located at the mouth of the Raritan River, in the vicinity of Perth Amboy, and prevented all suspicious looking vessels from passing through Kill von Kull. No vessel was permitted to pass without having a proper clearance, and also undergoing an examination, where it was deemed necessary. The surveyor also detailed officers to visit daily every vessel lying at the wharves, and report the appearance of affairs every twenty-four hours. In addition to this a coast-guard was detailed on both sides of the river to prevent the loading of vessels at night, and no vessel was allowed to leave between sunset and sunrise. The steam tug Mercury was employed to ply between New York and the revenue cutters.'

These precautions were forced upon the Federal government by the necessity of intercepting the very profitable trade in war material for the South that was being carried on by manufacturers, merchants and shippers in the North, who suffered from an obsession of their loyalty to the old flag" that was coincident with the offer of Southern agents to pay remunerative prices for anything in the line of guns, ammunition, or army goods that might be useful to the nascent Southern Confederacy.

"We have been accustomed [says Judge Cowley], to berate the commercial classes of Great Britain for exporting goods to the Confederate States in violation of the blockade; but probably more goods were carried into the Confederate States through the instrumentality of merchants in the United States than by all the merchants of Europe. More secrecy was observed by those residing in New York who engaged in the business than was observed in running the blockade of Mexico; but it is none the less true that in the civil war, as in the Mexican war, the munitions of war were furnished in very large quantities by the citizens of the United States to the enemies of the United States."2

Mr. Greeley's well-known lament, in "The American Conflict," over the greed of New York commercial men who

1 The following is a complete list of the vessels owned or partly owned by residents of the Southern States which were seized by Surveyor Andrews. of the port of New York, in accordance with the U. S. Confiscation Act of July 13th, 1861:

No. 1, steamer Marion, belonging to New York: owners or consignees, Spofford, Tileston & Co.; 2, steamer Roanoke, New York, N. Y. & Va. S. S. Co.; 3, ship Ohio, N. Bedford, E. Howland; 4, ship J. W. Fannin, New York. J. H. Brower & Co.; 5, ship W. B. Travis, New York, J. H. Brower & Co.; 6. ship Wm. H. Wharton, New York, J. H. Brower & Co.; 7, ship Crest of the Wave, Thomaston, M. R. Ludwig; 8, ship St. Charles, New York, W. T. Frost; 9, ship Harriett, Boston, H. L. Richardson & Co.; 10, ship Roger A. Hiern, New York, J. & N. Smith & Co.; 11, ship Trumbull, New York, J. & N. Smith & Co.; 12, ship North Carolina, Norfolk, Hardy Bro.; 13, bark Clara Haxall, Richmond, J. Currie & Co.; 14, bark Virginian, Richmond, D. Currie; 15, bark Sally Magee. Richmond, D. Currie & Co.; 16, bark Mary Lucretia, New York, J. T. B. Maxwell; 17, bark Bounding Billow, Boston, A. Pickering & Co.; 18, bark Fame; 19, bark Parthian, Rich

mond. D. & W. Currie & Co.: 20, bark Norumbega, New York, J. H. Brower & Co.: 21, bark Winefred, Richmond, J. Currie & Co.; 22, bark General Green, Charles'n, W. G. Armstrong; 23, bark Pioneer, Richmond, E. D. Voss & Co; 24, brig Leni, Alexandria, Lambert; 25, brig Cyrus Starr, 26, brig Champion, Pictou, X. S., J. Ketchune; 27, brig Fannie Currie, Richmond, J. Currie: 28, schooner Emily Kieth, New Or leans, J. B Lockwood; 29, schooner Ned, New York, E. S. Powell; 30, schooner Marshall. Richmond, J. Curry, 31, schooner Crenshaw, Richmond, D. & W. Currie & Co.; 32, schooner Manchester, Richmoud, D. & W. Currie & Co; 33. schooner Lynchburgh, Richmond, D. & W. Currie & Co.; 34, schooner Haxall, Richmond, D. & W. Currie & Co.; 35, schooner Forest King, Fairhaven, Fish, Robbins & Co.; 36, schooner Claremont, New York, H. Finch & Co.; 37, schooner Ha'h M. Johnson, Greenport. John Wells. Recapitulation: Steamers, 2; ships, 10; barks, 11; Brigs, 3; Schooners, 11. Aggregate value, $750,000.

