The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1891-08-28
INSIDE WAR HISTORY.

wilmington N. y. IL nau De6n DullC
for the purpose of running drugs and
medicines in the confederacy, and had
made great many successful trips,
when by confederation of circum-
stances and accidents one foggy morn
ing in December she found herself long
way outside of her intended course, and
within three hundred yards of the
United States cruisers, who Immediately
captured her without a struggle or any
injury to the beautiful prize. One of
the officers who was present at the cap
ture declared that he had never seen in
any ship such a combination of grace
and swiftness. She was condemned and
sold in New York on or about the 10th
day of February, 1854. Four men be-
came her owners, three of whom are
dead and one is living. They had her
machinery very carefully overhauled,
everything put in thoroughly good con-
dition, and selected captain who was
known to them all as not only thorough
seaman but man who could and would
keep still tongue. He was directed to
coal up, proceed to Halifax, and there
await orders. When he received dis
patch he said it meant that he was to
start for Liverpool, and go as fast as
steam and wind could take him, and it
was estimated 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 Hal
flax February IS, 1865.
The Confederacy was then in it's
death-throes. Hoods army had been
driven out of Tennessee with great loss
of life. It's 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 time
which those who participated in it can
never forget. Their comrades faces
were gaunt and haggard with privations
and famine, and men had in their eyes
the look of those whom hunger had
nearly made mad. The few horses that
were left were like skeletons. Yet how
these men fought Franklin and Duck
will bear witness. There was no word
of surrender amid all this starvation 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
| nearly mad. Never was there seen on
the North American soil such splendid
contempt of death. Lees army was in as
destitute condition, and any day might
see the end of the Confederacy. 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 4:30 on the 9th Captain
Blatch received telegram containing
these words: GO and execute the orders
given you in the sealed writing. Open
them one day before you arrive in Liver
pool" This was all. At 7 p. M, he
steamed out of Halifax harbor, and in
three days and twelve hours he was
dropping anchor in the Mersey of Liver
pool. When he arrived at Fastnet Light,
the first light seen on the Irish coast, he
opened his orders. They simply directed
him to deliver two packages of papers
inclosed to the addresses on them as
he landed, at day or night, and then re-
port to 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
Liverpool, 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 35 to 40
cents to nothing. The American minis
ter in London, Charles Francis Adams
Immediately directed the United States
consuls at Liverpool, Manchester and in
London to seize all the Confederate cot
ton in those cities and to hold it unit
further orders. But when these official!
attempted to execute these orders not {
bale could be found. Three million si1
hundred thousand dollars worth of cot
ton had disappeared, and from that houl
to this the United States government
has never been able to find dollar
worth of it. Four persons who owned a
swift ship that sailed from Halifax tn,
evening of April 8, 1865, could tel
where it went if they were disposed to
do so, and were all alive. But all foul
who planned this coup are dead but one
who is an old man now in northern
city and rich. Among the four were
two men who were noted in those day
for their wealth and devotion to tn,
Union, and two southern men. One o
thnrn hold a hinh confidential nnsitinn a