Abraham Lincoln's crucial blockade order on Southern ports is purchased by Illinois governor and wife and donated to presidential library in Springfield

Lincoln issued this order just after Fort Sumter fell (Photo: ALPLM)

President Abraham Lincoln’s monumental order that launched the “Anaconda Plan,” a strategy intended to place a stranglehold on the Confederacy, has been purchased and donated by Illinois’ governor and first lady to a library dedicated to the 16^th president.

Just a few days after the fall of Fort Sumter in April 1861, Lincoln issued the order, which called for a naval blockade of vital Southern ports, to be imposed in conjunction with land assaults. The seven states cited in the order had seceded from the Union by that time.

The office of Gov. J.B. Pritzker made the donation announcement Tuesday. The news was first reported by the Associated Press.

Pritzker and his wife M.K., who purchased the blockade order on behalf of the people of Illinois, on Tuesday visited the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield.

The document will be available for viewing in the ALPLM Treasures Gallery beginning Wednesday and will remain on display until February 2025, when it will be transferred to the ALPLM vault for safekeeping, a news release said.

Cartoon of Anaconda Plan with caricatures (Library of Congress)

“To me, this document – and the museum as a whole – serves as a reminder of how far we’ve come,” said the governor. “Despite our divisions and challenges, more than 150 years later, our nation perseveres.” 

Steve Lansdale with Heritage Auctions confirmed to the Picket that the document was sold for $471,000 in July 2023. The document – formally entitled “Order to Affix Seal of the United States to a Proclamation of a Blockade” – had been owned by anonymous private collectors.

Lansdale says the company does not release information on buyers or sellers, and Pritzker’s office declined to provide details on the purchase or price.

Andy Hall, who has written extensively about the blockade, wrote in his Dead Confederates blog that Lincoln’s proclamation “was one of a series of actions and reactions that expanded the conflict between the national government in Washington and that of the seceded southern states. The blockade order was, most directly, a response to Jefferson Davis’ call on April 17 for privateers to obtain Confederate letters of marque to attack U.S. shipping.”

While the one-page order is now at the Lincoln library, the fuller proclamation is kept at the National Archives.

Harper's Weekly depiction of chase of a blockade runner (Library of Congress)

The blockade was meant to prevent the export of cotton from the South to foreign nations and the import of essential supplies into the Confederacy, according to Pritzker’s office.

The Lincoln document reads in full:

"I hereby authorize and direct the Secretary of State to affix the Seal of the United States to a Proclamation setting on foot a Blockade of the ports of the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, dated this day and signed by me and for so doing this shall be his warrant. Abraham Lincoln, Washington, 19th April, 1861."

Dr. Ian Hunt, the ALPLM’s acquisitions director, said the order captures Lincoln at an unprecedented moment of crisis.

“A lesser president might have dithered and delayed while searching for a ‘safe’ option,” Hunt said in a statement. “President Lincoln acted boldly by ordering a blockade. This is the symbolic tip of the spear in his long struggle to save the nation and, ultimately, end slavery."

Hunt, in a library Facebook video, provided some historical background to the Lincoln order. The president's Cabinet had some reservations about the idea, including the possibility it could be construed as recognition of the Confederacy as a nation. Union Gen. Winfield Scott argued a total blockade would be needed to crush the rebellion. 

The blockade required monitoring 3,500 miles of Atlantic and Gulf coastline with180 possible ports of entry, according to the library. “The United States had about 40 working ships at the time. By war’s end, it had 671. The Navy destroyed or captured about 1,500 Southern blockade runners over the course of the war.”

Hunt said the addition of the document to the library is "phenomenal."

The few, the proud. Marines had an impact on the Civil War

During the Civil War, members of the Marine Corps were primarily assigned to blockade duty aboard U.S. Navy ships, which were critical in strangling the Confederate states’ ability to continue fighting. Without the blockade, supplies, arms, ammunition, and money coming in from cotton, the South might have been able to fight on indefinitely. The Corps had an especially critical role in the 1864 Battle of Mobile Bay. -- Article

The Enfield rifles and the mystery coffin: How these fascinating wooden artifacts are being protected for future generations

Below, the coffin where is was spotted, under orange bucket (Georgia DNR)

  

Come read the adventure of one coffin, 20 rifles and two caretakers of Georgia history.

Our story begins in the 1980s. An archaeological diver in Charleston (S.C.) Harbor pulls up a crate of British-made Enfield rifles lost when a Rebel blockade runner ran aground in 1863.

The next chapter takes place in 2013. A state park employee on routine patrol spies the edge of the intact coffin jutting out of muck and sand on the marsh’s edge near Fort McAllister, a Confederate river outpost below Savannah, Ga.

Why mention seemingly unrelated artifacts? Let’s bring in the caretakers to weave them together.

Josh Headlee, a curator/historic preservation specialist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, has for several years worked to ensure the rifles carried by the CSS Stono are on the path to permanent conservation.

They are at Sweetwater Creek State Park outside Atlanta in a freshwater tank, which is drawing out salt and other contaminants (2013 photo of installation of tank).

State archaeologist Rachel Black has studied the mystery of the empty coffin, which also went into a water tank after discovery. Did it contain the body of a Civil War soldier or a slave? Perhaps someone else? Or was it simply discarded?

Headlee and Black hope that the rifles and the coffin eventually will go on public display. But the waterlogged wood has to be preserved. Without such chemical treatment, pieces of wood taken out of water will shrink, warp and crack. “They could literally just fall apart,” Headlee said.

This is where the latest chapter begins. Before using a wood treatment on the rare rifles, Headlee wanted to test it on something else more than a century old. He and Black decided to try the preserver on an end piece of the coffin.

