WILMINGTON DURING THE BLOCKADE 
 Johns 
 
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 WILMINGTON DURING THE BLOCKADE. 
 By John Johns. 
 
 Harper's 
 Sept. 1866. 
 
Library of 
 The University of North Carolina 
 
 COLLECTION OF 
 
 NORTH CAROLINIANA 
 
 ENDOWED BY 
 
 JOHN SPRUNT HILL 
 of the Class of ~S9 
 
 /* 
 
 L^qio.ls-SLlvi 
 
WILMINGTON DURING THE BLOCKADE. 
 
 497 
 
 ^ WILMINGTON DURING THE 
 BLOCKADE. 
 
 BY A LATE CONFEDERATE OFFICER. 
 — —-% FTER the capital of the Confederacy there 
 j\. was not in the South a more important 
 place than the little town of Wilmington, North 
 Carolina, about twenty miles from the mouth , 
 of the Cape Fear River, noted in peace times 
 for its exports of tar, pitch, turpentine, and 
 lumber. The banks of the Cape Fear had been 
 settled by Sir Walter Raleigh's emigrants and 
 Scotchmen, and to this day you find the old 
 Highland names, and see strongly-marked Scot- 
 tish features among the inhabitants. The peo- 
 ple still retain many of the traits of their de- 
 scent, and are shrewd, canny, money-making, 
 and not to be beaten at driving a bargain by any 
 Yankee that we ever saw. They are hospitable, 
 intelligent, and polished ; many old families, 
 who for years have lived in affluence and luxury, 
 residing there, who have intermarried with each 
 other until they form a large " cousinhood," as 
 they call it. 
 
 Previous to the war Wilmington was very gay 
 and social. But the war had sadly changed the 
 place,— m.any of the old families moving away 
 into the interior, and those who remained, cither 
 from altered circumstances or the loss of rela- 
 tives' in battle, giving in retiracy. When we 
 first knew it, Major-Geiier'al W. H. C. Whiting 
 was in command. He was an old army officer, 
 who for a long time had been stationed at Smith- 
 ville, near the Old Inlet at the mouth' of the 
 river, where prior to the war there had been a 
 fort and a garrison, though for some years dis- 
 used". Whiting was one of the most accomplish- 
 ed officers in the Southern army. He was a 
 splendid engineer, and having been engaged in 
 the Coast Survey for some time on that portion 
 of the coast, knew the country thoroughly, the 
 capability of defense, the strong and the weak 
 points. His manners wero'brusque, but he had 
 a kind and generous heart. He was fond of the 
 social glass, and may have sometimes gone too 
 far. He was not popular with many of the citi- 
 zens, as he was arbitrary, and paid little atten- 
 tion to the suggestions of civilians. He was 
 a very handsome, soldierly-looking man, and 
 
 •^ though rough sometimes in his manners, he was 
 . a gentleman at heart, incapable of any thing 
 " mean or low, and of undaunted courage. Peace 
 
 J^ to his ashes ! 
 
 On Whiting's staff were three young officers 
 
 fr of great promise : his brother-in-law, Major J. 
 
 H. Hill, of the old army, now an active express 
 agent at Wilmington ; Major Benjamin Sloan, 
 his ordnance officer, now teaching school some- 
 where in theniO-n.tttaitrs'oT South Carolina; and 
 jj iui I T enant j7 H. Fairley, a young Irishman, 
 who had been many years in this country, and 
 who hailed from South Carolina. Fairley was 
 noted in the army as a daring scout 
 hard rider, withal one of the qtiietest^and most 
 modest of men. He is now drumming for a 
 dry-good house in New York, instead of inspect- 
 ing the outposts. We wonder ifvhe recollec 
 the night when the writer hereof picked up a 
 rattlesnake in his blanket at Masonboro Sound. 
 
 Whiting scarcely ever had enough troops at 
 his command to make up a respectable Confed- 
 erate Division. In '64 he had at Wilmington 
 Martin's Brigade, which was a very fine and 
 large one, composed of four North Carolina 
 regiments, remarkably well officered ; two or 
 three companies of heavy artillery in the town, 
 doing provost and guard duty ; at Fort Caswell, 
 at the mouth of the Old Inlet on the Western 
 Bar, a battalion of heavy artillery and a light 
 battery; at Smithville a similar battalion; at 
 Baldhead, opposite Caswell, an island, Col. Hed- 
 rick's North Carolina regiment, about GOO men 
 effective ; at Fort Fisher Lamb's North Caro- 
 lina regiment, about 7U0 effective men ; a com- 
 pany at Fort Anderson ; a company of the 7th C. 
 S. cavalry at the ferry over New River, GO miles 
 northeast of Wilmington, on the Sound; two 
 companies of cavalry, a light battery, and a com- 
 pany of infantry at Kenansville, 40 miles north 
 of Wilmington and 7 miles west of the Wcldon 
 Railroad. These, with two or three light batter- 
 ies scattered along the Sound, from a little above 
 Fort Fisher up to Toprail, constituted in the 
 spring of 'G4 the whole Confederate force in the 
 Department of Cape Fear. 
 