"Leaves from a Lawyer's Life Afloat and Ashore," p. 112.

sacrificed patriotism to pelf, lends additional force to the observations of Judge Cowley in the same line of comment. These dealings by Northern men in war material consigned to Southern ports were so open and flagrant early in 1861 that they were denounced by Judge Smalley, then presiding in the U. S. Circuit Court for New York. On January 14th, in charging the Grand Jury for the term, he delivered an address which has not been preserved in any history of the war written from a Northern standpoint, perhaps because it was too scathing a criticism of the traffic which it became convenient to forget when contractors afterwards found the most lucrative market in their engagements with the War and Navy Departments of the Federal administration. He spoke of their earlier business as embodying "the highest crime known to the law of any civilized country "-that of high treason-in furnishing aid and comfort to an enemy in rebellion against the government; and he extended the charge so far as to include within the offence of misprision of treason all persons who, knowing of the shipments of war material to the States which had seceded, failed to give information thereof to the Federal authorities. It is plain that he meant to throw out a drag-net in which he might catch the money-seekers to whom Georgia and other Southern States were so much indebted, but he failed to intimidate them. They continued to sell the South whatever it wanted until the firing upon Fort Sumter drew the line against their Southern business, and then they plunged, with equal eagerness, their arms elbow-deep into the overflowing treasury at Washington.'

Georgia-the "Empire State of the South"-was far removed from the theatre of battle until the war was six months' old. In the meantime she had sent thousands of fighting men to the armies under Beauregard and Johnston in Virginia, but had scarcely given to the establishment of a naval force the consideration that it deserved. Her ordinance of secession was passed on January 19th, 1861; but, by the order of Governor Joseph E. Brown, the State troops took possession of Fort Pulaski, a casemate and barbette fortification at the mouth of the Savannah River, on January 7th, and within the next three weeks all the U. S. military posts in Georgia were surrendered by the officers in charge of them without inviting the compulsion of shot and shell that was used in the argument with Major Anderson at Fort Sumter. The only U. S.

1 Charles Hallock, in an article on "Bermuda and the Blockade," in the Galaxy for April, 1867, speaking of the blockade trade at Bermuda, says: "British goods were always in great demand for the blockade-runners, for they would have no dealings with Yankees. Accordingly, in the shops could be found bushels of Connecticut pins and cases of Massachu setts shoes marked 'London,' elegant felt hats

from New York labelled 'Paris,' and good old Irish whiskey from New Jersey; for there were many articles that could be purchased cheaper in the United States than in Europe, and the laws of trade are inflexible-'the longest pole breaks down the most persimmons." And so quantities of the goods found place in blockade cargoes, to the great profit of shrewd speculators at the North."

vessel in the port of Savannah was the revenue cutter J. C. Dobbin, which on the night of January 1st was seized by a party of citizens of Savannah dressed in civic clothes, but armed with muskets and revolvers. They announced to the officer in charge that they had come to take the vessel in the name of the State of Georgia; as they numbered ten times as many as his crew he made no resistance, and they raised the Palmetto flag, saluted it, sent the officers and crew below and closed the hatches on them, and finally ran the vessel ashore. The leader in the seizure was C. A. Greiner, who afterwards went North, and on April 29th was arrested in Philadelphia on a charge of having committed treason in the Dobbin affair and in the subsequent capture of Fort Pulaski by the State troops.

