The Narrative of a Blockade-Runner Part 7

The staid old town of Wilmington was turned "topsy turvy" during the war. Here resorted the speculators from all parts of the South, to attend the weekly auctions of imported cargoes; and the town was infested with rogues and desperadoes, who made a livelihood by robbery and murder. It was unsafe to venture into the suburbs at night, and even in daylight, there were frequent conflicts in the public streets, between the crews of the steamers in port and the soldiers stationed in the town, in which knives and pistols would be freely used; and not unfrequently a dead body would rise to the surface of the water in one of the docks with marks of violence upon it. The civil authorities were powerless to prevent crime. "Inter arma silent leges!" The agents and employes of the different blockade-running companies, lived in magnificent style, paying a king's ransom (in Confederate money) for their household expenses, and nearly monopolizing the supplies in the country market. Towards the end of the war, indeed, fresh provisions were almost beyond the reach of every one. Our family servant, newly arrived from the country in Virginia, would sometimes return from market with an empty basket, having flatly refused to pay what he called "such nonsense prices" for a bit of fresh beef, or a handful of vegetables. A quarter of lamb, at the time of which I now write, sold for $100, a pound of tea for $500. Confederate money which in September, 1861, was nearly equal to specie in value, had declined in September 1862 to 225; in the same month, in 1863, to 400, and before September, 1864, to 2000!

Many of the permanent residents of the town had gone into the country, letting their houses at enormous prices; those who were compelled to remain kept themselves much secluded; the ladies rarely being seen upon the more public streets. Many of the fast young officers belonging to the army would get an occasional leave to come to Wilmington; and would live at free quarters on board the blockade-runners, or at one of the numerous bachelor halls ash.o.r.e.

The convalescent soldiers from the Virginia hospitals were sent by the route through Wilmington to their homes in the South. The ladies of the town were organized by Mrs. De R. into a society for the purpose of ministering to the wants of these poor sufferers; the trains which carried them stopping an hour or two at the depot, that their wounds might be dressed, and food and medicine supplied to them. These self-sacrificing, heroic women patiently and faithfully performed the offices of hospital nurses.

"O! there are angels in this world unheeded, Who, when their earthly labor is laid down, Will soar aloft, with pinions unimpeded, And wear their starry glory like a crown!"

Liberal contributions were made by companies and individuals to this society, and the long tables at the depot were spread with delicacies for the sick, to be found nowhere else in the Confederacy. The remains of the meals were carried by the ladies to a camp of mere boys--homeguards outside of the town. Some of these children were scarcely able to carry a musket, and were altogether unable to endure the exposure and fatigues of field service; and they suffered fearfully from measles, and typhoid fever. General Grant used a strong figure of speech, when he a.s.serted, that "the cradle and the grave were robbed, to recruit the Confederate armies." The fact of a fearful drain upon the population was scarcely exaggerated, but with this difference in the metaphor, that those who were verging upon both the cradle and the grave, shared the hards.h.i.+ps and dangers of war, with equal self-devotion to the cause. It is true that a cla.s.s of heartless speculators infested the country, who profited by the scarcity of all sorts of supplies, but it makes the self-sacrifice of the ma.s.s of the Southern people more conspicuous, and no State made more liberal voluntary contributions to the armies, or furnished better soldiers, than North Carolina.

When General A. P. Hill asked for the promotion of some of his officers in June, 1863, the President laid down the rule of selection for the guidance of the Secretary of War, viz: "the State which had the greatest number of regiments should be ent.i.tled to the choice of positions; to be taken from the candidates of its citizens, according to qualifications,"

etc. It appeared that North Carolina stood first on the list, Virginia second, Georgia third, etc.

On the opposite side of the river from Wilmington, on a low marshy flat, were erected the steam cotton presses, and there the blockade-runners took in their cargoes. Sentries were posted on the wharves, day and night, to prevent deserters from getting on board, and stowing themselves away; and the additional precaution of fumigating the outward bound steamers at Smithville, was adopted; but in spite of this vigilance, many persons succeeded in getting a free pa.s.sage abroad.