 With this force, and Whiting's skill and brav- 
 ely, we military men thought we could hold 
 Wilmington. For we justly regarded the Gen- 
 eral as one of the few eminently fit appoint- 
 ments that the War Department had made. It 
 certainly made some curious selections, e. </., 
 the placing of the dashing, impetuous Van 
 Dorn in command of a Department — the last 
 place in the world he was suited for — instead 
 of giving him a cavalry command of 10,000 
 men and placing him in the Trans-Mississippi 
 Department. Had the latter been done the 
 Federals would have found Van Dorn a trouble- 
 some customer in Missouri. But in Whiting 
 we had implicit faith. So, though there were 
 constant rumors of expeditions against the place 
 we scarcely believed they were coming, so long 
 had the thing been delayed, and, in fact, an at- 
 tack was wished for by the youthful Hotspurs to 
 relieve the monotony of the garrison life at 
 Caswell, Baldhead, and Fisher. Wiser people 
 kne'w better*.- In fact we had lapsed into a dream 
 of security, or thought, at least, the evil day 
 was far off. We ate, drank, and were merry, 
 and there was marrying and giving in marriage, 
 as in the days before the flood. 
 
 '<. 
 
49S 
 
 HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
 
 It seemed singular to us that the United 
 States should so long neglect to close the only 
 port almost of the Confederacy into which ev- 
 ery " dark of the moon" there ran a half dozen 
 or so swift blockade - runners, freighted with 
 cannon, muskets, and every munition of war — 
 medicines, cloth, shoes, bacon, etc. .Through 
 that port were brought till January '65 all the 
 stores and material needed by the indefatigable 
 Colonel Gorgas, the Confederate Chief of Ord- 
 nance, the most efficient bureau officer the 
 Confederacy had. Through it came those fa- 
 mous Whitworth and Armstrong guns sent us 
 by our English friends. Into Wilmington was 
 brought by Mr. Commissary-General Northrup 
 that rotten, putrid bacon.called "Nassau," be- 
 cause it had spoiled on the wharves of that place 
 before reshipped for Wilmington. It was coarse 
 Western bacon, bought by Confederate emis- 
 saries at the North ; and many a time have we 
 imprecated curses both loud and deep on poor 
 old Northrup's devoted head as we worried down 
 a piece of the rancid stuff. We must say, in 
 all candor, that he was impartial in his distribu- 
 tion of it, and ordered it given to both Confed- 
 erate trooper and Federal prisoner. Northrup 
 himself ate none of it ; he lived on rice — of 
 which he would buy a hogsheadTTt"ri Tirne from 
 the Commissariat. We became so vitiated in our 
 taste by eating it that at last we came to prefer it 
 to good bacon, and liked the. strong, rancid taste. 
 We could not afford to permit our stomachs__to 
 cuVtip any shines, and forced them to stand any 
 and every thing by breaking them into it. 
 
 But the cargoes of those white painted, bird- 
 like looking steamers that floated monthly into 
 Wilmington, producing such excitement and joy 
 among its population, unfortunately for the 
 Confederates did not contain Government stores 
 and munitions of war alone, bad as the bacon 
 and much of the stuff bought abroad by worth- 
 less Confederate agents were. The public 
 freight compared with the private was small. 
 By them were brought in the cloth that made 
 the uniforms of those gayly-decked clerks that 
 swarmed the streets of Richmond with military 
 titles, and read the battle bulletins and discussed 
 the war news. From that source came the 
 braid, buttons, and stars for that host of "Ma- 
 jors" — who were truly fifth wheels, and did not 
 even have the labor of "following the Colonel 
 around" — with which the Confederacy was af- 
 flicted. From it came the fine English bran- 
 dies, choice foreign wines, potted meats, and 
 conserves, jellies, and anchovy paste, etc., that 
 filled the pantries and store-rooms of many of 
 the officials at Richmond, and were spread out 
 in such profusion at the dinners or suppers or 
 dejeuners given by the " court circle" (as it was 
 called) to officials when the "circle" wanted 
 any of their pets promoted or assigned to good 
 positions. From it came the loaf-sugar, coffee, 
 tea, etc., that staff-officers, blockade-runners, 
 and their relations and friends luxuriated in, 
 while the ragged, dirty Confederate soldier, 
 musket in hand, broiled or soaked in the trenches 
 
 before Richmond and Peterburg, watching the 
 foe with stout heart but faint stomach ; starving 
 on a handful of meal and a pint of sorghum mo- 
 lasses, probably varied every other day with the 
 third or quarter of a pound of Sir. Commissary- 
 General Northrup's savory " Nassau Bacon." 
 Meanwhile his wife and little ones suffering in 
 their far-off Southern home for the necessaries 
 of life. It was this that broke the spirit of the 
 Southern army, and caused such numerous de- 
 sertions from General Lee's camp during the 
 memorable winter of 'Gi and '65. 
 