Succeeding this incident it was not until the advent of Commodore Josiah Tatnall at Savannah, that public and official attention was seriously turned toward naval affairs.' Then the presence of an officer who had attained the highest rank in the U. S. navy, compelled the authorities and the people to think of what Georgia might do toward fighting the battles of the Confederacy on water as well as on land. On February 28th, Governor Brown accepted the tender of the services of Commodore Tatnall to his native State, and appointed him senior flag-officer in the navy of Georgia, which does not appear then to have consisted of a ship or a gun. Tatnall's commission was merely honorary until March, when he was appointed a commander in the provisional navy of the Confederate States, and assigned to the command of whatever navy existed or might be created in the waters of Georgia and South Carolina. He was expected to form a marine force under the Confederate flag, and with the material which he could reach it was a task almost akin to making bricks without straw. He eventually got together a semblance of a naval flotilla by arming a river steamer and a few small tugs that were lying idle at the Savannah wharves with whatever guns he could pick up; and with this "Mosquito Fleet," as it was called, he went into action against the massive frigates and heavy gunboats of the enemy at the battle of Port Royal, only

1 Josiah Tatnall was born at the family estate of Bonaventure, near Savannah, November 9th, 1795, and was appointed midshipman in the U. S. navy, April 1st, 1812, and in August was ordered to the frigate Constellation. He participated in the repulse of the British boat expedition by the battery on Craney Island, below Norfolk, which was manned by seamen, June 22d, 1813, and subsequently served on the Epervier, Constellation and Ontario, all attached to the Mediterranean squadron. In April, 1818, he was promoted lieutenant, and assigned to the frigate Macedonian on the Pacific Station. In 1823 he was first lieutenant of the schooner Jackal in Commodore Porter's squadron, operating against the pirates in the West Indies. and from 1824 to 1826, was on duty on the Constitution and Brandywine in the Mediterra

nean. In 1828 he was assigned to the corvette Erie of the West India squadron, after which he made the surveys of the site of fortifications on the Tortugas Reef, and in 1831 took command of the schooner Grampus. In 1835 he escorted back to Mexico Gen. Santa Anna, who had been captured by the Texans, and turned over to the U. S. government. Three years later he was commissioned commander, and placed in charge of the Boston navy-yard, from which he was detached to command the corvette Fairfield; then to the Saratoga, and in 1846 to the steam gunboat Spitfire, on which he served during the war with Mexico. After being again for two years in command of the Boston navyyard he was made captain in 1850, and ordered to the steam frigate Saranac. Between that year and 1857 he also commanded the Independence

to be forced to retire before the swift and strong ships which Commodore Dupont had sent to cut off or destroy his flotilla,' but which failed to execute the duty with which they were entrusted. It was the one great drawback to the completeness of the Federal victory at Port Royal that Tatnall did not permit his squadron to be captured, but preserved it intact for future operations. His instructions from the Navy Department at Richmond, were to "distribute" it along the coast from Port Royal to the sounds south of the mouth of the Savannah River, with the special purpose of rendering assistance to vessels expected from England with munitions of war for the Confederacy; but as there were many more sounds than he had vessels, it does not appear on record that he was able to "distribute" his force sufficiently to aid any of the incoming steamers.

Their success at Port Royal enabled the Federals to run their light-draft gunboats into the sounds, rivers, inlets and bays that intervene between the Sea Islands and the mainland of South Carolina and Georgia, on the approaches to which the Confederates had established earthworks without having either the men or guns sufficient to arm them. Expeditions were sent through Ossabaw, Warsaw, St. Helena and Cumberland Sounds all the way down to Fernandina, and as the Confederates had no means of opposing the passage of these squadrons, they retired from their weak fortifications as the enemy drew nigh, and soon the latter were in possession of the whole coast line southward from Port Royal except Savannah and the entrances thereto. Not being then prepared to attack the forts-Pulaski, Jackson and Caustonprotecting the Savannah River, they advanced only as far as Tybee Island, at the embouchure of the river, which was occupied on November 24th, by Commodore John Rodgers, with a squadron embracing the steamers Pocahontas, Seneca, Flag and Augusta, mounting in all about 40 guns, including 11-inch shell guns, and 6-inch rifles. The report of Flag-officer Dupont to Secretary Welles states that Rodgers was sent to make a preliminary examination of the bars, and for the determination of the most suitable place for sinking the proposed obstructions to the navigation of the

