Watson, who had immigrated from Great Britain several years before, had originally enlisted in the Confederate Army as a sergeant before being wounded at the Second Battle of Corinth, and discharged due to his injuries. Hiring out a schooner, commissioned as "Rob Roy", Williams would bring desperately needed supplies into blockaded southern ports, specifically Galveston, Texas before selling the ship after financial disagreements with business associates. She was finally chased ashore and run aground by the Union vessel Fox and the USS Stars &amp; Stripes on 2 March 1865 at Deadmans Bay where her crew set her on fire. Williams would later write about his wartime naval career in an autobiography "The Civil War Adventures of a Blockade Runner" in 1892.