These deserters, or "stowaways," were in most instances sheltered by one or more of the crew; in which event they kept their places of concealment until the steamer had arrived at her port of destination, when they would profit by the first opportunity to leave the vessel undiscovered. A small bribe would tempt the average blockade-running sailor to connive at this means of escape. The "impecunious" deserter fared more hardly; and would, usually, be forced by hunger and thirst to emerge from his hiding place, while the steamer was on the outward voyage. A cruel device, employed by one of the captains, effectually put a stop, I believe, certainly a check to the escape of this cla.s.s of "stowaways." He turned three or four of them adrift in the Gulf Stream, in an open boat, with a pair of oars, and a few days' allowance of bread and water.

The ironclad, to which I had been attached for a short time, made her first and last essay while I was on special duty at Wilmington. Having crossed New Inlet Bar early one morning, she steamed at her best speed towards the blockading-fleet, which kept beyond the range of her guns with much ease. After "raising the blockade" for an hour or two, she steamed back across the bar, grounded upon the "rip," broke her back, and doubtless remains there to this day, buried fathoms deep in the quicksands.

The prospects of the South were growing more and more gloomy with each succeeding day; and the last hopes of the country now rested upon that gallant army of Northern Virginia, which, under its great captain, still confronted General Grant's forces around Petersburg. It is easy now by the light of subsequent events to censure Mr. Davis for the removal of General Johnston from the command of the army in Georgia; but who does not remember how, previous to that unfortunate measure, the whole Southern press, almost without an exception, were urging it? It may be that the President was not indisposed to gratify his inclination, and at the same time appease the public. I do not presume to express an opinion on this point; being no partisan of either, but a sincere admirer of both these distinguished individuals, and crediting both with strict veracity and unselfish honesty of purpose. But the fact remains that the press teemed with articles denouncing General Johnston's retrograde movements. A spurious telegram, concocted by some facetious editor, to the effect that General Johnston had ordered means of transportation for his army to Na.s.sau, was circulated through all the newspapers for the public amus.e.m.e.nt. But the old army officers were shocked at the intelligence of his removal from command. When the fact was officially announced, all of them, whom I had an opportunity of hearing speak upon the subject, expressed the gravest fears of the consequences; General Whiting, especially, declaring his conviction that it was a fatal measure; and it is certain that General Johnston's army was enthusiastically devoted to him; officers and men, with few exceptions, reposing unbounded confidence in him.

Concurrent testimony has since conclusively proven how grave a mistake was committed. General Hooker, who served in that campaign under General Sherman, writes "This retreat was so masterly, that I regard it as a useful lesson for study for all persons who may hereafter elect for their calling the profession of arms." "The news that General Johnston had been removed from the command of the army opposed to us, was received by our officers with universal rejoicing." "One of the prominent historians of the Confederacy ascribes the misfortunes of the 'Lost Cause' to the relief of General Johnston. I do not think this, but it certainly contributed materially to hasten its collapse." Indeed the Confederate Government seems subsequently to have admitted its mistake, and the injustice inflicted upon General Johnston, by reinstating him in the command of the "army of the South," and with orders "to concentrate all available forces, and drive back Sherman." This, however, was not till February, 1865, when the "available forces" amounted to about 16,000 men, and General Sherman's army of 70,000, had reached the State of North Carolina unopposed. When General Johnston turned over the command to General Hood, the army consisted of 36,900 infantry 3,750 artillery, and 9,970 cavalry, a total of 50,620 well equipped troops.

"In returning from its disastrous expedition against Nashville, the army of Tennessee had halted in north-eastern Mississippi. A large proportion of these troops were then furloughed by General Hood, and went to their homes. When General Sherman's army invaded South Carolina, General Beauregard ordered those remaining on duty to repair to that State * * * The remaining troops of that army were coming through Georgia in little parties * * * at least two-thirds of the arms of these troops had been lost in Tennessee."[11] In General Johnston's Narrative, page 351, he says "The troops themselves, who had been seventy-four days in the immediate presence of the enemy, laboring and fighting daily; enduring trial and encountering dangers with equal cheerfulness; more confident and high-spirited even than when the Federal army presented itself before them at Dalton; and though I say it, full of devotion to him who had commanded them, and belief of ultimate success in the campaign, were then inferior to none who ever served the Confederacy, or fought on the Continent," and on page 356: "I believed then, as firmly as I do now, that the system pursued was the only one at my command, that promised success, and that, if adhered to, would have given us success." Many among those most competent to judge entertained the same conviction. His removal from the command was, indeed, a mortal blow to the cause.

