The Wilmington morning star., 1940-01-21
Wilmington During The CiuI War
Y H j. Becker
Chapter 6: Economic Life In Wartime Wilmington

guns Of Fort Fisher. It is little Won
der that Colonel Lamb, commandant
Of Fort Fisher, was a very popular
man with the runner crews.
Closely connected with blockade.
running was the much dispised prac-
tice of speculation. It was a simple
matter to purchase a large quaint.
ty Of some necessary material and
merely wait for the inevitable rise
in price. 1t was a method Of for
tune making accomplished at the
price of human misery. 1t would be
comforting to believe that it was
INDUCED in only by foreigners, but
many Confederate officers were al
so guilty.
Wilmington swarmed with foreign
ers. Young Englishmen, seeking
their fortunes in a strange land, and
Jews, too frail to serve in the army
but always we'll able to chase the
almighty dollar, were always busy
and apparently prosperous. One OBJ
server said that a walk down the
streets of Wilmington was like a
journey from Jerusalem to Jericho.
Some of these ad~venturers seem to
have been sincere ii their desire to
help the C%onfedracy, but in too
many cass their efforts were mott
waited by purely selfish motives.
Normal Operations
r Wilmington railroads seem to
have operated quite normally. Re
gular advertisements of their ser.
vices appear in the newspapers of
the period, and reports indicate that
business was quite good. The divi'
dend of the Wilmington and Weldon
railroad quadrupled during the war,
and the Wilmington and Marches'
ter company paid a dividend OF
twenty-five per cent in 1853. When
compared to other railroads in the
Confederacy, however, these roads
do not appear so prosperous. Of the
thirty-four roads appearing in the
1868 report of the Assistant Adult.
ant General of the Confederate
states, as to their capacity and con.
dition, the Wilmington and Weldon
mad the smallest freight capacity of
all, and the Wilmington and Man
chester ranked pitifully near the
bottom. The Wilmington, Charlotte
and Rutherford line does not appear
on the report. AS the daily freight
capacity of the Wilmington and
Weldon road, which was the chief
dependence of the Wilmington sec
ton, was only fifty tons, it does not
appear that the city was any toe
well served by her railroads.
Since Wilmington had no manu-
featuring previous to the opening Of
the war, it is interesting to notice
some of the short-lived industries
that spring up in the city as a re-
suit of the pressure created by the
war. One of the most pressing needs
of the C~onfederacy was for salt. AT
the beginning of the war, works
were established at Morehead City
to extract salt from the sea water
AS that city was captured in 1861
the salt works were moved to Viii
mington and operated continually
until the close of the war. Wher
linseed oil for waterproofing blan
kets, coats, tents, ETC., became
scarce in the South, the Confede
rate ordnance department establish
ed a fishery near Wilmington tt
manufacture a substitute. The only
deadly weapons manufactured in
the city were swords and bayonets
Many of the famous Confederate
Gray caps had their origin in Will
mington.
Not Many Industries
With the exception of the steam
cotton presses which were located
just across the Cape Fear, these
appear to have been the only in
dustries in operation in the city
This is no indication of unimport-
ance on the part of Wilmington,
| Wilmington served the Confederacy
in other ways that have been men
toned, and unquestionably served
well.
Wilmington was, for most Of the
war period, the center of the block
ade-running into the Confederacy
The increase of business within the
city as a result Of this activity was
enormous. In no other phase Of the
economic life of the city is this more
Enthusiastically indicated than in the
banking business. There was a ire
mendous increase in the amount Of
money handled. The increase in the
volume of business transacted il
the city was in direct proportion to
the closing of other Southern ports