and the naval station on the lakes. In the latter year he was created flag-officer, and assumed command of the naval forces in the East India and China seas. He assisted the English and French allied squadrons in their attack on the Chinese forts at the mouth of the Pei-ho, June 25th, 1859, and the next year brought the Japanese Ambassadors to the United States. He was in command of the naval station at Sackett's Harbor, N. Y., when Georgia seceded, and resigning from the U. S. navy was, on February 28th, 1861, appointed senior flag-officer of the navy of the State of Georgia In March he accepted a commission as captain in the C. S. navy and the command of the naval defence of Georgia and South Carolina. He succeeded Admiral Bu

chanan as commander of the naval defence of Virginia in March, 1862, but returned to Georgia in July, and in March, 1863, was relieved from the command afloat and limited to shore duty at the Savannah Station, and the work of naval construction. He was paroled as a prisoner of war May 9th, 1865, and from 1866 to 1870 resided in Nova Scotia, near Halifax. He then returned to Savannah in much reduced circumstances, and the city created for him the office of Inspector of the Port, at a salary of $1,200 yearly. His death occurred June 14th,

1871.

1 See for particulars of Tatnall's fleet the narrative of the battle of Port Royal in chapter upon South Carolina Waters.

river." He was instructed to push his reconnoissance so far as "to form an approximate estimate of the force on Tybee Island, and of the possibility of gaining access to the inner bar." He found the island abandoned, and placed a detachment in the only fortified position, a martello tower, with a battery at its base, but his vessels went no further up the stream; as, to use the language of Dupont. "the rebels themselves have placed sufficient obstructions in the river at Fort Pulaski, and thus by the co-operation of their own fears with our efforts the harbor of Savannah is effectually closed."

The occupation of Tybee Island was not so uneventful as the Federal naval commander represents it. Accounts printed in the Savannah papers state that the enemy first shelled the martello tower and the battery, and obtaining no response, sent several hundred men in a long train of boats on shore. After dark, Captain Read, C. S. A., commanding a company of Irish volunteers in Fort Pulaski, crossed over to Tybee with a squad of his men with the intention of burning the hospital. but found the Federals too numerous around it to warrant him in making the attempt. They were hunting for cotton and rice, with which they expected to pay the expenses of the expedition; as they are said to have done at Port Royal and Beaufort, where they captured a very large quantity of these commodities. Captain Read burned the rice and cotton on several plantations, and withdrew in safety to Cockspur Island, on which Fort Pulaski is situated. Commodore Tatnall's four steamers laid in Cockspur Roads near the fort, and on the 26th he slipped his cables, and running down within range of the enemy's gunboats, opened fire upon them. As they came on he slowly moved backward, hoping to draw them within reach of the guns of Pulaski, but they perceived his purpose and withdrew from the engagement when they were still too far distant from the fort for any of its shot to reach them. The skirmish between Tatnall and the foe continued for an hour, and some forty or fifty shots were exchanged, but the fire was ineffective on either side. For several days afterwards the Federal gunboats pitched shells at long range towards Pulaski, but on December 3d they evacuated Tybee and sailed to the northward, thus relieving the apprehensions which prevailed at Savannah, that an attack upon the city was meditated then. It was so fully expected that the Federal fleet would attempt to fight its way up the river that every preparation was made to receive it. General Robert E. Lee, then an engineer officer in the military department, visited all the works, attended personally to strengthening them and the posting of the garri sons, and made ready for the anticipated combat, but the Federals had accomplished the business upon which they were then bent and which did not include any serious fighting.

On December 26th Tatnall's squadron-consisting of the steamers Savannah, flag-ship, Commodore Tatnall; Resolute,