414 Chronicles of the Cape Fear River

money which in September, 1861, was nearly equal to specie
in value, had declined in September, 1862, to 225; in the same
month, 1863, to 400, and before September, 1864, to 2,000.

“Many of the permanent residents of the town had gone into
the country, letting their houses at enormous prices; those who
were compelled to remain kept themselves much secluded, the
ladies rarely being seen upon the more public streets. Many of
the fast young officers belonging to the army would get an occa-
sional leave to come to Wilmington, and would live at free
quarters on board the blockade runners or at one of the numer-
ous bachelor halls ashore.

“The convalescent soldiers from the Virginia hospitals were
sent by the route through Wilmington to their homes in the
South. The ladies of the town were organized by Mrs. DeRosset
into a society for the purpose of ministering to the wants of
these poor sufferers, the trains which carried them stopping an
hour or two at the station that their wounds might be dressed
and food and medicine supplied to them. These self-sacrificing,
heroic women patiently and faithfully performed the offices of
hospital nurses.

“Liberal contributions to this society were made by both com-
panies and individuals, and the long tables at the station were
spread with delicacies for the sick to be found nowhere else in
the Confederacy. The remains of the meals were carried by
the ladies to a camp of mere boys—home guards—outside of
the town. Some of these children were scarcely able to carry a
musket, and were altogether unable to endure the exposure and
fatigue of field service; and they suffered fearfully from
measles and typhoid fever. General Grant used a strong figure
of speech when he asserted that ‘the cradle and the grave were
robbed to recruit the Confederate armies.’ The fact of a fearful
drain upon the population was not exaggerated. Both shared
the hardships and dangers of war with equal self-devotion to
the cause. It is true that a class of heartless speculators in-
fested the country, who profited by the scarcity of all sorts of
supplies; but this fact makes the self-sacrifice of the mass of the
Southern people more conspicuous; and no State made more
liberal voluntary contributions to the armies, or furnished better
soldiers, than North Carolina.

“On the opposite side of the river from Wilmington, on a
low, marshy flat, were erected the steam cotton presses, and
there the blockade runners took in their cargoes. Sentries were

 

  

Blockade Running 415

posted on the wharves, day and night, to prevent deserters from
getting on board and stowing themselves away; and the addi-
tional precaution of fumigating the outward-bound steamers at
Smithville was adopted; but, in spite of this vigilance, many
persons succeeded in getting a free passage abroad. These de-
serters, or ‘stowaways,’ were, in most instances, sheltered by one
or more of the crew; in which event they kept their places of
concealment until the steamer had arrived at her port of desti-
nation, when they would profit by the first opportunity to leave
the vessel undiscovered. A small bribe would tempt the average
blockade-running sailor to connive at this means of escape. The
‘impecunious’ deserter fared worse, and would usually be foreed
by hunger and thirst to emerge from his hiding place while the
steamer was on the outward voyage. A cruel device employed

by one of the captains effectually put a stop, I believe—certainly
a check—to this class of ‘stowaways.’ He turned three or four

of them adrift in the Gulf Stream, in an open boat, with a pair
of oars, and a few days’ allowance of bread and water.”’

Captain M. P. Ustna.

During my intercourse with officers of celebrated blockade-
running ships in the yearsy1863 and 1864, I met a mariner
named M. P. Usina, from Charleston, familiarly known as Mike
Usina, whose skill and daring made him famous in Nassau and
Bermuda and in all of the Atlantic States. The American con-
sul at Nassau, Mr. Whiting, eager for his capture by the cruisers

   

- which hovered near the British islands, bought Usina’s portraits

from a local photographer, and sent them broadcast among the
Federal commanders in order to identify him when captured, as
many Southerners escaped long confinement by claiming to be
Englishmen. Captain Usina seemed to have a charmed life,
but he was in reality so cool under fire and so resourceful in a
tight place or situation, that he slipped through their fingers
frequently when his capture seemed certain.

I remember some of the incidents connected with his blockade
experience which stirred my blood long years ago and which I
still recall with something of the old-time enthusiasm. In a
Speech before the Confederate Veterans’ Association of Savan-

nah, July 4, 1893, which I have carefully preserved, Captain
Usina told a number of thrilling stories of his career which

deserve honorable mention in the history of the strenuous times
which he most graphically described. On that occasion he said: