RHE ss

mea. seep el Nas

 

 

 

440 Norta Carovina Troops, 1861-’65.

boldly ran into that river, fighting the blockaders as she
pushed through their midst until she dropped anchor under
the guns of Fort Fisher. She had burned sixteen vessels,
seuttled ten, bonded five, and released two.

Commodore Wood was detached from the ship and was
succeeded in command by Lieutenant Ward. Her name was
changed to the Olustec, and on 29 October, 1864, she ran
through the blockading fleet at sea, but not without sustaining
some damage from their shells. Off the capes of the Dela-
ware she captured and destroyed the barque Empress Theresa,
schooner A. J. Bird, schooner HE. F. Lewis and schooner
Goodspeed. Near Sandy Hook the ship Aureole, brig TAD:
Wagner and schooner Vapor were made prizes and destroyed.
Coal being nearly exhausted, the Olustee went southward
again, but halted on 6 November off Cape Charles in the
hope of attacking some of the United States transports hove
tu in the prevailing gale. Here she was detected by the gun-
boat Sassacus, which chased her until she was lost in the dark-
ness. On the 6th the Sassacus again saw her and kept up an
unsuccessful pursuit all day. The next day the Olustee was
sixty miles off Wilmington bar and steam was allowed to go
down for repairs to the engines. Three vessels looking like
tlockade-runners hove in sight. They were the captured
blockade-runners Margaret and Jessie, the Lilian and the
Banshee, converted into Federal cruisers, and were soon
joined by the gun-boat Montgomery. Ward first headed the
Olustee out to sea and then wore short around and steered
tor Wilmington bar. All the vessels opened fire upon her,
but the Montgomery was the only one close enough to be
feared. She replied with her after gun, distanced her pur-
suers and got into Wilmington unharmed. Her battery was
taken out and she was renamed the Chameleon. Under the
command of Captain John Wilkinson, ©. S. N., she ran the
blockade of the Cape Fear river 24 December, while the Fed-
eral fleet was bombarding Fort Fisher, and started for Ber-
muda to procure a cargo of provisions for Lee’s army. On
her arrival at St. Georges on the 30th, she was seized by the
British authorities on the demand of the United States Con-
sul, but she had been so thoroughly whitewashed by an osten-

 

BrockaDE RUNNING. 441

sible sale at Wilmington, that she was to all intents and pur-
poses a merchant ship.

Laden with provisions, she sailed from St. Georges 19
January, 1865, ‘but on arriving off New Inlet, Wilkinson
found it closed by the fall of Fort Fisher and put back to
Nassau. On 30 January the Chameleon left Nassau for
Charleston, but the blockaders were too thick for her off that
port, and to Nassau she returned. When he learned of the
evacuation of Charleston, Wilkinson resolved to take the ship
to England and arrived at Liverpool 9 April. She was
seized and sold by the British Government and was about to
enter the merchant service under the name of the Amelia,
when the United States entered suit for possession. The
court awarded the vessel to that government, and she was
handed over to the consul at Liverpool 26 April, 1866.

“In the Autumn of 1864 the Confederate Navy Depart-
ment found at Wilmington the small twin-screw blockade
runner Hdith, which was commissioned as a cruiser under
the name of the Chickamauga, and with Captain John Wil-
kinson, C. S. N., in command, was equipped to follow the
example of the Tallahassee in a raid upon the enemy’s com-
merce along the coast. She carried a light, spar-deck battery
of three rifled guns, and started to sea on the night of 29 Oc-
tober. She got out safely, and although pursued by a gun-
boat the next day, outfooted her without trouble. Twenty-
four hours afterwards she opened her record as a commerce
destroyer by capturing the barque Mark L. Potter, and within
two days she made prizes within fifty miles of New York of
the barque Emma L. Hall, ship Shooting Star and barque
A. Lincoln. All but the Lincoln were burned, and she
was bonded to land the paroled prisoners, her captain prom-
ising to put into no nearer port than Fortress Monroe, but
he steered directly for New York and gave the alarm. The
Chickamauga ran wp to the entrance of Long Island Sound
and off Block Island took and scuttled the schooners Otter
Rock and Goodspeed. A gale frustrated Captain Wilkinson’s
intention of making an incursion upon the ports of the Sound
and going out to sea he captured the barque Speedwell. He
put into St. Georges, Bermuda, and by having the condenser