400 Norto Carorina Troops, 1861-’65.

broadside, that cut away turtle back, perforated forecastle
and tore up bulwarks in front of our engine room, wounding
twelve men, some severely, some slightly.

“The quartermaster stationed by the mail bags was 80
convinced that we were captured that he instantly used his
hatchet, and sent them well-moored to the bottom; hence my
meagre account of the cruise of the Florida. Rockets were
fired as we passed quickly out of his range of sight, and
Drummond lights lit up the animated surroundings of a
swarm of blockaders, which commenced an indiscriminate
discharge of artillery. We could not understand the reason
of this bombardment, and, as we picked our way out of the
melee, concluded that several blockade-runners must have
been discovered feeling their way into Charleston.

“After the war, in conversing with the officer commanding
on that ceeasion, he said that a number of the steamers of the
blockade were commanded by inexperienced volunteer of-
ficers, who were sometimes overzealous and excitable, and
hearing the gun-boat firing into me, and seeing her rockets
and signal lights, they thought that innumerable blockade-
runners were forcing a passage into the harbor; hence the in-
discriminate discharge of artillery which was attended with
unfortunate result to them. This was my last belligerent as-
sociation with blockade-running. Entering the harbor of
Galveston and finding it in the possession of Federals, I
promptly checked progress and retreated. The last order
issued by the Navy Department when all hope for the cause
had departed, was for me to deliver the Owl to Frazier, Tren-
holm & Co., in Liverpool; which I accordingly did.”

GEO. C. M DOUGAL, A REMARKABLE BLOCKADE-RUNNER.

The most successful blockade runner of the four years’
war, the man who began at the beginning as chief engineer
of the first steamer, and ended his career in the same capac-
ity at the termination of the Confederacy, is one of the quiet-
est, most unobtrusive persons who walks the streets of Wil-
mington. A stranger interested in the heroic stories of the
war, would never single him out as a fearless, intrepid en-
gineer, who bore the highest record of sixty-five successful

BiocKkaDE RUNNING. 401

voyages through the blockade, and who was only once captured
during his four years’ service at sea, but would more likely
suppose him to be the owner of a timber raft or a well-to-do
farmer who had come to see about the chances of a rise in
cotton. He might talk to him all day and never be the wiser,
fer this modest man, Mr. George C. McDougal, is not given
to stories of his own exploits, and is only known to those who
appreciate his sterling worth and who have the privilege of
his friendship.

At the close of the war, Mr. McDougal retired to Rosin-
dale, on the Carolina Central Railroad, where he engaged in
turpentine distilling and in general merchandise for ten or
fifteen years until the business becoming unprofitable, he
gave it up. His product in spirits turpentine and rosin were
so earefully prepared and handled that the mark “G. C.
McD.” became a favorite brand, especially in Baltimore, to
which point many thousands of his barrels were shipped from
Wilmington. Strictly honorable in all his dealings, aceu-
rate and painstaking in every detail, his name in trade as in
his profession “goes” everywhere he is known without ques-
tion. He still retains his residence in Wilmington and
spends a part of his time near the scene of his blockade-run-
ning exploits.

He began his professional life as chief engineer of one of
the steamers plying between Wilmington and Charleston be-
fore the building of the railroads, and at the outbreak of the
war was selected as chief engineer of the Confederate steamer
Gordon, by her well-known commander, Captain Thomas J.
Lockwood, his brother-in-law. Lockwood was one of the
most capable blockade runners of the war, and as long as he
had the benefit of Mr. MeDougal’s superior mechanical skill
and quick judgment, was very successful. They were to-
gether in the Gordon, the Kate, the Elizabeth, and in several
other boats subsequently, and when Lockwood went abroad
to take command of his splendid new steamer, the Colonel
Lamb, McDougal was made chief engineer of the little
Strene, which proved to be the most successful blockade-run-
ner of the war, because the Mascot went with her. If they
made a landfall on the darkest night and McDougal ascer-

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