562 



XAVY, U. S., OPERATIONS OF. 



Fisher by the most powerful naval armament 

 which ever attacked a fortification. In fact, so 

 multiform were the duties required of this 

 squadron, that in order to ensure their proper 

 fulfilment, it was in the spring divided into 

 four separate squadrons, one of which was 

 stationed in the James River, one in the Sounds 

 of North Carolina, and two off Cape Fear River 

 and the adjacent inlets. Each of these squad- 

 rons was placed under an efficient officer, and 

 the general headquarters were established at 

 Beaufort, North Carolina. The almost total 

 closing of Charleston harbor, and the vigilant 

 watch kept over Mobile, caused Wilmington to 

 be the only port east of the Mississippi River 

 accessible to blockade-runners ; and so daring, 

 and in many cases so successful, were the latter 

 in evading the Federal cruisers, that complaints 

 were freely uttered against the naval depart- 

 ment for permitting the rebels to enter and de- 

 part from this port at their pleasure. " Many 

 who have failed to make themselves acquainted, " 

 observed Secretary "Welles in his annual report, 

 " with the facts connected with the Wilmington 

 blockade, have been free and severe in their 

 censures of the manner in which it has been 

 conducted. The intelligent officers of the naval 

 and merchant service who have labored with 

 untiring zeal and assiduity, and watched with 

 sleepless vigilance through weary months of 

 winter and summer, and in all weathers, stimu- 

 lated by the hope of benefiting their country 

 and receiving its thanks, as well as by every in- 

 ducement of fame and pecuniary reward, if suc- 

 cessful, do not concur in the opinion that the 

 port of Wilmington can be entirely closed by 

 blockade." 



To one familiar, however, with the con- 

 figuration of the land at the mouth, or rather 

 mouths of the Cape Fear River, through which 

 a vessel must pass in order to reach Wil- 

 mington, the injustice of condemning the navy 

 for not more effectually blockading the place 

 will be sufficiently apparent. For about thirty- 

 five miles before reaching the ocean the Cape 

 Fear River flows in a direction nearly due south, 

 and directly in front of its mouth lies Smith's 

 Island, on either side of which are the two prin- 

 cipal entrances to the river. The southwest, or 

 main channel, is about two and a half miles in 

 width, has a depth of from ten to fourteen feet 

 .over the bar, and is protected by Fort Caswell, 

 a casemated stone work on Oak Island, adjoin- 

 ing the mainland, and by the Light House bat- 

 tery on Smith's Island. The northeast en- 

 trance, known as New Inlet, is less than two 

 miles wide, and shallower than the other, and is 

 protected by Fort Fisher, a first-class casemated 

 earthwork near Federal Point on the mainland, 

 and by a series of batteries extending thence 

 about six miles in a northerly direction along 

 the seacoast. Owing to an extensive shoal, 

 called the Frying Pan, extending around the 

 southern and western sides of Smith's Island, 

 the distance by sea between the two entrances 

 is forty miles, while inside the island it is not 



above eight. To the natural advantages of tLfa 

 locality, greatly enhanced by the artificial de- 

 fences, on which the best engineering skill of the 

 Confederacy had been expended since the com- 

 mencement of the war, must be added the shal- 

 lowness of the water, which decreases in depth 

 gradually and regularly to the shore line, so that 

 none of the blockade-runners of light draught 

 were under the necessity of making diiect- 

 ly for either entrance, but could, by the lead, 

 run close under the land, and protected by the 

 batteries, pass in at their leisure. In escap- 

 ing^ from the river such vessels found still less 

 difficulty in eluding the Federal cruisers, as 

 they could pass for some distance up or down 

 the coast before making an offing, or proceed 

 straight out to sea, trusting to darkness, fog, or 

 a full head of steam to make their escape. For 

 running the blockade of this port a peculiar class 

 of steamers, of great speed and light draught, 

 was constructed in England, and the enormous 

 profits arising from a successful voyage, a single 

 trip often paying many times the cost of tho 

 vessel, tempted the merchants of that country 

 to embark largely in this illicit commerce. 

 X;is,<au, Bermuda, and Halifax became their 

 chief places of rendezvous, and from one or tho 

 other of these ports there was almost a daily 

 departure for Wilmington. 



On the other hand, the Federal cruisers were 

 for the most part of too deep a draught to run 

 near the shore, or enter the several lesser chan- 

 nels through which the blockade-runners could 

 pass ; still less to approach the numerous slal- 

 low inlets extending up and down the coast, 

 into which the latter could take refuge. Such, 

 also, was the nature of the coast, and the 

 liability at some seasons of constant stormy 

 weather, that it was almost impossible to station 

 light-draught blockaders there on permanent 

 duty. These facts will explain why, with fifty 

 cruisers stationed at the two main entrances of 

 the Cape Fear River, some of them the fast- 

 est in the service, and officered by men who 

 had not their superiors in any service in 

 intrepidity, energy, and professional skill, 

 blockade-runners were nevertheless enabled 

 to pass in and out with seeming impuni- 

 ty. When it is considered, also, that the 

 latter have always a full head of steam on at 

 the critical moment, and that their adversaries 

 cannot be equally prepared, the chances in favor 

 of the blockade-runners are greatly increased. 

 Thus it happened that the blockade of Wil- 

 mington was repeatedly broken, and that the 

 port itself became the central depot of the Con- 

 federacy for the reception of supplies from 

 abroad. This result, however, was not accom- 

 plished without considerable sacrifice, and tho 

 steamers captured or destroyed off the mouth 

 of the Cape Fear River averaged one a week 

 subsequent to the closing of Charleston harbor 

 by the monitor fleet under Admiral Dahlgren. 



From an official statement of the results of 

 blockade-running at Wilmington from Jan- 

 uary, 1863, to December, 1864, published iu 