 In fact there were numbers of Confederate 
 officers, during the period blockade -running 
 came under our view, whose sole business it 
 seemed to be to lay in in that way stocks of 
 groceries and dry-goods, and by speculating and 
 shipping cotton from Wilmington and Charles- 
 ton to lay by gold in case of an evil day. Many 
 of them came out of the war rich men, and 
 doubtless with comfortable consciences, for who 
 respects or likes a poor man ? We will say, 
 however, that we never heard of but two offi- 
 cers of high rank who were accused of this ; 
 and one thing was very certain, that Henry 
 Whiting's skirts were clear of such transactions, 
 and that he left his family badly off. It was 
 the small fry generally who engaged in this dis- 
 creditable business, to the neglect of their soldier- 
 ly avocations, men who had been either in the 
 retail grocery or dry-goods business before the 
 war, and who could not keep their hands from 
 such pickings, or get over their old "store" hab- 
 its. It was seldom you caught a West Pointer 
 at this trading business, poor as most of them 
 were, though it must be confessed that two or 
 three of them did fall from grace in this partic- 
 ular. 
 
 Talk about Yankees worshiping the almighty 
 dollar ! You should have seen the adoration paid 
 the Golden Calf at Wilmington.Juring the days 
 of blockade-running. Every body was engaged 
 in it save the private soldiers and a few poor 
 line andstaff officers, who were not within the' 
 "ring," and possessed no influence or position 
 there by which they could grant favors. 
 
 When a steamer came in, men, women, chil- 
 dren TusTTe'c! "down to the wharves fo see it," to 
 buy, beg, or steal something. Every body want- 
 ed to know if their "ventures" — the proceeds 
 of the bales of cotton or boxes of tobacco sent 
 out — had come in. No people were more ex- 
 cited than the women, expecting gloves, para- 
 sols, hoop-skirts, corsets, flannels, and bonnets, 
 silks and calicoes ; for these things became 
 frightfully scarce and dear in the South during 
 the last year of the war. The first people aboard 
 of course were the agents — on such occasions 
 very big men. Then swarmed officials and of- 
 ficers, "friends" and "bummers," hunting after 
 drinks and dinners, and willingto accept any 
 compliment, from a box of cigars or a bottle of 
 brandy down to a bunch of bananas or a pocket- 
 ful of oranges. Happy the man who knew well 
 and intimately the steward of a blockade-runner, 
 or could call the cook his friend, and get a part 
 
WILMINGTON DURING THE BLOCKADE. 
 
 499 
 
 of the stealings from the pantry or the drippings 
 from the kitchen! 
 
 How it made those bluff, coarse, vulgar En- 
 glishmen stare, who came in as pursers or offi- 
 cers, to see well-dressed gentlemen thus degrad- 
 ing themselves by sponging and loafing and dis- 
 gracing their uniforms ! We have seen many 
 a fellow, bearing a commission, for hours eying 
 from a stand-point on the wharf a bloekade- 
 rnnner as a cat would a mouse, and then just 
 about lunch -time drop aboard to enjoy the 
 Champagne or porter, the sardines or Parmesan 
 and English cheese. We never heard them ex- 
 press it, but we can imagine the intense disgust 
 that such men as John Wilkinson, Robert Car- 
 ter, and other old navy officers, who occasion- 
 ally commanded such ships, must have felt at 
 this method some of their Confederate brethren 
 had of living at other people's expense. 
 
 As for ourselves, we never had the pleasure 
 of this sort of thing but twice. Once by invita- 
 tion of our friend George Baer (alias Captain 
 Henry), who immortalized himself by writing 
 that celebrated protest as to the capture of the 
 Greyhound, and by his escape from his captors 
 in Boston. Baer invited us to a fashionable 10 
 o'clock breakfast on the Index, which he then 
 commanded, and the consequence was we near- 
 ly stuffed ourselves to death, and came near 
 having an apoplectic fit. The second time we 
 went by invitation on board the Advance to 
 dinner, and were treated like a "snob," as we 
 deserved to be, for our pains. We shall never 
 forget the cool stare of the steward when we 
 had the audacity to ask for a second piece of 
 pie. We ate it — humble pie indeed — and that 
 awful man's look, which we shall never forget 
 to our dying day, though it came near killing, 
 cured us of any propensity of dining and wining 
 on board blockade-runners. We loved fresh 
 meat and Champagne dearly, but we never 
 sought it again in that quarter. 
 
