Part 38 (2/2)

S. What was the further result of this affair?

9. What is said of the conclusion of this matter?

10. Where did General Foster go?

CHAPTER LVIII.

WAR AND ITS HORRORS.

A. D. 1863.

1863.

When the year 1863 had come upon the American States in their b.l.o.o.d.y and wasting quarrel, there was nothing to indicate any solution of the great controversy. Many b.l.o.o.d.y 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 Was.h.i.+ngton 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 s.h.i.+ps 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 s.h.i.+ps 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, mola.s.ses 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 pa.s.sage of swift steamers that swept in and out of the Cape Fear River and brought from Na.s.sau 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 s.h.i.+p 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 s.h.i.+ps 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.

7. In the superior clothing and equipments of the North Carolina troops were the wisdom and activity of the State government manifested. And, too, not only were the necessities of our own soldiers supplied, but large aid was extended to the troops of other States. Besides this, cotton and woolen cards and many other necessaries were brought in and distributed to the different sections of the State. Salt was the most important of all the domestic supplies excluded by the blockade. To procure this indispensable article, private factories on the seacoast were supplemented by others under State management; but these proved insufficient to meet popular wants, and arrangements were made to procure additional supplies from the salt wells of southwestern Virginia.

8. It was early foreseen that in so great a struggle enormous expenditures would become necessary; and to meet such liabilities, it would be necessary for the Confederacy and the individual States to use their credit in procuring supplies on the faith of future payments. Many millions of dollars were to be expended, and only Confederate and State obligations would be available to meet such purchases.

9. Unhappily, the great supply of cotton then in the South was not utilized by the authorities, and thus a solid basis of credit was lost; and a favorite theory is, that had all the cotton been promptly seized by the government and sent to foreign ports, the depreciation of its funds would have been averted, but whether this could have been done is, to say the least, by no means certain. As it was, in 1863, both Confederate and State money began to depreciate in value, and this depreciation once begun, had no stop in its downward tendency.

QUESTIONS.

1. What was the condition of the war in 1863?

2. What positions were taken by Presidents Lincoln and Davis?

3. From what countries had the South expected aid? What is said of the arrest of Mason and Slidell?

4. What Southern cities were blockaded? What was the effect of this blockade?

5. What is said of the port of Wilmington?

6. How did Governor Vance supply the wants of the people? What is said of the Ad-Vance?

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