[488] See Taylor, “Running the Blockade.” A typical blockade-runner of 1862-1864 was a long, low, slender, rakish sidewheel steamer, of 400 to 600 tons, about nine times as long as broad, with powerful engines, twin screws, and feathering paddles. The funnels were short and could be lowered to the deck. It was painted a dull gray or lead color, and the masts being very short, it could not be seen more than two hundred yards away. When possible to obtain it, anthracite coal was burned, and when running into port all lights were turned out and the steam blown off under water. Scharf, p. 480; Soley, p. 156; Spears, Vol. IV, p. 55.
[489] “Two Months in the Confederate States by English Merchant,” p. 111; Taylor, “Running the Blockade”; Hague, “A Blockaded Family”; “Our Women in War,” passim; Jacobs, “Drug Conditions.”
[490] Report of A. Roane, Chief of the Produce Loan Office; Richmond, to Secretary of Treasury Trenholm, Oct. 30, 1864, in H. Mis. Doc., No. 190, 44th Cong., 1st Sess.; “Two Months in the Confederate States,” p. 111.
[491] O. R., Ser. IV, Vol. II, p. 462.
[492] Jones, “A Rebel War Clerk’s Diary,” Vol. I, p. 350.
[493] Scharf, pp. 484, 486; Spears, Vol. IV, p. 56.
[494] Bancroft. “Seward,” Vol. II, p. 209; Wilson, “Ironclads in Action,” Vol. I, pp. 196-197.
[495] Scharf, p. 487; Wilson, pp. 187, 192.
[496] Scharf, p. 446, says that the press and public sentiment were against allowing shipment of cotton to districts or through ports held by the United States. When in danger of capture the cotton was burned. Pollard states that the Richmond authorities were opposed to allowing any extensive cotton trade through the lines or through blockaded ports, because it was believed that the Union finances were in bad condition and would not stand the loss of cotton manufacturing. Moreover, the Confederate authorities were afraid of the demoralization caused by contraband trade, and also feared that Europe might consider that licensed trade through ports in possession of the enemy, like New Orleans, was a confession of the weakness of King Cotton, and would refuse to recognize the Confederacy. “Lost Cause,” pp. 484-485.
[497] The North was determined to show that cotton was not king, and to do this it must get all the cotton possible from the South by allowing a contraband trade in which nearly or quite all the profits on the cotton should be stripped off, leaving only the bare cost to the Confederate government or cotton planter. The North was willing that the South should sell all its cotton, but the North was to be middleman. Scharf, p. 443; “Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant,” Vol. I, p. 331.