 Wilmington during that period swarmed with 
 foreigners) "Jews 'and' Gentiles. In fact, going 
 down the main street or along the river, yon 
 might well imagine you were journeying from 
 Jerusalem to Jericho. As to the falling among 
 thieves we will make no mention. The beggars 
 at the gangways of the newly-arrived steamers 
 were as thick as those in Egypt crying "buck- 
 sheesh." 
 
 At every turn you " met up," as our tar-heel 
 friends say, with young Englishmen dressed like 
 grooms and jockeys, or with a peculiar coach- 
 manlike look, seeming, in a foreign land, away 
 from their mothers, to indulge their fancy for 
 the outre and extravagant in dress to the ut- 
 most. These youngsters had money, made 
 money, lived like fighting-cocks, and astonish- 
 ed the natives by their pranks, and the way 
 they flung the Confederate "stuff" about. Of 
 course they were deeply interested in the Con- 
 federate cause, and at the same time wanted 
 cotton. The Liverpool house of Alexander 
 Collie and Co. had quite a regiment of these 
 youngsters in their employ. Fine-looking fel- 
 
 lows, with turned-up noses, blue eyes wide apart, 
 and their fluffy, straw-colored, mutton-chop 
 whiskers floating in the wind, to the great ad- 
 miration of their chir amie's, the handsome quad- 
 roon washer- women, on whose mantle-pieces and 
 in whose albums were frequently to be found 
 photographs strikingly resembling the aforesaid 
 young foreigners. They occupied a large flar- 
 ing yellow house, like a military hospital, at 
 the upper end of Market Street, and which be- 
 longed to a Mr. Wright. There these young- 
 sters kept open house and spent their pas' and 
 the Company's money, while it lasted. There 
 they fought cocks on Sundays, until the neigh- 
 bors remonstrated and threatened prosecution. 
 A stranger passing the house at night, and see- 
 ing it illuminated with every gas-jet lit (the 
 expense, no doubt, charged to the ship), and 
 hearing the sound of music, would ask if a ball 
 was going on. Oh no! it was only these young 
 English Sybarites enjoying the luxury of a band 
 
 1 of negro minstrels after dinner. They enter- 
 tained any and every body, from Beauregard 
 and Whiting, or Lawley, the voluminous corre- 
 spondent of the London Times, down to such 
 
 i " bummers'' as Vizitelly or the most insuffera- 
 ble sponge or snob who forced his society upon 
 them. 
 
 But alas ! there came a day when these Mas- 
 ters Primrose, with brandy-flushed faces, faded 
 away, and were scattered like their namesakes 
 before a chilling northeast wind, and Wilming- 
 ton knew them no more. We doubt not that 
 the population of Wilmington, both white and 
 colored, miss and mourn them sadly. 
 
 Of course there were many American hous- 
 es, and American agents representing English 
 houses, some of whom would fain have aped 
 the hospitality of these young Britishers if they 
 could; and others who upon no account would 
 have done so. There were Crenshaw and Broth- 
 ers, Confederate Government Agents; Eicklin 
 and Finney, Agents for the State of Virginia; 
 Mitchell and Gervey, of Charleston, Agents of 
 the Bee Line ; Salomons and Co., of New Or- 
 leans ; and a host of others of less importance,- 
 or no importance at all. Of course they all 
 made fortunes — some at the expense of their 
 country, some at the expense of their compa- 
 nies; which latter, in consequence, often had 
 small dividends to make. 
 
 The tribe of Benjamin was very well repre- 
 sented at Wilmington, as you may imagine, the 
 unctuous and oleaginous Confederate Secretary 
 of State having well provided for " his people." 
 A great many gentlemen of strongly Jewish 
 physiognomy were to be met with on the streets, 
 in very delicate health, and with papers in their 
 pockets to keep them out of the army from the 
 Secretary of State, but still in hot pursuit of the 
 " monish." When the conscript officer became 
 very zealous and pressing they fled away to 
 Nassau and Bermuda. We recollect, upon one 
 occasion, when a very distinguished naval offi- 
 cer in the Confederate service was going to run 
 the blockade, three men, representing themselves 
 
500 
 
 HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
 
 as being intended for the crew of a Confederate 
 cruiser abroad, presented themselves with notes 
 from a high Government official, requesting 
 that passage be furnished them to Nassau. 
 Lieutenant J told them : 
 
 " Gentlemen, if I take you under these cir- 
 cumstances, you can not go as passengers ; you 
 will have to go in the forecastle, as common 
 sailors." 
 
 "Very well," said they ; " any way will do." 
 
 So they went out with the nominal purpose 
 of joining the crew of the cruiser that was being 
 fitted out in Europe. When the vessel got to 
 Nassau, in a few days one of the party had his 
 sign up -as a practicing physician ; the other 
 had gone into business in a store ; and the third 
 
 came to Lieutenant J , and begged him to 
 
 take him as his steward. 
 
