Daily Sitka Sentinel

Reporter Won Race by Ship, Canoe and on Foot

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second in a six-part series by Alaska historian Chris Allan about newspaper accounts of the Alaska transfer by writers who were present at the ceremony in Sitka.

By Chris Allan
Special to the Sentinel
    The October 18, 1867 transfer ceremony was an important moment in the history of the United States, but at the time it was easy to miss given that Alaska seemed a world away and the nation was still recovering from the disastrous Civil War. Only two newspapers sent “special correspondents” to cover the event—the New York Herald and San Francisco’s Daily Alta California. The Herald chose Dr. Byron Adonis, an eccentric character and former war reporter who was crafty enough to file his story before his rival. Adonis wrote his report in Sitka and carried it by ship to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. Once there he set out in a hired canoe and by overland trail to reach Victoria, the closest telegraph station. Finding the wire was down at Victoria, he got a boat to take him to a telegraph station on the coast of Washington Territory where he filed this story, the first announcement of the ceremony to reach a national audience. 

New York Herald, November 13, 1867
ALASKA
    The formal transfer and delivery of Russian America to the United States government took place to-day, by Captain Pestrechoff [Aleksei A. Peshchurov], Acting Commissioner on behalf of the Russian government, and Major General [Lovell H.] Rousseau on behalf of the United States.
    At three o’clock P.M. a battalion of United States troops, under command of Major Charles O. Wood, of the Ninth Infantry, was drawn up in line in front of the Governor’s residence, where the transfer took place.  By half-past three a large concourse of people had assembled, comprising Americans, Russians of all classes, Creoles and Indians, all eager witnesses of the ceremonies.

A view of downtown Sitka in 1868 in a photo taken by Eadweard Muybridge. (Photo from Bancroft Library)

    Precisely at the last named hour the Russian forts and fleet fired salutes in honor of the lowering of the Russian flag; but the flag would not come down. In lowering it tore its entire width close by the halliards, and floated from the cross-trees, some forty feet from the ground.  Three Russian sailors then attempted to ascend the inch and a half guy ropes supporting the flag staff, but each failed to reach his national emblem. A fourth ascended in a boatswain’s chair, seized the flag and threw it in a direction directly beneath him; but the motion of the wind carried it off, and caused a sensation in every heart.
    Five minutes after the lowering of the Russian flag the Stars and Stripes went gracefully up, floating handsomely and free, Mr. George Lovell Rousseau [Commissioner Rousseau’s 15-year-old son] having the honor of flinging the flag to the breeze, the United States steamers Ossipee and Resaca at the same time honoring the event by firing salutes.
    As the Russian flag was lowered Captain Pestrechoff stepped forward and addressed General Rousseau as follows:
General—As Commissioner of his Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Russia I now transfer and deliver the territory of Russian America, ceded by his Majesty to the United States.
    General Rousseau, in response, as the American flag ascended, said:
    Captain—As Commissioner on behalf of the United States government, I receive and accept the same accordingly.
    The Commissioners spoke in a tone of common conversation, and were only heard by Governor Makesatoff [Dmitrii P. Maksutov], General Jefferson C. Davis, Captain Kuskol [Theodor von Koskull] and a few others who formed the group. Several ladies witnessed the ceremonies, among them Princess Makesatoff [Maria V. Maksutov], Mrs. General Davis and Mrs. Major Wood. The Princess wept audibly as the Russian flag went down.
    The transfer was conducted in a purely diplomatic and business-like manner, neither bouquets nor speech-making following. The entire transaction was concluded in a few hours, the Ossipee, with the Commissioner on board, steaming into the harbor at eleven o’clock this forenoon, and at four o’clock in the afternoon a dozen American flags float over the newly born American city of Sitka.