The telegram reached me about four o'clock, P. M., and I responded to it, on the same evening as follows:
Hon. C. M. CONRAD, Chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs, Congress of the Confederate States:--Despatch received; I will be with you immediately.
The next morning, I repaired, as usual, to the office of the Light House Board, in the Treasury building, General John A. Dix being then the Secretary of the Treasury, and _ex officio_ President of the Board, and wrote the following resignation of my commission, as a Commander in the United States Navy:
SIR:--I respectfully tender through you, to the President of the United States, this, the resignation of the commission which I have the honor to hold as a Commander in the Navy of the United States. In severing my connection with the Government of the United States, and with the Department over which you preside, I pray you to accept my thanks for the kindness which has characterized your official deportment towards me.
I have the honor to be very respectfully your obedient servant,
_Hon._ ISAAC TOUCEY, _Secretary of the Navy_, _Washington, D. C._
On the same day, I received the following acceptance of my resignation:--
SIR:--Your resignation as a Commander in the Navy of the United States, tendered in your letter of this date, is hereby accepted.
I am respectfully your obedient servant, I. TOUCEY.
RAPHAEL SEMMES, Esq., _late Commander_ _U. S. Navy, Washington_.
A few days previously to my resignation, by the death of a lamented member of the Light-House Board, I had been promoted from the Secretaryship, to a Membership of that Board, and it now became necessary for me to inform the Board officially, of my being no longer a member of it, which I did in the following communication:--
SIR:--I have the honor to inform you, that I have resigned my commission, as a Commander in the Navy of the United States, and that, as a consequence, I am no longer a member of the Light-House Board. In severing thus my connection with the Board, at which I have had the honor to hold a seat, since the 17th of November, 1858, I desire to say to the members, individually, and collectively, that I shall carry with me to my home in the South, a grateful recollection of the amenities, and courtesies which have characterized, on their part, our official intercourse.