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 COMMANDERY OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 
 
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 WAR PAPER 9. 
 
 cidertfs of % Blockade, 1861-'65. 
 
 
Military ©fder of t^ bo^al tae^ion 
 
 United §tate$. 
 
 
 COMMA]\lDEl(Y OF THE DI^lCT OF ffl)LUl|BIA. 
 
 
 WAR PAPERS. 
 
 9 
 
 (Incidents of the -stockade. 
 
 PREPARED BY COMPANION 
 
 Rear Admiral 
 
 JOHN J. ALMY, 
 
 U. S. Navy, 
 
 AND 
 
 READ AT THE STATED MEETING OF FEBRUARY 3, 1892. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2013 
 
 http://archive.org/details/incidentsofblockOOalmy 
 
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 §nMmU oi t\u §lodtaik 
 
 1861-1865. 
 
 These were many and various. The writer commanded the 
 U. S. Steamer Connecticut on the blockade oft* Wilmington, 
 N. C, for fourteen months, and during that period captured 
 and sent in four steamers, viz., Juno, Scotia, Minnie, and 
 Greyhound, with valuable cargoes ; vessels and cargoes ad- 
 judged worth $1,063,352.49. The Connecticut run ashore 
 and destroyed four other blockade-runners, viz., Phantom, 
 Herald, Ceres, and Diamond. 
 
 The blockade- runners would always select dark nights to run 
 in and out, and certain stages of the moon ; generally between 
 the last and first quarters of the moon, when it set early and 
 rose late. This moon arrangement was always a matter of 
 great importance to them. Then a tolerably high tide, also, 
 entered into the calculation. 
 
 The first blockade-runner captured by the Comtecticut was 
 the Juno. It was a bright pleasant morning oft* shore, and out 
 about 70 miles from Wilmington, when, at daylight, she was 
 discovered. Chase was immediately given, and in three hours 
 she was a prize. When the captain was brought on board he 
 was greeted with the usual " Good morning," with the addi- 
 tional remark, " Glad to see you," to which he replied, "D — d 
 if I am glad to see you." " I suppose not," I remarked. I 
 didn't blame him at all, for to him it was becoming acquainted 
 under very unpleasant conditions. 
 
 A week before, the Juno had safely run the blockade in — had 
 discharged her English cargo, had taken on board the usual 
 
Confederate American cargo of cotton, tobacco, and turpentine, 
 and was now bound to Nassau. 
 
 Among other letters found on board of the Juno was one left 
 open and unfinished, commenced at Wilmington and addressed 
 to the owners in England, in which the captain described the 
 successfully running in by the sleepy-headed Yankees at night, 
 and that he expected to be lucky enough in running out, of 
 which he would inform them upon his arrival at Nassau, when 
 he would close and send his letter. But the said letter never 
 reached Nassau nor England. 
 
 These blockade-runners were all English steamers, and were 
 painted lead-color, which was to prevent their being discovered 
 at night, when running close in along the land. The fire and 
 steam arrangements were for burning the soft English coal, 
 which always made much black smoke, by which they could 
 be discovered a long distance in the day. The smoke could 
 sometimes be seen before the vessel was visible. 
 
 We have heard and we have read of the excitement on board 
 of a whale-ship produced by the cry of the look-out at the 
 mast-head — " Spout O ! " A whale in sight; boats are quickly 
 got ready for lowering, with harpoons, lines and lances, and 
 the ship steered for the prey. 
 
 On board of the Connecticut, when the look-out at the 
 mast-head sung out, "Black smoke!" all was commotion. 
 Every one was upon his feet, and all eyes and the ship's head 
 turned in the reported direction; all steam was raised, and -the 
 chase commenced. 
 
 A chase of this kind once lasted Jifteen hours. Black smoke 
 was discovered at sunrise, pursuit was commenced, and contin- 
 ued until after dark, when the bockade-runner was lost sight 
 of. But the Connecticut got within two miles of her, making 
 a gain of teit miles, as it was estimated that she was twelve 
 miles off when first discovered. To enable her to escape she 
 
had to throw overboard nearly all her cargo, which comprised 
 English goods, as she was bound in. We passed through and 
 by innumerable bales and boxes during the day, some of which 
 we perceived contained shoes, which caused a waggish sailor to 
 remark : " Perhaps if we could get and put on some of those 
 shoes, we could run faster and catch that fellow." 
 
 We will continue with the further movements of this block- 
 ade-runner steamer, which will be found interesting. Subse- 
 quently she proved to be the Tristam Shandy. 
 
 As has been stated, she threw overboard nearly all her cargo, 
 went into Nassau, filled up hurriedly with another cargo and 
 steamed for Wilmington, ran the blockade, and got in. In 
 order to have the dark of the moon, she unloaded with great 
 dispatch, and loaded with the usual Confederate cargo and 
 sailed for Nassau. When she got a few miles outside she was 
 discovered by the U. S. Steamer Pequot, which gave chase. 
 It soon became very dark, and the Pequot lost sight of her, but 
 continued the chase on the same course as when the blockade- 
 runner was last seen. In a few minutes a tremendous volume 
 of black smoke from the soft coal came into the faces of the 
 people on board the Pequot, and in a minute afterwards she 
 was up with the blockade-runner, and the Tristam Shandy 
 was captured. She had broken down. The captain of her 
 stated that the Connecticut had chased her so hard those Jifteen 
 hours that the machinery was very much out of order, and that 
 he hadn't time to adjust and repair it, as he had to hurry so 
 much to get out of Nassau and Wilmington in order to save the 
 moon and the tides ; so the Connecticut was the remote cause 
 of the capture of the Tristam Shandy with her valuable cargo. 
 Both vessel and cargo were adjudged by the Prize Court to be 
 worth $375,000. Added to this was the cargo thrown over- 
 board when chased by the Connecticut, all of which was a 
 great loss to the Confederate cause. 
 
One Saturday night, off the Western Bar, one of the in- 
 lets into Wilmington, was an exciting one for blockaders, and 
 for blockade-runners also. There was no time to indulge in 
 Saturday-night songs and revelries, and to drink to " Sweet- 
 hearts and Wives." 
 
 We- knew that blockade-runners were expected. The tides 
 and the state of the moon were favorable for them. The moon 
 went down early. Orders had been given that at that time 
 every vessel should have her anchor up, with steam up, and 
 ready to start. The vessels, four in number — Connecticut, 
 Georgia, E??ima, and Buckingham — were swinging about, 
 and a little steam used to keep them in their assigned positions. 
 They were like restless race-horses awaiting the order to " Go !" 
 
 The officer of the deck was lying down upon his stomach 
 on the hurricane-deck sweeping the horizon with his glass 
 when he reported that there was something moving upon the 
 water like a blockade-runner. The commander looked, and 
 confirmed the report. Orders were immediately given to start, 
 and move with full speed. Two shotted guns were fired 
 at her, when she changed her course, stood oft' under full 
 speed, and was lost sight of. In this move she met with 
 the Georgia, which vessel started after her and drove her 
 oft". She was faster than most of our vessels, and in the 
 dark, as it was, she could soon run out of sight. Continu- 
 ing in her persistency to enter, the Emma met her and 
 drove her off. But she wasn't going to give it up. She 
 had now stood pretty well over towards Smith's Island, 
 thinking she might get in by running close along the land. 
 And now the fotirth time she attempted it, when the Buck- 
 ingham espied her, opened her guns, and drove her off. As 
 we didn't see nor hear anything more of her that night, 
 we supposed that she had gone out to sea, to try it per- 
 haps another night, which they frequently did. 
 
But at day-break the next morning, lo and behold ! there 
 was the steamer hard and fast ashore. She had been forced 
 off and shoved over so many times that she was nearer the 
 land than she calculated, and had run badly ashore. At- 
 tempts were made by our vessels to get her off, which was 
 found impossible. A few days after, a gale of wind came on, 
 which broke the vessel to pieces. She was found to be the 
 noted English blockade-runner Herald. The officers and crew 
 had left in their boats, and landed on Smith's Island in the 
 dark of the night. 
 
 This steamer had been running between Bermuda and Charles- 
 ton, had made ten or twelve successful trips, .and had paid 
 for herself several times over. She had now changed her 
 blockade-running route to between Nassau and Wilmington, 
 which proved bad luck to her, as she was wrecked on this 
 her first trip. 
 
 And now came up the question of law versus common sense. 
 
 The Connecticut had captured a schooner laden with salt, 
 a cargo not worth more than three or four hundred dollars. 
 By throwing the salt overboard, five or six thousand dollars' 
 worth of valuable goods could be taken from the Herald and 
 put on board of the schooner, which was done. This would 
 naturally be deemed common sense. But the law says that 
 " No person in the Navy shall take out of a prize any goods 
 before the same shall be adjudged lawful prize by a com- 
 petent court." 
 
 This proceeding was duly reported to the Navy Depart- 
 ment, but nothing was ever said in the way of approval or 
 disapproval of the matter. 
 
 The chief engineer of the Connecticut was a zealous, pa- 
 triotic person, and was well up to his duties in every particular. 
 In the hard chase after the Tristam Shandy of fifteen hours 
 which has been described, it occurred to the captain to step 
 
down into the boiler and engine rooms to take a look at 
 matters. Upon reaching there, the chief engineer remarked: 
 " Captain, these boilers have now been run for many months 
 in chasing blockade-runners, and they are getting tender. 
 They are under a heavy strain to-day, and I advise you to 
 keep on deck." The captain replied that if there was dan- 
 ger, he didn't know why he shouldn't share it with the engineer. 
 " But," said the engineer, " your post of duty is on deck, 
 and mine is here. I shipped for this, and if the boilers go, 
 it is my privilege and my duty to stick to and go with 
 them." Upon reflection, and deeming " discretion the better 
 part of valor," the captain left, and went on deck. The 
 boilers stood it, however. Here was a brave typical engi- 
 neer, of which the service can boast of many such. 
 
 Love and matrimony once came in as an "incident in the 
 course of this blockade service. Sea-ports might be blockaded, 
 but loving hearts never, though hard-hearted parents sometimes 
 attempt it. 
 
 When the Greyhound was captured— vessel and cargo ad-, 
 judged by the Prize Court to be worth about half a million of 
 dollars — among the passengers on board was the noted Belle 
 Boyd, who had been a prisoner before, in the war, in the hands 
 of Genl. Butler, between whom there had been a considerable 
 amount of " unpleasantness," which had made her somewhat 
 famous by her general conduct, with her speeches and pertness. 
 The Greyhound was taken to Boston, and, after having been 
 adjudged lawful prize and condemned, Belle Boyd, with the 
 other passengers, the officers and crew, were all released and 
 permitted to go where they pleased. From Boston they went 
 to Halifax, and from thence to England. 
 
 The prize-master of the Greyhound was a young volunteer 
 officer, with the rank of acting-master in the United States 
 Navy — rather a good-looking fellow, ft seems that while on 
 
board of the Gi-eyhoutid together he and Belle Boyd became 
 greatly interested in each other, which ripened into affectionate 
 friendship. After they separated at Boston, a fervent corre- 
 spondence sprung up and was continued between them, and they 
 became engaged. She fascinated the prize-master to that 
 degree that he turned traitor. He resigned from the Federal 
 Navy, proceeded to England, and they were married in Liver- 
 pool, he, from that time, espousing the cause of, and fighting 
 for, the South. 
 
 Subsequently she wrote an interesting book of her life and 
 adventures, in which she gives a graphic account of all the 
 incidents relating to her courtship and marriage. Her career 
 was certainly full of the most eventful, heroic, and romantic 
 features ; a career softened and varied at the same time, and 
 which showed that hearts could be captured as well as block- 
 ade-runners. 
 
 It may not be generally known, or it may have been for- 
 gotten by persons, that Belle Boyd was the daughter of Genl. 
 Boyd, of the Confederate Army, who died while a prisoner to 
 the Federal forces. He possessed vast estates in Virginia, 
 early embraced the cause of Southern independence, and was 
 soon entrusted with a general's command. His daughter Belle 
 enthusiastically embraced the same cause, followed her father 
 to the field and accompanied him throughout his campaign, 
 and on two occasions heroically, as a modern Joan of Arc, led 
 on the troops to battle. She was, however, in a skirmish, cap- 
 tured and made prisoner for thirteen months, when she was 
 exchanged for Genl. Cochrane, who had been made prisoner 
 by the Confederates. 
 
 Loud and frequent complaints were made by the public, 
 during the war, of what they termed " inefficiency of the 
 blockade" by the frequent running in and out of vessels. 
 
 The Hon. Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy, in his annual 
 
IO 
 
 report in December, 1865, a few months after the war had 
 ended, stated in that report that the following number and class 
 of vessels had been captured or destroyed during the war in 
 attempting to run the blockade, viz : steamers, 295 ; sailing 
 ships,- barks, and brigs, 44, and 683 schooners, making a total 
 of 1,022 vessels. The amount adjudicated by the courts for 
 prizes captured and brought in was $24,500,000. 
 
 The estimated amounts for those run ashore, burnt, and 
 destroyed was $7,000,000, making a total of $31,500,000 — a 
 pretty good showing, I should say. 
 
 It certainly hurt and weakened the enemy badly. It cut off 
 numerous and necessary supplies, and it lost them the revenue 
 from their cotton, tobacco, and turpentine. In short, it did 
 much to bring the war to a close.