The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-12-19


he WAS acquainted Unfortunately he
made slight NATURALIZATION as to the
tides. and that proved his undoing. One
| morning as We were bea ring in close to
| the South Carolina coast we saw a
| Unitsd States cruiser looming mp close ut
hand. The Sesbrook sped away up
Bulls inlet the little stream which Capt.
| Vincent had been making for, where the
cruiser could not follow us, although shs
| chased us rs far us she could and fired q
shot or two across our bows.
"But, as said before, the captain had
miscalculsted the tide. which was fur
ther out that he supposed, and presently
We found ourselves stuck fast in the
mud. The Yankees were aware OF our
plight, too, and presently our lookout
announced that two boats were putting
off from the cruiser, each carrying a
howitzer in the bow, and were coming
leisurly along to capture us.
ESCAPED FROM THE VESSEL.
"When we heard this announcement
| we youngsters, the confederate officers
and M st Ct the crew dropped quickly
oysr the ships aide into the two boats
and rowed away. but the captain stuck
doggedly to his post. The stars and
stripes had soon taken the place of the
| palmetto flag ON the seabrook, hut we
were out of sight ty that time, and were
trying to make our way through mix
ture of mud and water, dragging our
selves along and pushing the boats ahead
| of US.
awe were twenty-five miles from
| Charleston, lost in wilderness OF
swamps, and we spent two days toilinR
through the mud with nothing to eat
and little hope of ever getting out alive.
During that time we heartily wished our
selves back in old England, but at the
end of the second day we came upon
small encampment of confederate troops,
the Santee Mounted Rifles, and found
that we we're safe within the confederate
| lines. From here we had to walk to
| Charleston, distance of twenty two
miles, over heavy sandy road. and ny
the time we reached the city we were as
worn and bedraggled specimens Of hu-
| mainly as 1T would be possible to End.
| "We were warmly welcomed by the
people of Charleston, who insisted on
regarding the men of the Seabrook as
heroes, and by Major Evans, who had
arrived before US. The latter advanced
us money for our immediate needs, for
what wo had had been lost in making
our escape from the boat. View set to
work almost Immediately in the print
ing office of Evans u Coggswell, which
still stands in Broad street, Charleston,
| but after short time we were removed
to Columbia, the capital of the state,
where most of the work of making con
| federate paper money was carried on Tor
the remainder Of the war.
WHERE THE MONEY WAS MADE.
"Thers were three establishments in
Columbia devoted to this business. One
was that of Evans Cogaswell, of which
firm our friend Major Evans was the
senior member They had .ssventy-fve
hand presses in their Office and printed
notes of small denominations, ores and
twos, besides the thousands of cotton
bonds which the confederacy issued. The
second was that of Keatinge & Ball.
where ten presses were kept busy run
ming off copper plate impressions OF the
large denomination notes-1oO and 800.
The third establishment was that Of Col.
Blnnton Duncan, where seventeen litho-
araph presses turned out the notes OF the
middle Notwithstanding, ten. twenty,
etc. The total capacity of all these press
es per week. including the printing OF
bonds, came close to the ons hundred
million mark, and during the latter part
of '63 and all of '63 they were kept going
at nearly full speed. Colonel Duncan's
Office being the one with which am
most familiar, will perhaps serve to
| illustrate the whole work.
"Each press was manned by three
| workers-one printer and two negro slave
helpers. The printers, of whom there
were about seventy i've in the town, were
nearly all Englishmen, as were the de-
signers nlao. The paper WAS all manufac-
tured In England and was stamped at the
| manufactory With the mark of the con-
federaoy, a small palmetto encircled by
the words Treasury Department., G. S.
A. but the stones from which the bills
were printed were prepared in Columbia
by the men brought over for that pur-
pose. The paper csme to the pressmen
In sheets 16x1S inches. large enough to
contain eight bills. It was necessary to
take several impressions for each sheet to
get In the different colurs. and the sheets
were passed on from printer to printer
until completed and then were shipped
away to Richmond to be signed. OF
course, itw as impossible for the register
and secretary of the treasury to sign all
these. A large force of clerks was en-
ployed for this work and after time
some of them wers stationed in Colum bia
where the signing process could Ego on
more rapidly.
MORE DIFFICULT FOR COUNTER
| FEITERS.
"The rate Of pay was very liberal, as
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