386 The Story of the New England Whalers 



North Carolina, had long since fallen, and Charles- 

 ton, South Carolina, had been captured. Sher- 

 man had been pressing the Confederate army 

 under Johnson (the last of the Confederate armies) 

 so closely that Johnson had asked (April 14) for a 

 cessation of hostilities, "the object being to per- 

 mit the civil authorities to enter into the needful 

 arrangements to terminate the existing war." 

 (Johnson's letter.) The war was, in fact, ended, 

 but no formal proclamation of the ending of hos- 

 tilities had been made, and Waddell continued 

 his work of destruction. The Susan Abigail was 

 burned. On June 28 eleven whalers were cap- 

 tured, of which two were bonded to carry the 

 crews and the others were burned. 



The Shenandoah now turned southward, and 

 on August 2 fell in with the English bark Barra- 

 couta, "from San Francisco to Liverpool, thirteen 

 days out. Having received from the Barracouta 

 the sad intelligence of the overthrow of the Con- 

 federate government" (quoted from the Shenan- 

 doah's log), the cruiser was taken to Liverpool 

 and there surrendered to the British authorities, 

 who turned her over to the United States. 