 "Why," said the officer, "you are a gentle- 
 man by birth and education ; you are not fitted 
 to be a steward — a waiter." 
 
 " Never mind," replied the unhappy impecu- 
 nious individual; "I am out of money, and 
 must do something." 
 
 There were many other such instances of 
 refugees from conscription. In Richmond they 
 used to get through the lines in coffins. At 
 Wilmington scarce a steamer went out without 
 some "stowaways," whom it was not always 
 possible to smoke out, or without some weak- 
 kneed individual who, by hook or crook, in some 
 mysterious way managed to get a passport and 
 to escape the conscript officer. 
 
 The Confederate Government used to send 
 some queer agents abroad at the expense of the 
 people. A Mrs. Grinnell was sent out by the 
 Surgeon-General — so she stated — to get band- 
 ages, etc., which nobody else, we suppose, but 
 Mrs. Grinnell could get. She was an English- 
 woman, of that class and with those manners 
 which any man, if he has traveled much, has 
 often seen. She gave herself out as a daugh- 
 ter of an English baronet, and had first come to 
 New York several years prior to the war. Then 
 there was Belle Boyd, who represented herself, 
 we believe, as an agent sent out by Mr. Benja- 
 min. She was captured, with our friend George 
 Baer, on the Greyhound. Another was a Mrs. 
 Baxley, of Baltimore. She represented her- 
 self, we believe, as an agent of old Mr. Mern- 
 minger — that compeer of Gallatin and Neckar — 
 who, by-the-way, ever since the surrender has 
 been hiding away somewhere up in the mountain 
 fastnesses of South Carolina, in mortal terror ; 
 and who, whenever he hears of even a bureau 
 agent in the shape of a chaplain being in the 
 neighborhood, immediately hies himself off to 
 his retreat, not to reappear till the representa- 
 tive of the United States has departed the vi- 
 cinity. The fact is, the United States ought to 
 send old Mr. Memminger a free pardon and 
 grant him a pension. He did about as-much 
 as any other man we know of to break down the 
 Confederacy. Mallory should be taken care of 
 for life. And as for Benjamin, the United States 
 never can repay the debt of gratitude it owes 
 
 him for having, by his unfortunate counsels, 
 assisted it in the destruction of " the rebellion." 
 They should send a public ship to bring Benja- 
 min back to his sorrowing country, which so 
 deeply mourns his loss. 
 
 ^ Mr. Mallory's navy was always the laughing- 
 stock of the army, and many were the jeers 
 that the Confederate "mud-crushers" let off at 
 his iron-clads, formidable things as they were, 
 had he managed properly the Confederate navy. 
 Captain Lynch was the flag-officer of the Cape 
 Fear squadron when we first went there. His 
 fleet consisted of the iron-clad ram North Caro- 
 lina, which drew so much water that she could 
 never get over the bars of the Cape Eear River 
 Inlet — except, possibly, at the highest spring- 
 tide, and then the chances were against her ever 
 getting back again ; the Raleigh, another iron- 
 clad, not completed till late in the summer of 
 '64 ; and two or three little steam-tugs. They 
 all came to grief. The North Carolina, the bot- 
 tom of which was neither sheathed nor prepared 
 to resist the worms, was pierced by them till her 
 hull was like a honey-comb, and finally was 
 sunk opposite Smithvillc. The Raleigh, after 
 going out and scaring off the blockading fleet at 
 the New Inlet, was beached and lost on a bal- 
 neal- Fort Fisher in returning. The tugs were 
 burned on the river subsequent to the evacuation 
 of the town. 
 
 Whiting and Lynch from some cause or other 
 never were on good terms, jealous of each other's 
 authority, we suppose. It finally came near 
 culminating seriously. There had been an or- 
 der sent by Mr. Mallory to Lynch, in pursuance 
 of an act of the Confederate Congress, not to 
 let any vessel go out without taking out a cer- 
 tain proportion of Government cotton. Lynch 
 was commander of the naval defenses of the 
 Cape Fear. By some oversight the Adjutant- 
 General's office at Richmond had sent no such 
 order to Whiting, who commanded the Depart- 
 ment, and consequently the port and its regula- 
 tions. One of Collie's steamers was about to 
 go out without complying with the law. Old 
 Lynch sent a half company of marines on board 
 of her and took possession. This Whiting re- 
 sented rather haughtily as an unwarrantable in- 
 terference with his authority as Commander of 
 the port, and marching in a battalion of the 
 Seventeenth North Carolina Regiment, under 
 Lieutenant-Colonel John C. Lamb, ejected the 
 marines, and took possession of the steamer and 
 hauled her up stream to her wharf. Lynch said 
 he did not care how far Whiting took her up 
 the river, but he vowed if any attempt was made 
 to take her to sea he would sink her, and he 
 shotted his guns. Matters looked squally and 
 excitement was high. A collision was feared. 
 They were both summoned to Richmond to ex- 
 plain, and both returned apparently satisfied. 
 Lynch, however, was shortly afterward relieved, 
 and Commodore Pinckney took his place. 
 
