Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1891-08-06

and selected captain who was known
to them all as not only thorough sea-
man but a man who could and would
keep a still tongue. He was directed to
coal up. proceed to Halifax, and there
await orders. When he received a dis
patch he said It meant that he was to
start for Liverpool and go
as fast as steam and wind
cold take him. and it was es-
timated that he would make the run in
about three and quarter days He
was given sealed orders and told that
he would be instructed by telegraph
when to open them. He sailed for Hall
fax February Is 1865.
The confederacy was then in its death
| throes- Hoods army had been driven
out of Tennessee with great loss of life
Its restitution was something no man
can understand who did not see it.
Men were absolutely starving and dying
for want of food and clothing Generals
of brigades were half clad and wearing
boots and shoes taken from dead Union
soldiers feet. How they lived. who did
live through it all. is only known to
God and them. 1t was a time which
those who participated in it can never
forget Their comrades faces were
ga unit and haggard with privations and
famine, and men had in their eyes the
look of those whom hunger has nearly
made mad. The few horses that were
left were like skeletons Yet how these
men fought Franklin and Duck River
will bear witness. There was no word
lf.fc al 80
and death. They preferred to fight, for
in the tents of their enemies they found
food and clothing, warmth and the
breath of life, and they attacked where
/ they could with the courage of trained
soldiers and the fearlessness of men
almost mad Never was there seen on
North American soil such splendid con-
tempt for death. Lees army was in al
most as destitute a condition, and any
day might see the end of the confeder-
acy. Time went ON, February passed
away, then March, and the waiting
captain got no word. He kept his
fires banked and his men on board
as he had been told April came, and
at 4:S0 on the 9th Capt Blatch received
a telegram containing these words: go
and execute the orders given you in the
sealed writing. Open,them one day be-
fore you arrive in Liverpool. This was
all. At p. m. he steamed out Of Hall
fax harbor, and in three days and
twelve hours he was dropping anchor
in the Mersey off Liverpool When he
arrived at Fastnet Light, the first light
seen on the Irish coast, he opened his
orders. They simply directed him to de-
liver two packages of papers Enclosed
to the addresses on them as soon as he
landed, at day or night, and then to re-
port to a well-known firm of ship
| brokers for further orders, meanwhile
to talk with nobody. He obeyed them
strictly.
The end of the confederacy had come.
Two great London and Liverpool houses
sold confederate bonds short till they
had out over thirty million dollars of
shorts. At that time there were in Liv-
erpool, London and Manchester nine
| thousand bales of cotton belonging to
the confederate government. A week
after the arrival of this swift ship the
mail steamers brought the news of the
surrender of Lees and Johnston's
armies, the final collapse of the con-
federate states government, and the
flight of Mr.. Davis and his cabinet.
Confederate bonds fell from thirty-five
| to forty cents to nothing. The Ameri-
can minister in London, Mr.. Charles
Francis Adams, Immediately directed
the United States consuls at Liverpool,
Manchester and in London to seize all
the confederate cotton in those cities
| and hold it till further orders. But
when these officials attempted to exc
cute these orders not bale could be
found. Three million six hundred thou
sand dollars worth of cotton had dis
appeared, and from that hour to this
the United States government has never
been able to find dollars worth of it.
-Four persons who owned a swift ship
that sailed from Halifax the evening of
April 9, 1865, could tell where it went
to if they were disposed to do so, and
were all alive. But all four who plan
ned this mighty coup are dead but one,
who is an old man now in a northern
city and rich. Among the four were
two men who were noted in those DAYS
for their wealth and devotion to the
union, and two southern men. One of
them held a high confidential position
at the confederate capital and the 9TH
er was a prominent confidential Euro
pean agent of the confederate govern
ment. They made on the short sale of
bonds not less than twelve million dol
lars and on the cotton about three
million six hundred thousand more. In
other words, the four landed" about
four million dollars apiece, less the ex-
pense, which was not over twenty thou
sand dollars each for the four Such is
one of the curious inside incidents of
the great war Washington Post.
The Artists Were or
When the Alabama was DESTROYED by
the Kearsarge, in 1864. there was, of
course, great rejoicing in the Northern
states, and complimentary tributes were
abundantly showered on Capt, Winslow
for his achievement A large oiI-paint-