Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-05-19
WHAT WE KNOW OF BLOCKADE
RUNNING AND HOBART PASHA.

our Little unpleaSantneSS, ana SO
was this editor and what was more
remarkable, we two, the future edi-
tor and the future Pacha came to-
gether and for three or four weeks
were sailing in the same ship. Our
readers may be possibly interested
in learning how two such dis
tinguished personages were thrown
together, and, hoping this to be the
case, we will here and now give
little of our experience in blockade
running.
The Chickamauga campaign with
its tremendous battle, its dreary No
vember bivouac on Lookout Noun
tain and its disastrous retreat from
Missionary Ridge, had thoroughly
broken down our physical energies
and we saw clearly that it would
take more than an ordinary furlough
to set us up again, even if the then
Confederacy could furnish an endu-
rable location to spend furlough
in, so we caught ourselves once and
again chanting pensively
England with all thy faults love thee
STILL"
and finally determined to make
our way by hook or by crook to
the white clipped Albion our native
land.
But how to get there? We knew
that some blockade running was go
ing on from Wilmington, North
Carolina to Bermuda, we also knew
that it was very difficult to get taken
in as a passenger-it occurred to US
that if we could get sent on some
official business it might facilitate
matters.
Hopeless as the enterprise seemed
to be, we determined to go to Rich
mond and try it. We had to resign
our commission as surgeon, before
getting this far. At Richmond we
found our estimable fellow citizen,
Hon. g. A. Henry, then sitting as
Senator in the Confederate States
/ Congress. He kindly gave us an
introduction to Mr.. Benjamin the
Confederate Secretary of State. Our
business was soon stated-tO our de-
light he said we were just the man
he wanted; we congratulated him
affectiOnately; he wanted man to
go to Bermuda with some Confed-
crate States bonds; we desired to
go to Bermuda and had a passion
for Confederate bonds. He said
there was no money in it but only
a free passage to Bermuda; we an
swered with magnificent disdain,
that money was no object to us,
which we here record as a lie of the
largest dimensions so far achieved
by us in our life, but we were in di-
plOmatic circles where lying is one
of the fine arts and it would not do
to be out of fashion. Mr.. B. con-
/ signed us to a Jew in Wilmington,
who cOnsinged us to Jew in Ber-
muda, who turned us over to a Jew
in Halifax, Nova Scotia, who con-
signed us to a Jew in LOndOn-this
is rather going ahead of our subject,
but we wanted to show how our
Hebrew Secretary of State had
placed the Confederacy in the hands
of the children of Isreal.
At Wilmington we fOu-d ourselves
in the circumlOcutiOn office and had
to stay there nearly two weeks and
wrote several letters to Richmond
and be referred to many officials,
among whom the Hebrew type pre-
dominated and who were adopts in
the art of chow not to do it." Dur
ing these two weeks our slender re-
sources were fading away with as
tonishing rapidity, but then money
tCas no object to as.
At last we found ourselves on
board the fine steamship Asa, lying
at a wharf in Wilmington, COM
manded by a bluff knowing skipper,
whose name we have forgotten, but
of whose hearty English hospitali-
ty we have a most grateful remem-
| brance.
Another blockade runner was to
sail the same day with us, but about
six hours sooner; this was cOnsid-
cred to be in our favor, as if there
were any of the blOckading cruisers
about when we arrived in open sea,
they would probably be drawn off
in pursuit of our predecessor. 1t
was agreed that we should take diff
ferent routes, our predecessor going
| somewhat North of the direct route
| to Bermuda, while we took direc-
/ ton little South of the same route;
this was for the purpose of distract
ing the attention of the blockading
squadron which was chiefly cruising
/ on the direct route. We had to sail
about fifteen miles down Cape Clear
river, before arriving at Fort Fisher
| Confederate which commanded
the mouth of the river-On arriving
within half mile of Fort Fisher,
we found that our predecessor had
only passed the fort half an hour
before, being DESTROYS of avoiding
| the broad DAYLIGHT,
1t was now rapidly growing dark
and we kept on. Fort Fisher was
soon passed and we were in open
| sea.
We were not yet III danger. For
about half a mile out the guns of
Fort Fisher protected us-the block
aiding squadrOn never ventured with
/ in that distance of the Fort, as its
guns were heavy and a shot from
one of them would have been Suf-
ficient to sink any one Of the cruis-
ers engaged in that service. We
had hardly passed the lights of Fort
/ Fisher, when a number of rockets
were fired from different points in
! the Eastern horizon. These were
the signals of the blOckading cruis-
ers to one another that they had