Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1912-04-04
TOOK RISK AND LOST
WHEN FORTUNE WAS UNkIND
TO BLOCKADE RUNNER.
Consignment of Buttons for confed.
crate Navy Made Cargo of Cap
tured Ship Contraband, and
English Merchant Failed.

Wonderful stories are told about
blockade runners and blockade run
ming, the dangers, the losses and
prizes OF this feature of the game OF
war, but there is a man in New York
who relates a story of this sort that
is remarkable.
Near the close of the Civil war,
when he was quite a young man. he
wandered into a place on Nassau
street and looked on while the cargo
OF captured blockade runner was
being sold at auction. The goods Of
fered at such sales rarely brought
much, and this occasion was no ex-
cepton. One of the chief articles put
up at auction was a big consignment
or brass buttons on which the raised
letters &c. S. N" appeared prom
inently. They were buttons appar-
emily intended for the navy of the
Confederate states. The young man
picked up one Of the buttons and,
after examining 1t, put it into his
pocket as a pocket piece On the I'M
der side of the button the name
Campbell, Isaacs & Co" appeared as
the manufacturers.
The young man had this pocket
piece with him when he went abroad
some time later. In London he paid a
visit to a gentleman named Hart, a
friend of his family. and was a guest
at dinner. After dinner, while chat
ting with his host, he happened to
take the button out of his pocket. Mr.
Hart asked if he might be permitted
to take look at 1t. He gave a start
of amazement as he turned it over
and read the name of Campbell,
Isaacs & Co." Then he asked the
young man where he got the button
and how. The young man explained.
That button cost me 100000
S300,000," remarked Mr.. Hart Then
Mr.. Hart said he was a silent partner
in the firm of Campbell, Isaacs & Co.
The Confederate navy was in need of
brass buttons and this firm got the
order. The firm rushed the work on
the order, intending to ship by the
fastest of all the blockade runners-a
vessel in which Mr. Hart, who did
quite a business in this line, had a
decided interest. There was some de-
lay and the vessel sailed without the
buttons. She had not proceeded far
when they arrived. By the most
strenuous efforts the blockade runner
was recalled and the consignment was
put aboard. Then she started once
more for America.
All went well until the blockade
runner was close to the Carolina
coast, whittier she was bound. Then
she began playing her usual game and
with her usual confidence The cap
tain and the crew knew she was fast
er than any of the Fed eral boats
patrolling the coast. She had shown
her heels to them before. But while
the blockade runner had been away
on her last voyage the Federal gov
eminent had put into commission a
faster, better equipped vessel than
ever had been on patrol duty before.
The blockade runner was captured
and she and her cargo confiscated.
The English owners sent a repre-
sentative to Washington and tried to
convince the authorities that the
initials &c. S. N" on the buttons
meant Coast Service, Nassau" They
were unsuccessful The buttons were
the only contraband of war in the
blockade runners cargo. Their pres
ence there made everything else in
the cargo contraDand and subject to
seizure.
Mr.. Hart had reason to think he
was In hard luck. II the blockade
runner had not been called back to
get the buttons all would have been
well, and il she had encountered any
other patrol boat than the one she did
she could have escaped capture. But
by a strange coincidence the fastest
blockade runner and the fastest patrol
vessel came together and Mr.. Hart of
London was out 100000