 We had often wondered why the port was not 
 more effectually closed. To tell the truth it 
 was hardly closed at all. Many of the block- 
 
WILMINGTON DURING THE BLOCKADE. 
 
 501 
 
 ade-runuers continued their career till the fall 
 of Fisher. An experienced captain and good 
 engineer invariably brought a ship safe by the 
 blockading squadron. Wilkinson and Carter 
 never failed — good sailors, cooIT'cautious, and 
 resolufe~they ran in and out without difficulty 
 many times. The great danger was from the 
 exterior line of tile blockaders some forty or 
 fifty miles out. 
 
 But. owing. to the, configuration of the-coast it 
 is almost impossible \p effect a close blockade. 
 The .Cap e Fear has two mouths, the Old Inlet, 
 at the entrance of which Fort Caswell stands, 
 and the New Inlet, nine miles up the river, where 
 Fisher guards the entrance. From the station 
 off the Old Inlet, where there were usually from 
 five to six blockaders, around to the station off 
 the New Inlet, a vessel would have to make an 
 arc of some fifty miles, owing to the Frying Pan 
 Shoals intervening, while from Caswell across 
 to Fisher it was only nine miles. The plan of 
 the blockade-runners coming in was to strike 
 the coast thirty or forty miles above or below the 
 Inlets, and then run along (of course at night) 
 till they got under the protection of the forts. 
 Sometimes they got in or out by boldly running 
 through the blockading fleet, but that was haz- 
 ardous, for if discovered, the ocean was alive 
 with rockets and lights, and it was no pleasant 
 thing to have shells and balls whistling over you 
 and around you. The chances were, then, that 
 if you were not caught, you had, in spite of your 
 speed, to throw a good many bales of cotton 
 overboard. 
 
 The wreck of these blockade-runners not un- 
 frequently occurred by being stranded or beach- 
 ed, and highly diverting skirmishes would oc- 
 cur between the blockaders and the garrisons 
 of the forts for the possession. The fleet, how- 
 ever, never liked the Whitworth guns that we 
 had, which shot almost with the accuracy of a 
 rifle and with a tremendous range. The sol- 
 diers generally managed to wreck the stranded 
 vessels successfully, though oftentimes with great 
 peril and hardship. It mattered very little to 
 the owners then who got her, as they did not 
 see much of what was recovered — the soldiers 
 thinking they were entitled to what they got at 
 the risk of their lives. But a wreck was a most 
 demoralizing affair — the whole garrison general- 
 ly got drunk and staid drunk for a week or so 
 afterward. Brandy and fine wines flowed like 
 water ; and it was a month perhaps before mat- 
 ters could be got straight. Many accumulated 
 snug little sums from the misfortunes of the 
 blockade -runners, who generally denounced 
 such pillage as piracy; but it could not be 
 helped. 
 
 We recollect the wrecking of the Ella off 
 Baldhead in December, '64. She belonged to 
 the Bee Company of Charleston, and was a 
 splendid new steamer, on her second trip in, 
 with a large and valuable cargo almost entirely 
 owned by private parties and speculators.' She 
 was chased ashore by the blockading fleet, and 
 immediately abandoned by her officers and crew, 
 
 whom nothing would induce to go back in or- 
 der to save her cargo. Yankee shells flying 
 over, and through, and around her had no 
 charms for these sons of Neptune. Captain 
 Badham, however, and his company, the Eden- 
 ton (N. C.) Battery, with Captain Bahnson, a 
 fighting Quaker from Salem, N. C, boarded 
 and wrecked her under the fire of the Federals 
 — six shells passing through the Ella while they 
 were removing her cargo. The consequence 
 was that for a month afterward nearly the 
 whole garrison were on "a tight," and gro- 
 ceries and dry-goods were plentiful in that vi- 
 cinity. The general demoralization produced 
 by "London Dock" and "Hollands" seemed 
 even to have affected that holy man, the Chap- 
 lain, who said some very queer graces at the 
 head-quarter's mess-table. 
 
 Seldom, however, was there any loss of life 
 attending these wrecks. But there was one 
 notable case of the drowning of a famous wo- 
 man, celebrated for her beauty and powers of 
 fascination. We allude to the death of Mrs. 
 Greenhow, so well known for many years in 
 Washington circles. Before she even crossed 
 the Confederate lines she had undoubtedly ren- 
 dered valuable service to the authorities at Rich- 
 mond, and was in consequence imprisoned by 
 the Federal authorities in Washington. After 
 coming to Richmond and laboring in the hos- - 
 pitals there for some time she sailed for Europe 
 from Wilmington, and it was on her return trip 
 that she was drowned, just as she reached the J\ 
 shores of the South. She bad lived past her 
 beauty's prime, had drank deep of fashion and 
 folly's stream of pleasure, had received the ad- 
 miration and adulation of hundreds of her fel- 
 low-mortals, and had reached that point in life 
 when those things no longer please but pall on 
 the senses. Her time had come. The small 
 boat in which she was coming from the vessel, 
 which was beached just a short distance above 
 Fisher, upset. Mrs. Greenhow, after sinking 
 several times, was brought to shore, but soon 
 after reaching it died. It was said that the gold 
 she had sewed up and concealed about her per- 
 son had borne her down and was the cause of 
 her death ; that had it not been for that, weight 
 she would have been saved. Her body was 
 brought to Wilmington and laid out in the Sail- 
 ors' Church, where we saw her. She was beau- 
 tiful in death. After her funeral her wardrobe 
 and a great many articles that she had brought 
 over for sale, and which had been rescued from 
 the wreck, were sold at auction in Wilmington. 
 It was very splendid, and the "venture" she 
 had brought in for sale was most costly. It 
 was said that an English countess or duchess 
 had an interest in this venture, and was to have 
 shared the profits of the speculation. 
 
 But the storm was soon to rain on our de- 
 voted heads. Those white-painted steamers, 
 clipping the water so nimbly, with the British 
 and Confederate flags flying, with their bran- 
 dies and wines, their silks and calicoes, their 
 bananas and oranges, and gladdening the hearts 
 
502 
 
 HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
 
 of the dwellers on the bank of the Cape Fear, 
 were soon to disappear from its waters, and the 
 glory of Wilmington to depart. 
 Sf Day after day we had watched the blockading 
 fleet with the naked eye and a glass, and often 
 thought what a lonely time those fellows must 
 be having, and longed for some northeast storm 
 to send them on the coast, in order that we 
 might have the pleasure of their acquaintance. 
 Cushing's, by-the-way, we came very near mak- 
 ing, when that daring officer came up the Cape 
 Fear in June, we think it was, 'G4, passing 
 through the New Inlet by Fort Fisher with a 
 boat's crow of some eighteen or twenty sailors 
 and marines, and, landing half-way between 
 the town and the fort, concealed his boat in a 
 creek, and laid perdu on the Wilmington and 
 Fisher road, waiting for Whiting or Lamb to 
 come along. A mere accident enabled us to 
 escape him ; and though of no importance bar- 
 self, we had papers with us at the time that 
 would have been highly interesting to the United 
 States Government. We all of us admired his 
 courage, and thought it deserved success. We 
 well remember delivering Cushing's message 
 (repeated to us by the old citizen whom he caught 
 and released) to General Whiting, that "he had 
 been in Wilmington, and would have him or 
 Colonel Lamb shortly." 
 
 On December 24, 'G4, the armada command- 
 ed by Butler and Porter appeared off the coast. 
 That day the United States forces under Butler 
 landed, and the bombardment of Fisher com- 
 menced, and such a feu cTenfer as was poured 
 on that devoted fort was never seen. Coming 
 up the river from Smithville on a steamer that 
 afternoon Ave witnessed it, and such a roar of 
 artilleiy we never heard. Those large double- 
 enders seemed to stand in remarkably close to 
 the fort, and deliver their fire with great accu- 
 racy, knocking up the sand on the ramparts. It 
 seemed a continuous hail of shot and shell, many 
 of them going over Fisher and dropping in the 
 river. But Fisher was a long sand fort, stretch- 
 ing in an obtuse angle from the river bank 
 around to the mouth of the New Inlet, that 
 opened into the ocean. It was over a mile from 
 point to point. Though it was thus heavily 
 bombarded for two days, little or no impression 
 was made on its works except to give them a 
 ragged appearance, and very few casualties oc- 
 curred, the garrison sticking mostly to their 
 bomb-proofs, which were very complete. Whit- 
 ing was there in command in person, having 
 been sent there by Bragg, of which latter per- 
 sonage presently. 
 
 On Saturday night, Christmas-eve, Butler's 
 powder-ship was exploded. It appears to have 
 made no impression on the fort or the garrison, 
 but we must confess those 300 tons of powder 
 going off made us, though twenty miles off, feel 
 very weak in the knees, and shook our nerves 
 considerably, for we did not know what it was 
 at first, nor what had occurred. About 2 .a.m. 
 we were quietly asleep in our quarters with our 
 wife and little one by our side, when this ter- 
 
 rible explosion occurred. It must have been 
 heard with greater effect in Wilmington than at 
 the fort, possibly from the fact that the wind 
 was setting in that direction, though the town 
 was twenty miles off. There came in the dead 
 of night that awful noise ; the earth seemed to 
 heave, the house shook violently, as if the walls 
 were going to fall out and the roof coming down 
 on us. The baby slept quietly on in its cradle ; 
 our better-half clung to us, and hysterically in- 
 sisted that we should say the Lord's Prayer. 
 Though very familiar with it and the rest of the 
 Bible, to save our lives we could not recollect it. 
 Butler's powder-ship had completely knocked 
 all of our memory out of us. We do not be- 
 lieve we could at that moment have told our 
 own name, so completely had the terrific noise 
 upset us. 
 