FOOTNOTES:

[9] Mr. Campbell had given me a bill of exchange for just this amount to take command of the steamer during the inward trip. As the Whisper belonged to a private company, I accepted the bonus without scruple.

What became of it, and the value of Confederate currency at that time may be seen by the following--

"Invoice of 123 bales cotton purchased and stored at Columbus, Georgia, for account of

Captain John Wilkinson.

Feb. 27, 1864. By W. W. Garrard.

2 Bales weighing 1,085 lbs.

4 " " 2,219 5 " " 3,241 5 " " 2,655 107 " " 52,833 ------ 62,033 at 72-5/8 $45,051 46

CHARGES.

State tax on investment, $225 26 Commission for purchasing. 2252 57 C. S. war tax 337 89

2815 72 ------- E. & O. E. $47,867 18 Signed, POWER, LOW & CO.

Wilmington, March 2, 1864.

Captain J. Wilkinson

In acc. with POWER, LOW & CO.

March 2, 1864. To Invoice 123 bales cotton at Columbus, Georgia, 47,867 18

Cr.

Feb. 17. By proceeds W. L. Campbell's Exchange on London 500 at 2100 46,666 66 --------- Wilmington, Balance due us, $1,200 52 March 2, 1864. Signed, POWER, LOW & CO.

"The cotton was destroyed at the very close of the war by a party of raiders commanded, I believe, by General Wilson. If he were the same individual for whom I was once mistaken (as will be seen in the sequel) he served me two very ill turns."

[10] One or two agents of the blockade-running companies were opposed to any project for increasing the facilities of entrance to or exit from Wilmington. The profits were of course proportionate to the risks, and these heartless wors.h.i.+pers of Mammon, having secured the services of the best captains and pilots, would have rejoiced to see every blockade-runner, but their own, captured. They protested vehemently, but unavailingly, against interference with their pilots.

[11] General Johnston's Narrative page 374. It appears from the same distinguished authority that of all that gallant array not more than 5,000 were ever rea.s.sembled; and a large portion of these continued without arms to the end of the war.

CHAPTER XIII.

Cruise of the Chickamauga.--Mr. Mallory's inefficiency.--Troubles in Bermuda.--The three Weeks.--End of the Cruise.

In the latter part of September, 1864, I was ordered to the command of the "Chickamauga," a double screw steamer converted into a so-called man of war. She was one of those vessels before alluded to in this narrative, as partly owned by the Confederate Government, and was taken possession of by the government authorities with scant regard for the rights of the other owners, who had no alternative but to accept inadequate compensation for their share of the vessel. Her battery consisted of a twelve-pounder rifled gun forward, a sixty-four pounder amids.h.i.+ps, and a thirty-two pounder rifle aft, all on pivots. She was more substantially built than most of the blockade-runners, and was very swift, but altogether unfit for a cruiser, as she could only keep the sea while her supply of coal lasted. She was schooner rigged, with very short masts, and her sails were chiefly serviceable to steady her in a sea-way. Under all sail and _off_ the wind, without steam, she could not make more than three knots with a stiff breeze; _by_ the wind under the same circ.u.mstances, she had not even steerage way. Captain J. T. Wood, of the Confederate Navy, had just returned from a "raid" along the Northern coast, and the incompetent Secretary of the Navy conceived, no doubt, that he had hit upon a happy idea when it occurred to his muddled brain, to send these vessels out to hara.s.s the coasting trade and fisheries of the North.[12] As a mere question of policy, it would have been far better to have kept them employed carrying out cotton and bringing in the supplies of which the army was so sorely in need. The attack upon Fort Fisher was probably precipitated by these expeditions, which could in no wise affect the real issues of the war. But Mr.

Mallory was from first to last an incubus upon the country. I do not impugn his patriotism, nor his private character, but his official imbecility, which wrought much damage to the cause, is a legitimate object for censure.

