Derelicts: An Account of Ships Lost at Sea in General Commercial Traffic: And a Brief History of Blockade Runners Stranded Along the North Carolina Coast, 1861-1865Sprunt, James
History
Derelicts: An Account of Ships Lost at Sea in General Commercial Traffic: And a Brief History of Blockade Runners Stranded Along the North Carolina Coast, 1861-1865
Sprunt, James
Blockade; Derelicts; North Carolina -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865
While Mrs. Greenhow was in England her book, _My Imprisonment, or The
First Year of Abolition Rule in Washington_, was published and created
a sensation. It was a vehicle for the most pronounced propaganda for
the cause of the Confederacy and served it well. Not a little sympathy
was created for the South by this book of personal experience.
While in London Mrs. Greenhow became engaged to a nobleman and she
expected to return and marry him after a voyage to America. In August,
1864, she took passage on the _Condor_ and there is strong reason to
suppose that her business in Wilmington was in the interests of the
Confederacy.
The _Condor_ arrived opposite the mouth of the river on the night of
September 30, but as she crept up the river, the pilot saw an object
about 200 yards from shore which he thought was an enemy vessel, and
he swerved his course and ran his vessel on New Inlet Bar. The object
was the _Night Hawk_, a blockade runner which had been run down the
previous night, and the _Condor_ might have completed the trip in
safety. Mrs. Greenhow and her party begged the captain to send them
ashore in a boat, as this seemed the only chance of escape from a
second arrest as a spy. The captain acceded to her request, and the
boat put off. It capsized, however, and Mrs. Greenhow, weighted by her
clothing and a quantity of golden sovereigns, was drowned a few yards
from land.
Her body washed ashore the next day and was found by Mr. Thomas E.
Taylor, who afterwards took it to Wilmington. She was laid out in the
Seamen's Bethel, beautiful in death as she had been in life. She was
wrapped in the Confederate flag and with full honors of war interred in
Oakdale Cemetery, where a small cross bearing her name may be seen to
this day.
After the funeral her personal effects and the articles she had brought
with her from abroad were sold at public auction. It was said that an
English countess or duchess had an interest in the speculation and was
to have shared the profits.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: "Let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of the Word."]
[Footnote 2: The _Banshee_ and a few other blockade runners mentioned
in this book as escaping capture were later either captured or
stranded.]
[Footnote 3: Returned to England.]
[Footnote 4: Mr. Craig has since died.]
[Footnote 5: There are no formal records available to verify this.]
TALES OF THE SEA
A CONFEDERATE DAUGHTER.
The following extract from _Southern Historical Papers_, written about
the year 1890, by Colonel Lamb, the commander of Fort Fisher, gives a
glimpse of the social side of life at the fort during the War between
the States and of some of the distinguished gentlemen who were drawn
into this dangerous traffic by a love of adventure, by sentiment, or
by sympathy with the Confederate cause, and by the promise of large
profits for successful enterprises.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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