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424 Norra Carotina Troops, 1861-65.

and forbidding enough in all conscience the black hulls looked
and so close did they lie to each other that it seemed hoping
against hope to expect that a little craft like ours would
pass unscathed between them or among them, taking the fire
of two or three broadsides at little more than pistol range, or
that she could eventually escape destruction at the hands of
such formidable antagonists. But in command we had a
eaptain who, in broad day, had braved the worst that the
blockaders off Mobile could do to the little Oreto, without
being scared or sunk. It is at such moments that you realize
how paramount is the influence of a dauntless chief upon all
around him; and it is felt more in so confined a space as the
deck of a ship than in a great battle on land. Nevertheless,
we could not but perceive—indeed, Captain Maffitt’s anxious
face plainly told us so—that our position was far from com-
fortable, pursued as we were by a vessel a few miles off to
the rear, which clearly saw us, and, swiftly approaching a
powerful squadron of heavily armed blockaders, which had
not yet gaught sight of the Lilian’s two masts, but might do so
at any moment.

“Fortunately for us, before we got close in, night fell. The
crews on board the blockaders were taking their evening meal
as we approached them, and I suppose the lookout were not
quite so sharp as they undoubtedly became before the end of
the war. Not a moment was lost by Captain Maffitt, or by
our excellent pilot, a Wilmington man, when darkness had
fairly settled upon the face of the deep. Silently, and with
bated breath we crept slowly in, passing blockader after
blockader so close that at every moment we ,expected a bril-
liant light to flash forth, turning night into day, and fol-
lowed by a hurricane of shot and shell, which might easily
have torn the little Lilian to pieces. It was destined, how-
ever, that upon this occasion she was not to receive her bap-
tism of fire, for the shots sent after her by her big Yankee
pursuer hardly deserve the name. Just as we approached
the big mound, close to which Fort Fisher stands, a dark spot
was discerned on the bar. It was a Federal launch groping
for secrets, or perhaps sinking rocks and other obstructions
into the channel immediately under the fire of Fort Fisher’s

 

BLocKaDE RUNNING. ' 426

guns. I am afraid that if Captain Maffitt had seen her a lit-
tle earlier he would have run her down. As matters stood
the launch escaped, and those on board were either too ned
scared to fire a musketry volley into us, or reluctant to do so
as Fort Fisher would doubtless have opened upon them, and,
as I had many subsequent opportunities of ascertaining, ee
guns were seldom fired without effect upon any object within
their range. “

“Another moment, and we lay safe and sound below the
mound, eagerly asking for news from within the Confeder-
acy, and as eagerly questioned in our turn for news from
without. The welcome extended to us by Colonel Lamb,
commandant of the fort, and one of the most lovable men in
existence, was so hearty that he made us regard entering the
mouth of the Cape Fear river as tantamount to returning
home. Moreover the Florie had not yet arrived, which
raised the spirits of the Lilianites to fever heat.”

Another of the distinguished commanders of blockade-
running steamers was Captain Roberts (so ealled),, of the
twin serew steamer Don, a quick, handy little boat, admirably
adapted to the trade. I had the pleasure of knowing him
personally through frequent intercourse with his signal of-
ficer, a fine young fellow named Seldon, from Virginia, and
we were much impressed with the superior bearing and in-
telligence of this remarkable man, who afterwards became
famous in the war between Russia and Turkey as Hobavt
Pasha, Admiral and Chief of the Turkish Navy.

“Captain Roberts” was the Hon. Augustus Charles Hobart
Hampden (son of the Earl of Buckinghamshire), post cap-
tain in the Royal Navy and for a time commander of Queen
Victoria’s yacht Victoria and Albert. He had seen service
in the war between Emperor Nicholas, France and Great
Britain in 1854, under the great Admiral Sir Charles Na-
pier, when he commanded H. M. S. Driver, and after the
general order, “Lads, sharpen your cutlasses,” boarded the
Russian warships before Cronstadt, stormed the seven forts
which guarded the entrance to that harbor and sailed up the
Neva even to St. Petersburg itself. Having made several
runs into Wilmington during his absence from England on