[14] But there was a striking contrast during the war, between the conduct of the British officials, acting in their official capacity, towards the Confederate officers, and that of individuals belonging to both branches of Her Majesty's service; the latter, almost without an exception, expressed their cordial sympathy with the south, and extended many acts of courtesy and good feeling towards us, but the former scrupulously abstained from every semblance of recognition or of sympathy.
[15] The Shooting Star was an exception, she being chartered by the government.
CHAPTER XIV
Last Summons to Richmond.—Demoralization.—The "Chameleon."—More trouble in Bermuda.—Another Narrow Escape.—Fall of Fort Fisher.—Maffitt's Escape, and Capt. S.'s Capture.—Another Hard Chase.—Failure to enter Charleston.—Return to Nassau.
Another, and a longer cruise, was then contemplated, and there was some prospect of prevailing with the Secretary of the Navy to fit out the ship for a cruiser, by giving her proper spars, providing the means of disconnecting the screws, and furnishing quarters for officers and men. But disasters to our arms were then following fast upon each other. General Sherman, after marching unopposed from Atlanta to the sea, and capturing Savannah, was preparing to continue his progress. Wilmington was threatened by a powerful sea and land force. The half starved and ill clad army of Northern Virginia was in the trenches around Petersburg, and the now contracting area of country available for supplies, had been so thoroughly drained, that it became a vital question how to provision the troops.
I was summoned again, and for the last time during the war, to Richmond. It was in the early part of December. There now remained to the Confederacy only the single line of rail communication from Wilmington, via Greensborough, and Danville, to Richmond. The progress of demoralization was too evident at every step of my journey, and nowhere were the poverty, and the straits to which the country was reduced, more palpably visible, than in the rickety, windowless, filthy cars, traveling six or eight miles an hour, over the worn out rails and decaying road-bed. We were eighteen hours in making the distance (about one hundred and twenty miles) from Danville to Richmond. As we passed in the rear of General Lee's lines, and I saw the scare-crow cattle there being slaughtered for the troops, the game seemed to be at last growing desperate. We were detained for perhaps an hour at the station where the cattle were being slaughtered. Several soldiers who were on the train, left us there; and as soon as they alighted from the cars, they seized portions of the offal, kindled a fire, charred the scraps upon the points of their ramrods, and devoured the unclean food with the avidity of famished tigers.
It was arranged in Richmond, that I should take command of the "Tallahassee," and proceed with all dispatch to Bermuda for a cargo of provisions; my late experience with the Governor of the island rendering it quite probable that he would prevent the Chickamauga from even discharging her cargo as a merchant vessel. That steamer (the Tallahassee,) of so many aliases, had just returned from a short cruise under Captain Ward of the Confederate States Navy. She was now christened again, and bore, thenceforward, the appropriate name of the "Chameleon." Her battery was dismounted, the officers and crew detached, and she was ostensibly sold to the navy agent at Wilmington. A register, and bill of sale, were prepared in legal form, the crew shipped according to the laws relating to the merchant service, and regular invoices and bills of lading made out of her cargo of cotton. The vessel, indeed, was so thoroughly whitewashed, that she subsequently passed a searching examination in Bermuda; but my recent experience there had convinced me of the necessity of adopting every precaution, and I was left to my own discretion with regard to all the details; the instructions under which I was acting requiring me only to bring in a cargo of provisions with all dispatch.
The "Chameleon" was in nearly all respects like the Chickamauga, only a few feet longer, and drawing a few inches more water.