Ebook The Adventures of a Blockade Runner, or Trade in Time of War

There are few instances in modern times where the exigencies of war so much barred the free run of intercourse and paralyzed trade and commerce as the blockading of Southern ports during the American Civil War, or where such inducements were offered to break through the barrier by what was called blockade running.

The writer has neither the knowledge nor the capability to attempt to write anything like a history or treatise on this subject; he therefore confines himself to a brief detail of his own acts and experience, and what came under his own observation.

The idea of blockade running during that war has been generally depicted by swift steamers running into Charleston and other ports in the Atlantic States, and it was there that it was chiefly carried on during the earlier part of the war when the blockade was somewhat inefficient.

It has also been supposed by some that the danger of capture lay only in passing through the blockading fleet while entering or leaving a port, and that beyond the limits of the blockaded port no danger existed; this was a mistaken idea.

As the war progressed, the naval force of the United States was greatly augmented.