At this period Atlanta had been captured, and a large portion of Georgia was practically severed from the Confederacy. It was becoming more and more difficult to provision the troops. The Subsistence Department of the Confederate Government has been often censured for its alleged mismanagement. I have personal knowledge of an instance where it resented the interference of a subordinate. Major Magruder, General Whiting's chief Commissary, had effected what he believed to be a mutually beneficial arrangement with the farmers of western North Carolina. He was to furnish salt and transportation, (the former a very rare and costly commodity at that time, and the latter difficult to be obtained); and in return, they were to supply his department with the cured bacon. The arrangement, when reported to the Department at Richmond, was cancelled, and the Major, a very zealous and competent officer, was ordered elsewhere. Surely there must have been grave mismanagement somewhere; for, several months after the period of which I now write, and when the army of Northern Virginia was almost reduced to starvation in February, 1865, there were stored "in the princ.i.p.al railroad depots between Charlotte, Danville and Weldon inclusive, rations for 60,000 men for more than four months," and these provisions were for the exclusive use of the army in Virginia. The fact was ascertained by taking account of those stores, which was done by order of General Johnston, "and the very zealous and efficient officer, Major Charles Carrington, who was at the head of the service of collecting provisions in North Carolina for the army, was increasing the quant.i.ty rapidly." "The officers of the commissariat in North Carolina, upon whom the army in Virginia depended for subsistence, were instructed by the Commissary General just then, to permit none of the provisions they collected to be used by the troops serving in it."[13]

We sailed in the Chickamauga on the night of October 29th, with a motley crew, and pa.s.sed through the blockading fleet without receiving any damage from numerous shots. We had a fine view of several of our pursuers for a few moments, as they burned their signal blue light; and had not crossed the bar two hours before the commanding officer of the fleet received information of the fact. Our rockets had diverted the pursuit to the misfortune of the blockade-runner "Lady Stirling," which was captured; and from some of her crew, as we subsequently learned, the fact of our departure was ascertained. If we could have foreseen such an event, we might have tried the range of our after pivot gun with very good effect upon the blockader following in our wake; but although our crew was at quarters, and we were prepared to fight our way to sea, we wished to avoid an encounter by which nothing was to be gained; our chief object being to injure the enemy's commerce. Nearly all of the officers of the Chickamauga had resigned from the United States Navy, and I have no doubt they contrasted (as I could not help doing) next morning, our spar deck enc.u.mbered with coal bags, and begrimed with dirt, and the ragged tatterdemalions leaning over the bulwarks, or stretched along the decks in the agonies of sea-sickness, with the cleanliness, order and discipline, to which we had been accustomed under the "Stars and Stripes." The condition below decks was even worse; the crew sleeping upon the coal which was stowed in the hold; and the officers upon the softest plank they could find in the contracted cabin.

In addition to a complement of officers for a frigate, the Secretary of the Navy had ordered _six_ pilots to the vessel. As three of them held their "branches" for the approaches to Norfolk, Mr. Mallory must have expected to hear that we had pa.s.sed under the guns of Fortress Monroe, laid Norfolk under contribution, and captured the Gosport Navy-yard.

The scene upon our decks, when the sun rose the morning after our pa.s.sage through the fleet, was demoralizing; and I am sure some of us felt as if we were indeed "pirates," although we were bound to deny the "soft impeachment," when brought against us by the Northern press. The exertions of the executive officer, Dozier, seconded by his zealous subordinates, brought some degree of order out of this "chaotic" ma.s.s after a while.

Our first prize was the "Mark L. Potter," from Bangor for Key West, with a cargo of lumber. As there was no alternative but to destroy her, the officers and crew were transferred to the Chickamauga, and she was set on fire. This capture was made on Sunday the 30th. The next morning at 7.30 A. M., when about one hundred and fifty miles off the Capes of Delaware, we sighted a square-rigged vessel, which changed her course in the effort to escape, as soon as she discovered that we were steering for her. At 9.30 we overhauled her and brought her to. It proved to be the barque "Emma L. Hall," loaded with a cargo of sugar and mola.s.ses.

