School History of North Carolina : from 1584 to the present time

by John W. Moore

CHAPTER LVIII.

WAR AND ITS HORRORS.

A. D. 1863.

1863.

When the year 1863 had come upon the American States in their bloody and wasting quarrel, there was nothing to indicate any solution of the great controversy. Many bloody battles had been fought, thousands of homes were saddened in the loss of brave and true men, and yet both sides were as intent as ever upon carrying on indefinitely the terrible and costly struggle.

2. Mr. Lincoln and the government at Washington said there should be no peace until the seceded States returned to their allegiance. Mr. Davis and the government at Richmond said, on the other hand, that the seceded States were, of right, free and independent States that had rightfully resumed their delegated powers, and owed no allegiance to the Federal government.

3. It was hoped that England and France would recognize the independence of the Confederate States; but beyond extending to the Southern government the rights of belligerents, this trust proved utterly fallacious. Confederate agents were received and armed vessels allowed to enter their ports, but no aid was extended to the Southern cause. The arrest of the Confederate Commissioners, Messrs. Mason and Slidell, on a British mail steamer, by a United States war vessel, was resented by England and war seemed probable; but these Southern envoys were released, and no aid came from abroad except in the ships that were bought of private persons for the purpose of cruising against vessels belonging to citizens of the United States.

4. Among the earliest measures adopted by the Federal government was the blockade of the Southern seaports. Wilmington, Charleston, Savannah, Mobile and Galveston were all watched by armed ships that sought to exclude the vessels of all countries from entering these harbors. Cruisers swarmed along the whole Southern coast, and it became a matter of great peril and difficulty to send out or bring in any commodity by way of the ocean.

5. This soon led to a scarcity of salt, sugar, coffee, molasses and everything which had been formerly imported from Europe or bought of Northern merchants. Prices continually advanced as such things became more scarce in the South. Wilmington is so situated that an effective blockade there was almost impossible. There were two inlets, and, therefore, two blockade fleets were necessary, and even with this added difficulty the blockading squadron could not prevent, on dark nights, the passage of swift steamers that swept in and out of the Cape Fear River and brought from Nassau and Bermuda what was most needed for the armies and people.

6. Soon after his inauguration, Governor Vance, at General Martin's suggestion, sent Colonel Thomas M. Crossan to England for the purpose of procuring a ship to supply the wants of North Carolina. Crossan had been a naval officer in the service of the United States, and had judgment enough in such matters to select one of the swiftest ships in the world. It was called the Lord Clyde abroad, but that name was changed to the Ad-Vance, and the vessel made many successful voyages before she was captured.