthew wrote privately to his family that he feared for the future of their country and worried that his children remaining at home would grow up without him. He was not in good health, suffering from gout and rheumatism, and had two painful operations of an undisclosed nature while in England.

In March of 1865, Charlottesville fell to Custer, and even the Maurys’ pitiful home was ransacked; they were left destitute. Hearing the news of General Lee’s surrender on April 9, 1865, Matthew refused to believe the end was at hand, and made plans to sail to Havana with a supply of land mine equipment. His family urged him to stay in England, fearing that he would be captured and imprisoned by Unionists. The political climate in England had turned against the Confederates. When President Lincoln was assassinated, the situation for Matthew worsened. He and Matsy sailed to Havana, and upon their arrival, Matthew made arrangements to send Matsy to New York to stay in safety with Maury relatives. Matthew himself proceeded to Vera Cruz, where he submitted his letter of surrender to the American consul, dated on May 25,1865.

In short time, Matthew, still in Mexico, came up with a far-fetched plan. He wrote home to his family, and to their dismay, to others and to newspapers, urging his fellow Virginians to leave Virginia, bring their former slaves with them as bondsmen, and start anew in Mexico. There were actually other small “colonies” of Southerners who did eventually move to areas in South America, so the idea was not completely mad, as his family in Virginia thought. Matthew had made acquaintances with the ill-fated French Emperor Maximilian and Carlota during the early days of their rule in Mexico. Even Maximilian did not take these emigration plans seriously, but he enjoyed Matthew’s company and placed him in charge of the Mexican National Observatory and made him a director of emigration. He managed to get an assistant’s position for his son Dick, who brought his wife and small child with him to Mexico. It was not long, though, before Matthew realized that there would be no mass exodus of Virginians to Mexico.

In addition, the political climate in Mexico was deteriorating for Maximilian. Matthew insisted that his family go to England, fearing retribution upon them for his part in the Confederacy, and with the help of the New York Maurys, they were able to do so. However, once they were there, Matthew refused to leave Mexico and join them in England. His reasons for this refusal were not clear. The thought of leaving behind his son and his family in Mexico was hard to face. He seemed to hope that perhaps Maximilian would yet succeed, but almost too late, he left to sail for England, with no word that he would not be returning. He barely made it out of the country, arriving in England and reuniting with his family on March 29,1866. In two weeks time, he received a letter from Maximilian (who was later executed by a Mexican firing squad) stating that he had been dismissed from his service. Matthew used his connections to get his son Dick and his family safely to Nicaragua after he lost his position and plantation in Mexico. (Dick could not return to the States as he had taken an oath never to return as a condition of being permitted to emigrate to Mexico.)

Now, finally, Matthew was reunited with his family in England. Son Matsy had been able to make it back to the family in Virginia, and came to England, too, with his mother and three young sisters. The girls did not recognize their father, at first refusing to believe this man who had aged so much was really theirs. They were homesick for Virginia, but feared for Matthew’s safety if they returned. Needless to say, Matthew was desperate to make a living for his family. He established a school at which he gave instruction to military personnel of any country on land and underwater mines. He wrote a geography book for children, dictating to his daughters, and Matsy drew the maps. Their second oldest daughter came to live with them, to have her second child; her home had burned, and her husband was penniless.

After three years in exile in England, friends thought it safe for the Maurys to return to the States. Matthew accepted a position on July 16, 1868, at Virginia Military Academy as the Chair of Meteorology, with his duties to be creative work and writings and lectures, not classroom teaching. He was pleased and surprised at the warm reception he received upon his return to the South, but shocked and saddened at the unbelievable devastation in which he found his beloved country and fellow Virginians, having not seen them since the very beginning of the War. With his position at VMI not to begin for months, he was greatly relieved when the proprietors of White Sulphur Springs (a resort in West Virginia frequented by General Lee) invited him to spend the summer as their guest.

He was finally welcomed back in honor at VMI as the “Pathfinder of the Seas” and spent the last four and a half years of his life there in peace, writing books for children, making pleasant speeches for the future of the South, and doing some surveys and statistical work. His son Dick had finally been permitted to return to the South, and Matthew spent these last years with his family. He, like so many others, had been destroyed by the War. He never recovered from the loss of his son “Davy Jones”. He returned from lectures one day in October of 1872, and told Nannie that he had come home to die, and from that point on remained at home, suffering from ulceration of the stomach. During these last few months, he read and dictated his last revision of his book, Physical Geography of the Sea. He was surrounded by his family and completely lucid until the day he died, sending his wife and daughters out of his room when he realized his end was near, wishing only his two sons and sons-in law to remain. However, one daughter, Diana, who apparently had a large streak of her father’s determination in her, hid from his sight in his room and also witnessed his death. He died on February 1,1873. He was originally interred in the vault at the town cemetery in Lexington, VA, opposite the grave of General “Stonewall” Jackson. Nannie and Matthew had agreed that he would be eventually buried at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, VA, where she wished to be buried. So in the fall, on September 27, 1873, the remains of Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury were placed there, in Hollywood Cemetery, with the grave of President Monroe to one side and of President Tyler to the other. Nannie Maury lived until 1901.