We take pleasure in recommending to your favorable notice Captain A N Pacetty, the bearer of this communication, a gentleman who has long been known to us and whose claims to gallantry, skill, and all the good qualities which should distinguish the soldier, we have no hesitancy in undersigning.
Captain Pacetty deserves a position either in the Army or Navy of the Confederate states, and from our knowledge of the distinguished services which he has at various times rendered his country, we think that a more proper and worthy selection could scarcely be made. During the late Indian difficulties in our state, Captain Pacetty commanded a company of Volunteers, and by his tireless energy in exploring our swamps and marshes in quest of the Seminoles, as well as by the skill and daring he manifested wherever an opportunity for an encounter presented itself, won for himself an enviable reputation an able and efficient officer.
Thoroughly Southern in all of his feelings and sentiments, he warmly expressed the cause of the South in his present struggle dirty and has on several occasions rendered valuable services. A few weeks since, he sailed, under a flag of truce, to our neighboring city, Key West, now in the possession of the enemy. United States military authorities, disregarding the usage of civilized warfare, seized his vessel and made him a prisoner, and gave him to understand that, in consequence of his complicity in the recent capture of the US vessel at Cedar Keys, an offense which the US government professes to consider piracy, and upon other charges, he would be summarily dealt with. Captian Pacetty, by the exercise of that cool and determined bravery so characteristic of him, extricated himself from his difficult and hazardous situation, and after eluding the vigilant searches of some hundreds of Lincoln's minions for four days, during which time he tasted no food, and undergoing almost incredible toils and suffering, he finally reached home and friends again.
We think we safely say that no appointment could be made which would yield more general satisfaction to our entire community, and hoping that Captain Pacetty's claims may elicit the consideration they so richly deserve.
