She was beautiful in death.
robe and a great many articles
sale, and which had been rescu

After her funeral, her ward-
that she had brought over for
ed from the wreck, were sold
It was very splendid, and the “ven-
r sale was most costly. It was said
or duchess had an interest in this

with their brandies and
wines, their silks and calicoes, their bananas and oranges, glad-

dening the hearts of the dwellers on the banks of the Cape Fear,

were soon to disappear from its waters, and the glory of Wil-
mington to depart. ,

Day after day we had watched the blockading fleet with the
naked eye and a glass, and often thought what a lonely time
those fellows must be having, and longed for some northeast
storm to send them on the coast, in order that we might have
the pleasure of their acquaintance. COushing’s acquaintance, by

the way, we came very near making, when that daring officer
came up the Cape Fear in June, we think it was

through the New Inlet by Fort Fisher, with a

some eighteen or twenty sailors and marines, and, landing
half-way between the town and the fort, concealed his boat in
a creek, and laid perdu on the Wilmington and Fisher road

interesting to the United States Government. We all of us
admired his courage, and thought it deserved success. We well
remember delivering Cushing’s message to General Whiting,

repeated to us by an old citizen whom he caught and released,

that “he had been in Wilmington, and would have him or
Colonel Lamb shortly.”

On December 24, 1864, the armada commanded by Butler and
Porter appeared off the coast, and the bombardment of Fisher

commenced, and such a feu d’enfer as was poured on that de-
voted fort was never seen. Coming up the river from Smith-

Blockade Running 491

ville on a steamer that afternoon, we witnessed it, and such a

roar of artillery we never heard. ‘Those large ee
seemed to stand in remarkably close to the fort, and deliver t :

fire with great accuracy, knocking up the sand on the rere S.
It seemed a continuous hail of shot and shell, many of t -
going over Fisher and dropping into the river. oa ee
was a long sand fort, stretching in an obtuse angle from :
river bank around to the mouth of the New Inlet, that —
into the ocean. It was over a mile from point to point. Thoug

it was thus heavily bombarded for two days, little or no me
pression was made on its works except to give them a ——
appearance, and very few casualties occurred, the garriso

sticking mostly to their bomb-proofs, which were very —
Whiting was there in command in person, having been sent ther

_—— day, Christmas, was Sunday, and all day ch
guns were thundering away at Fisher, and shaking the windows
in Wilmington, where the citizens were offering up each ae oh
for our protection from the enemy. Communication with
Fisher by land or telegraph was then cut off—messages a
been sent up to that time. Toward night sensational messages
commenced to be brought up from below—one to the effect
that the enemy were on the parapet at Fisher (in truth and in
fact they never got closer than the stables, at least two or three
hundred yards from the fort). Bragg sent Mrs. Bragg away
that night at 9 p. m., in a special train up the Weldon Railroad,
and an officer who saw him at about 11 p. m. reported that the
old gentleman seemed to be quite unnerved, and that his hand
was very tremulous. Of course there was a great exodus of
civilians from the place early the next morning, the fact that
gg had gone off acting as a keynote of alarm to others.

The general: impression was that there would not be another
attack till after the spring equinox, say in May or June. ~
When Whiting returned to the city, Bragg still continued in
command, and his friends and himself evidently took the eredit
of having foiled Butler's attempt. Bragg was a friend and
favorite of Mr. Davis. He had sided with General Taylor in
Taylor’s quarrel with General Seott, and Mr. Davis was a man