She was set on fire at 11.15 A. M. Hasty work was made of this prize, as a full rigged s.h.i.+p hove in sight while we were transferring the crew, and such stores as we needed, from the Emma L. Hall. The stranger bore north by west when discovered, and was standing almost directly toward us, with studding-sails and royals set to the favorable breeze, a cloud of snowy canvas from her graceful hull to the trucks of her tapering royalmasts. She approached within five or six miles, when her studding-sails were suddenly hauled down, and she was brought close to the wind in an effort to escape from us. We soon overhauled her, and at 1.15 were near enough to throw a shot across her bow, and to show the Confederate flag at our peak. The summons was replied to by their hoisting the Stars and Stripes, and heaving to. Our prize was the clipper s.h.i.+p "Shooting Star," bound from New York to Panama, with a cargo of coal for the U. S. Pacific squadron. While we were making preparations for burning her, another square rigged vessel hove in sight, steering toward us. It proved to be the barque "Albion Lincoln,"

bound for Havana, partly in ballast; and as her cargo consisted only of a small lot of potatoes and onions, I determined to bond her, and to put the prisoners, now numbering sixty (the wife of the captain of the Shooting Star among them) on board of her. In truth, I was relieved from an awkward dilemma by the opportune capture of the Albion Lincoln; for there was absolutely no place for a female on board the Chickamauga. I do not doubt, however, that the redoubtable Mrs. Drinkwater would have accommodated herself to the circ.u.mstances by turning me out of my own cabin. Heavens! what a tongue she wielded! The young officers of the Chickamauga relieved each other in boat duty to and fro; and she routed every one of them ignominiously.

After the Albion Lincoln had been bonded for $18,000, we were kept very busy for several hours paroling prisoners, etc., and in the meanwhile a gale of wind was brewing, and the sea growing very rough. By six o'clock in the afternoon, the Lincoln was under way with the paroled prisoners; her master having been put under oath to shape the vessel's course for Fortress Monroe; and we applied the torch to the "Shooting Star." The burning s.h.i.+p was visible for many miles after we left her; and it was a strange, wild spectacle, that flaming beacon in the rough sea. The master of the "Albion Lincoln" shaped his course straight for New York.

I hope his conscience has since reproached him for violating his oath, though given to a "rebel."

The gale increased during the night. Next day our course was shaped for Montauk Point; the scene of the previous day's operations having been in about lat.i.tude 40 and longitude 71, or about fifty miles southeast of Sandy Hook. Montauk Point was sighted from aloft about mid-day, and the engines were slowed down, so as not to approach too near the land before night. We spoke several vessels during the day, all of them under the British flag. Toward night we steamed towards the land, with the expectation of finding smoother water, for the wind continued to blow from the southwest. At 5.45 P. M., we overhauled two schooners close in to the sh.o.r.e; one of them was the "Good-speed," from Boston to Philadelphia, in ballast; and the other, the "Otter Rock," from Bangor for Was.h.i.+ngton with a load of potatoes. Both were scuttled. Our boats did not get alongside the Chickamauga again till eight o'clock. The wind had been gradually veering round to the northeast, and the night was growing so dark and stormy, that I was reluctantly compelled to abandon the purpose previously entertained of entering Long Island Sound. The crew of the Good-speed profited by the darkness to escape in their boat to the land, a few miles distant.

We made an offing of thirty or forty miles during the night, and next morning captured the bark "Speedwell," in ballast from Boston to Philadelphia. The captain's sister and his child were on board his vessel, and represented to be sick. I could not reconcile it to my sense of humanity to subject the weaker s.e.x to the probable dangers and certain hards.h.i.+ps of confinement on board the Chickamauga. The Speedwell was therefore bonded for $18,000, and the captain--a very decent fellow by the way--sent on his voyage rejoicing; but the "recording angels" of the Northern press never placed this act to my credit.

The northeast gale, which had been brewing for some days, commenced in earnest toward the evening. After buffeting against it for two days, the necessity for making a port became apparent, our supply of coal beginning to get low. The course was, therefore, shaped for Bermuda, and we anch.o.r.ed off the bar at St. George's on Monday morning, November 7th.

The Governor of the island gave us a vast deal of trouble and annoyance, from this time until we finally left port. Lending apparently a willing ear to the representation of the American Consul, he would not permit us to enter the harbor until after a correspondence, in which I stated the fact that our engines needed repairs; but we lay outside twenty-four hours before even this permission was granted. He next forbade me to coal the s.h.i.+p. After a protest from me he relented so far, only, as to authorize a supply of coal, sufficient to carry the Chickamauga to the nearest Confederate port, although he had been officially informed that the vessel was regularly commissioned, and was then on a cruise.

Although I was never favored with a sight of the correspondence, which must have been carried on between the American Consul and His Excellency on the subject, I am satisfied that the former presented a favorable case; but the Governor had no right to inquire into the antecedents of the Chickamauga, or to question the t.i.tle by which she was held by the Confederate Government. She was, to all intents and purposes, as "bona fide" a man-of-war as the Florida, which had entered that same port, and been supplied with coal, and other necessaries, without question or molestation. But the fortunes of the Confederacy were now waning; and his Excellency wished perhaps--and may have received instructions--to keep on good terms with the winning side, and in disregard of the obligations of justice to the weaker party.[14] The result of his partial, and unfriendly course, was to bring the cruise of the Chickamauga to a speedy end; for it was impossible for her to keep the sea without a supply of fuel--steam, which is merely an auxiliary in a properly const.i.tuted man of war, being the Chickamauga's sole motive power. Many of our crew, too, were enticed to desert; but the efficiency of the vessel was rather increased than diminished by our getting rid of the vagabonds. They were for the most part "waifs and strays," of Wilmington, and "skulkers" from the army, who had been drafted from the Receiving s.h.i.+p. They profited by liberty on sh.o.r.e to secrete themselves, and many of them perished with the yellow fever, then prevailing in Bermuda.

We sailed from St. George's for Wilmington November 15th, showing our colors to several vessels on the way, all of which carried a foreign flag. American colors had for a long time become a rare sight upon the ocean, except when flying from the peak of a man-of-war. All of the vessels captured by the Chickamauga were either coasters, or traders to West India ports, and were scarcely off soundings on the American coast.[15] The Alabama and Florida had demonstrated what a vast amount of injury might be inflicted upon an enemy's commerce by a few swift cruisers; and there is no doubt that this number might have been increased to any reasonable extent, by proper management. No sensible individual, I presume, really attaches any importance to the ravings of a portion of the Northern press, during the war, against the "rebel pirates," and their depredations upon commerce. To destroy merchant vessels was not a pleasure, but it was a duty, and a matter of necessity, seeing that the Confederate ports were so closely blockaded as to render it absolutely impossible to send the prizes in for adjudication, and that all of the foreign powers prohibited the sending of captured vessels into their ports. The officers and crews attached to these "piratical vessels" would very gladly have carried or sent their prizes into a Confederate port; for in that case they would have been equally fortunate with their confreres of the United States Navy, whose pockets were filled to repletion with the proceeds of captured property belonging to Confederates, on land and sea.

We approached the coast in very thick weather on the night of the 18th.

We could dimly discern the breakers ahead, and close aboard; but it was impossible to distinguish any landmark in so dense a fog. A boat was lowered therefore, and one of the bar pilots sent to examine nearer, but he returned on board in the course of an hour, with the report that he had pulled close in to the surf, but could recognize no object on the sh.o.r.e, although he had rowed some distance parallel to it, and as closely as he could venture. "Did you see no wrecks on the beach?" I inquired. "Yes, sir," he replied, "I saw three." "And how were they lying?" I asked. He stated that two of them were "broadside on" to the beach, and close together; and the third "bows on" to the beach, about a cable's length to the north of them. I was satisfied about our exact position at once, for while I was on the special service before alluded to, I had made a visit to Masonborough Inlet, on duty connected with the signal stations, and had noticed three wrecks in the positions described. The Chickamauga was put under low steam, with one watch at quarters, and we waited for daylight to cross the bar. As the fog lifted, shortly after sunrise, two of the blockading fleet were discovered on our port quarter, steaming towards us, as we were running down the coast towards Fort Fisher. When within long range they opened fire, which was returned by us. They were soon joined by a third blockader, and as we drew nearer to the bar, Fort Fisher took part in the engagement, and the blockaders hauled off. Shortly afterwards we crossed the bar, and anch.o.r.ed inside of the "Rip."

FOOTNOTES: