Moving cautiously out of Nassau, the Banshee sailed along the Bahama shores and then began the run toward Charleston. From a crosstree in the masts, a lookout was rewarded with a dollar each time he sighted a sail on the horizon before it was seen from the deck. If someone on the deck spotted the sail first, then the lookout was fined five dollars. It was a system that encouraged alertness by the lookouts. As soon as a ship was sighted, the Banshee turned its stern to the stranger and waited quietly until the vessel was out of sight.
On the fourth day the Banshee reached the American coast some fifteen miles north of Cape Fear and the mouth of the Charleston River. When darkness came she began easing cautiously toward the blockading Union ships, running as close to the pounding surf as the skipper dared. No lights were permitted, not even the glow of a lighted cigar. Tarpaulins covered the engine-room hatchways. And the Banshee was a gray ghost slipping silently through the water while the men aboard talked only in whispers. Occasionally the ship stopped for a seaman to take soundings.
Taylor later recalled one tense moment in these words: “... Suddenly Burruss (the pilot) gripped my arm—‘There is one of them, Mr. Taylor, on the starboard bow.’... A moment afterwards I could make out a long, low, black object on our starboard side, lying perfectly still. Would she see us? That was the question: but no, though we passed within a hundred yards of her, we were not discovered and I breathed again. ‘Steamer on the port bow,’ and another cruiser was made out close to us. Still unobserved, we crept quietly along, when all at once a third cruiser shaped herself out of the gloom straight ahead and steaming slowly across our bow.
“Burruss was now of the opinion that we must be inside the squadron and advocated making the land. So ‘ahead slow’ we went again, until the low-lying coast and the surf line became dimly visible.... It was a big relief when we suddenly heard Burruss saying, ‘It’s all right, I see the big hill!’...”
The Big Hill was near the Confederate-held Fort Fisher at the mouth of the Charleston River. As dawn came, the Banshee was sighted by the Union blockaders and they moved against her with guns blazing. But then the Banshee slipped under the protecting guns of Fort Fisher and safety.
The owners of the Banshee made 700 per cent on their investment before the ship was captured on her ninth round trip between Nassau and Charleston.
The blockade runners, British and Confederate, supplied the armies of Gen. Robert E. Lee with desperately needed arms, clothing and food supplies in the early years of the war. For a time the blockade appeared impotent, while Southern privateers harassed the shipping of the North and captured much booty at sea.
While Lee was winning battles on the land, the Confederates could never gain mastery of the sea. The Union blockade could not be broken, and slowly the superior sea forces of the North strangled the commerce of the South, shutting off her armies from vital sources of supplies overseas.
Soon after the war began, it became evident to President Lincoln, to his Cabinet, and to members of Congress that the revenues collected by the Customs Service were not enough to finance the mounting costs of the massive conflict. The loss of tariff revenues in the Southern states, the South’s raids on the shipping of the North, and the breakdown of normal commerce had reduced Treasury receipts drastically. The President was forced to seek new sources of revenue.
In this emergency, the administration turned for the first time to an income tax. Congress passed a law imposing a tax of 3 per cent on incomes between $600 and $10,000, and a tax of 5 per cent on incomes above $10,000. Later, the taxes on those two income brackets were raised to 5 per cent and 10 per cent.