408 Nortu Caroitina Troops, 1861-65.

at full speed when to our consternation rockets appeared
quite near abreast of us; in fact we were, apparently, sur-
rounded by cruisers. There was a hurried consultation on
the bridge. I was at my post with my lights waiting to be
called when the order was given to head for the beach and
drive the ship high and dry. The blockaders were then can-
nonading us very heavily. When our good old ship struck
the beach she ploughed up the sand for a considerable dis-
tance, and keeled over on her side. The boats were lowered
and every man was told to look out for himself, which I as-
sure you we lost no time in doing, as we had scarcely left
the ship before the enemy were boarding her from the oppo-
site side and firing briskly with small arms. They followed
us to the beach, and kept up a heavy fire from cannon and
small arms for an hour. We dodged about in the bulrushes
as best we could and made our way towards the fort. Cap-
tain Thomas, acting chief officer, took ashore with him two
fine chronometers, and selected me to carry one for him, but
after beating around with them in the rushes for an hour or
so, we became exhausted and had to throw them away. I
have no doubt they are still lying in the rushes on the beach.
We at last met a company of soldiers who protected and es-
corted us to the Sound. We forded the Sound and remained
all night, and we were sent to Wilmington next day, overland,
by mule teams. I always thought that it was a shame for the
Lady Davis to be lost, having no doubt we could have put to
sea and escaped on the occasion referred to, although I was
not informed as to the supply of coal on board. Captain Gale
had been very sick the day before and was too feeble to leave
the ship, so remained on board and was captured and taken
to Fort Warren.

“The United States steamer James Adger, commanded by
Captain James Foster, of Bloomington, Ind., had the good
fortune to capture our ship and hauled her off as a prize.
Strangely enough, Captain Foster was an intimate friend
of the lady whom I afterwards married in his native town,
and he frequently related the incident referred to, thinking
it a great joke that he forced her husband to take to the
water.

BiocKADE RUNNING. 409

“After reaching Wilmington and supplying myself with
clothing and a hat, having lost mine in the rush for the shore,
I immediately went on board the steamer Flora, with Cap-
tain Horner, and made a successful run to Bermuda. The
Flora was considered too slow and sent back to England. I
then joined the Index, commanded by Captain Marshall, and
made several successful voyages on her, but she, too, was con-
demned as too slow and was returned to Glasgow. I had
a thrilling adventure on this ship on a homeward voyage,
when for the first time in all my experience we made land
opposite Bald Head light on Frying Pan Shoals. As we
were coming around to New Inlet we fell in with a Federal
cruiser who was so close when we discovered her that we
could easily discern the manceuvers of her men on deck. She
seemed to have anchors weighed and was moving about and
could have easily captured us, so we were at a loss to under-
stand why she did not fire into us. Some of our people de-
cided that she wished to secure us as a prize without injury,
as she steamed alongside of us for four miles, and all at once
put her helm hard down and went close under our stern, at-
tempting to go between us and the shoals. JI remember the
remark of our pilot, Tom Grissom, to Captain Marshall: ‘If
she follows us on that course, .I will wreck her before we
reach the inlet.’ The cruiser had only steamed half a mile
or so, when she suddenly passed from view, and in a few
moments a rocket went up near where we last saw her, which
was repeated at short intervals. After a few minutes rock-
ets could be seen going up from the whole squadron, and
there was evidently a great commotion among them on ac-
count of our pursuer who seemed suddenly to have gotten
into serious trouble. We passed through the inlet without
further molestation, as the entire fleet had centered their at-
tention upon their unfortunate cruiser which had so suddenly
gone down. When morning dawned, it revealed the Federal
eruiser hard and fast on the reef with the other vessels of the
squadron working manfully to relieve her. Colonel Lamb
went down to the extreme point with his Whitworth guns and
opened fire upon her. A month or so afterwards, while in
Bermuda, I saw a spirited sketch of the whole affair in Frank