 The next day, Christmas, was Sunday, and 
 all day Porter's guns were thundering away at 
 Fisher and shaking the windows in Wilmington, 
 where the citizens were offering up their prayers 
 for our protection from the enemy. Communi- 
 cation with Fort Fisher by land or telegraph was 
 then cut off — the messages had been sent up to 
 that time. Toward night sensational messages 
 commenced to be brought up from below — one 
 to the effect that the enemy were on the para- 
 pet at Fisher (in truth and in fact they never 
 got closer than the stables, at least two or three 
 hundred yarns from the fort). Bragg sent Mrs. 
 Bragg away that night at 9 p.m., in a special 
 train, up the Weldon Road, and an officer who 
 saw him at about 11 p.m. reported that the old I 
 gentleman seemed to be quite unnerved, and 
 that his hand was very tremulous. Of course 
 there was a great exodus of civilians from the 
 place the next morning early, the fact that Mrs. 
 Bragg had gone off acting as a key-note of alarm ' 
 to others. By mid-day, however, Monday these 
 sensational reports and stories were all quieted 
 by the authenticated news that the enemy had re- 
 embarked on the fleet, and that the attack had 
 ceased. Then the fleet sailed, and every thing 
 quieted down. The general impression was that 
 there would not be another attack till after the 
 spring equinox, in May, say, or the June fol- 
 lowing. 
 
 When Whiting returned to the city Bragg 
 still continued in command, and his friends and 
 himself evidently took the credit of having foiled 
 Butler's attempt. Bragg was a friend and fa- . 
 vorite of Mr. Davis. He had sided with Gen- \ 
 eral Taylor in Taylor's quarrel with General 
 Scott, and Mr. Davis was a man who never for- 
 got his friends nor forgave his enemies. He 
 seemed determined to sustain Bragg at all 
 events, though the feeling throughout the whole 
 army, and in fact the South, was against that 
 General. When Wilmington was known to be 
 threatened, and Bragg was sent there, the Rich 
 mond Examiner simply remarked, "Good-by, 
 Wilmington !" and the prediction was verified. 
 
 Whiting, after the first attack, wrote to Bragg, 
 advising that in ease of another attack, which 
 would probably be made, to ptevent surprise he 
 
 If 
 
would advise that Hagood's South Carolina bri- 
 gade, numbering over 2000 effective men, be 
 thrown into Fort Fisher, the garrison of which 
 consisted of one raw, inexperienced regiment 
 that had never smelled powder except in the 
 first attack, and which did not number even 
 over 700 effective men. Hagood's troops were 
 veterans, and had been in many a battle., He 
 also advised that the three other brigades of 
 Hoke's division be placed along about the spot 
 where the Federals had first landed, and be in- 
 trenched so as to prevent a landing above the 
 fort. Wise precautions if they had been adopted. 
 Bragg indorsed on the letter of advice from 
 Whiting that he saw no necessity in carrying 
 out those suggestions. It was the failure to 
 carry out those suggestions that lost Wilming- 
 ton. Had they been followed Wilmington would 
 not have fallen when it did, nor Fisher have 
 been taken. Instead, Bragg brought Hoke's di- 
 vision up about a half mile back of Wilmington, 
 over twenty miles from the fort, and had a grand 
 review there, in which he paraded himself in a 
 new suit of uniform presented to him by his ad- 
 mirers in Wilmington. 
 
 Whiting's prediction about a surprise was 
 shortly to be verified. Thursday night, the 10(h 
 of January, 'Go, the fleet again appeared oft" 
 Fisher, this time through Bragg's imbecility, to 
 do its work effectually, and Friday morning the 
 citizens of AVilmington were aroused by the 
 booming of Porter's cannon a second time open- 
 ing on Fisher. When the news came up at mid- 
 night that the fleet had again appeared, the band 
 of Hoke's division were in town serenading, the 
 officers were visiting, and the men scattered 
 about — Bragg no doubt asleep in fancied se- 
 curity. 
 
 Of the capture of Fort Fisher, and the subse- 
 quent inevitable loss of Wilmington, I shall not 
 speak. These events have passed into history. 
 My purpose has been simply to portray the as- 
 pect of Wilmington when blockaded. 
 
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