CHAPTER XXXI.

WHILE the decisive events described in the preceding apter were taking place in Carolina the great cavalry raid of General Stoneman was in progress. About the middle of March that officer left Knoxville with six thousand men, crossed the mountains and captured Wilkesborough. He then crossed the Yadkin, and turning to the north traversed the western end of North Carolina. He entered Virginia, destroyed the railway at Wytheville, and as far as within. four miles of Lynchburg. Christiansburg was captured, and other railway tracks destroyed for a distance of ninety miles. The expedition turned thence to Jacksonville; thence southward to the North Carolina railway between Danville and Greensborough. This track also was destroyed and the factories at Salem burned. Stoneman then captured Salisbury and the great Confederate prison for Federal soldiers, but the prisoners were removed before the arrival of the Union cavalry. On the 19th of April the great bridge of the South Carolina railway, spanning the Catawba River, was set on fire and destroyed. The Federals then concentrated at Dallas and the raid was at an end. Stoneman had taken during the campaign six thousand prisoners, fortysix pieces of artillery and immense quantities of small arms and munitions.

While the preceding events were transpiring, others of equal importance occurred on the seacoast. Early in August, 1864, Admiral David G. Farragut made a descent with a powerful squadron upon Mobile. The harbor of that

city was strongly defended by a Confederate fleet, by batteries on the shore, and by the monster ironclad ram Tennessee. On the 5th of August Farragut succeeded in running past Forts Gaines and Morgan. Once in the harbor with his fleet, he mounted to the maintop of his flagship, the Hartford, where he was lashed to the rigging. From this high perch he gave his commands during the battle. One Union ship struck a torpedo and went to the bottom. The rest attacked and dispersed the Confederate squadron, but in the midst of success the ram Tennessee came down at full speed to strike and sink the Hartford. Then followed one of the fiercest conflicts ever known at sea. The Union ironclads closed around their black antagonist and battered her with their beaks and fifteen-inch bolts of iron until she surrendered. The harbor was cleared. On the 7th of August Fort Gaines was taken and on the 23d Fort Morgan capitulated. Mobile was thus effectually sealed up to the Confederates.

Of like importance was the capture of Fort Fisher. This powerful fortress standing at the mouth of Cape Fear River commanded the entrance to Wilmington-the last seaport held by the Confederacy. In December, 1864, Admiral Porter was sent with the greatest American armament ever afloat to besiege and capture the fort. General Butler accompanied the expedition with a division of six thousand five hundred men. On the day before Christmas the bom bardment of Fort Fisher was begun. General Weitzel was sent ashore to carry the place by storm, but coming near to the fort he decided that an assault could only end in the destruction of his army. This belief was shared by General Butler and the enterprise was abandoned. Admiral Porter, however, remained before the fort with his fleet, while the land forces under Butler returned to Fortress Monroe.

The result of the expedition was considered humiliating

by the national authority. Early in January of 1865 the same troops were sent back to Wilmington under General Terry. The siege was renewed by the combined army and fleet, and on the 15th of the month Fort Fisher was taken by assault. It was the last seaport of the Confederates, and their outlet to the ocean and foreign nations was thus forever closed.

In the meantime the control of Albemarle Sound had been recovered by a daring exploit of Lieutenant Cushing of the Federal navy. The Sound was held by a tremendous Confederate iron ram called the Albemarle. Cushing gathered a band of volunteers, and on the night of the 27th of October entered the Roanoke in a small boat and approached the ram lying at anchor at Plymouth. He managed to draw alongside, and with his own hands sank a terrible torpedo under the Confederate ship, exploded it and left the ram a ruin. All of the attacking party except Cushing and one other were either killed or taken in the adventure.

At the outbreak of the war the Confederate Congress authorized the fitting out of privateers to prey upon the commerce of the United States. True, the independence of the Confederacy was not acknowledged by foreign nations, and the Confederate cruisers were therefore not allowed to carry their prizes into neutral ports. The work of capture was thus of little direct benefit to the Confederacy, but of prodigious injury to the United States.

The first Confederate privateer was the Savannah; but this ship was captured on the very day of her escape from Charleston. In June of 1861 the Sumter, under command of Captain Raphael Semmes, ran the blockade of New Orleans, and for seven months wrought havoc with the merchant ships of the United States. In February of 1862 Semmes was chased into the harbor of Gibraltar and was Vol. III.-11

obliged to save himself by selling his vessel and discharg ing his crew. Meanwhile in October, 1861, the Nashville escaped from Charleston, went on a cruise to England, and returned with a cargo worth $3,000,000. In March of 1863 this vessel was sunk by a Union ironclad in the mouth of the Savannah.

The Federal blockade soon closed around the Confederate ports. It became more and more difficult for privateers to break through and gain the freedom of the seas. The Con federates now sought the shipyards of Great Britain, and in spite of all remonstrances were permitted to use that vantage ground for the building, the purchase and equipment of privateers. In the harbor of Liverpool the Florida was fitted out. In the summer of 1862 this ship ran into Mobile Bay, and in the following January escaped therefrom to destroy fifteen Union merchantmen. She was finally captured in the harbor of Bahia, Brazil, brought into Hampton Roads, and there by an accidental collision was sent to the bottom.

At the shipyards of Glasgow were built the Georgia, the Olustee, the Shenandoah and the Chickamauga. All these went to sea and made havoc with the commerce of the United States. When Fort Fisher was taken the Chickamauga and another privateer called the Tallahassee were blown up by the Confederates. The Georgia had already been captured, and the Shenandoah continued afloat until the end of the war.

The most famous and destructive of all Confederate cruisers was the Alabama. Her commander was Raphael Semmes, who had lost the Sumter at Gibraltar. A number of the crew of the Alabama were British subjects. Her armament was wholly British, and whenever the occasion required the British flag was carried. During her career she destroyed sixty-six vessels, entailing a loss of ten mil

lions of dollars to the merchant service of the United States; but she never once entered a Confederate port.

In the summer of 1864 Semmes was followed to the harbor of Cherbourg, France, by Captain John A. Winslow, of the steamer Kearsarge. Semmes was soon ordered by the French government to leave the port. On the 19th of June he sailed out and gave battle. Seven miles from shore the two ships closed, and after a desperate battle of an hour's duration the Alabama was shattered and sunk. Semmes and a part of his officers and crew were picked up by the English yacht Greyhound, which had come out to witness the fight, and carried to Southampton, where they were set at liberty!