“It has done a tremendous job,” Headlee told the Picket. “We need something to replace what (wood) is missing. The preserver we use soaks into wood, displaces the water and basically solidifies itself.”

Over the past year, Headlee has used the SP-11 treatment made by Preservation Solutions on much of the plain coffin, which was handcrafted from several pieces. He is conserving the artifact at a DNR lab at Panola Mountain State Park. (at right, solution is applied on a long piece of the coffin; photo courtesy of Historic Preservation Division, Georgia DNR.)

“I’m currently working on the largest piece of the coffin.  It’s a beautiful piece that makes up approximately 2/3 of the bottom of the coffin and so it has a great angled ‘typical’ coffin shape to it,” he wrote in a recent email. “The piece after this one will be the last piece of the coffin and it is essentially the remaining third of the bottom.  If all goes well with it, it should be finished by the end of the year. All the pieces seem to be holding up pretty well coming out of treatment.”

Headlee hopes to wrap up conservation of the coffin by the end of the year.

While SP-11 has worked well as a composite for the coffin, likely made of pine, Headlee is mindful that the rifles probably have walnut stocks.

“Hopefully, next year we can begin treatment of the rifles in the crate at Sweetwater Creek SP. I expect that their treatment will likely take longer per piece simply because of the amount of metal (brass and iron) on them and the wood being more dense,” he says.

Rifles at Sweetwater Creek (Courtesy Historic Preservation Division, Georgia DNR)

Although the iron rifle barrels, locks and bayonets of the Pattern 53 Enfields are heavily deteriorated from saltwater corrosion, the stocks are in great shape.

“It (is) a once in a lifetime thing,” Headlee, said in 2013 of the rare opportunity to conserve and study a case of Enfields. Only three intact cases of the single-shot weapon are known, according to a 2007 Atlanta Journal-Constitution article.

Builder put care into wooden coffin

Black and Headlee have taken note of the craftsmanship that went into the coffin, which appears to have remnants of decorative motifs. The nails used to fasten the pieces are gone.

In 2016, when the Picket first spoke with Black, she could see square nail holes in the wood (photo at left, courtesy of Historic Preservation Division).

“I also could see some faint shadows on the sideboards, rusty spots near the holes,” she said this year. There is evidence of tacks. Black believes they may have fastened deteriorated decorative ornaments shaped like diamonds. “A very poor individual could have purchased (such accoutrements) to make their coffin more decorative.”

Based on the use of cut nails, the coffin likely was built prior to 1890, said Black. The rectangular casket became far more prevalent by the turn of the 20^th century.

 Archaeologists also discovered a small hole on each of the side panels, perhaps drilled so that a rope could be used to lower the coffin.

The box was about 68 inches long and could have accommodated a person about 5 feet, 6 inches, a common height for a man in the mid-19^th century. It was oriented with the head to the west, customary in many Christian burials.

Interestingly, the bottom of the “toe pincher” style coffin was made from two pieces. One is thicker than the other, so the head plate on one was made even by the coffin maker, who likely used a hand plane tool. That’s evidence of someone who had experience in working with wood.

The condition of the coffin when it was discovered along the Ogeechee River was considered outstanding. Water seeped into the wood and its being covered by soil in an anaerobic environment helped it maintain its condition.

The elements were not so kind to fasteners, nails and possible decorative items.

“They most likely rusted away, especially in the wet environment,” Black says.

'Throwing darts in the wind'

Black has looked at a range of possibilities of why the coffin was buried or left in the marsh:

-- Did the box once hold the remains of an enslaved person? Fort McAllister State Park sits on Genesis Point, once home to a large rice plantation. There’s a known slave cemetery to the west near Strathy Hall, which was built in the 18^th century.

-- Could this have been a burial for a Confederate soldier or sailor, or perhaps a Union soldier stationed there after the fort fell in December 1864 during Sherman’s March to the Sea?

-- Or was the coffin discarded and never used? Black believes that is unlikely, given the expense of applying decorative elements.

If the coffin was in the specific or general area of an interment, the environment likely changed over 150 years. It may have once been on high and dry land. The banks of the Ogeechee River at Genesis Point are eroding rapidly for several reasons, including increased river traffic.

Black hasn't been able to make a conclusion about the coffin's origin and possible use, though some of the construction techniques have a style common in shipbuilding.

When it comes to figuring out the coffin’s story, it “is kind of throwing darts in the wind,” says the archaeologist. (treated piece of coffin above right)

Troops at Fort McAllister battled monotony and Union naval forces for three years, finally falling to Federal land troops.

Among the Rebel units stationed at Fort McAllister was the local Republican Blues. A member of the Blues in 1863 drew a map of the fort and showed the McAllister plantation on the western edge. It’s not clear whether that location is accurate.

Black has said that records indicate an abundance of plantation activities were in the area of the coffin. In many cases, slave cemeteries are unmarked “and are lost over time.”

There may have been a cemetery on Genesis Point, but no evidence of one has been found.  Since only the single coffin has been found, that has led the archaeologist to believe it could be more likely associated with the Civil War fort.

In his book “Guardian of Savannah,” Roger S. Durham includes an account of a burial written by William Dixon of the Republican Blues.

“Sunday 6^th [March] 1864 … The Emmett Rifles arrived here this morning … Priv Murphy of that company died on board of the boat last night. He complained yesterday of feeling unwell but nothing was thought of it and this morning he was found dead. He was buried here this afternoon.”

The mystery of the coffin continues. And that’s where our story ends – for now.

                                                      (Courtesy of Historic Preservation Division, Georgia DNR)

Thanks for playing 'Guess the Mystery Artifact' from a Civil War blockade runner! Johnny, what do we have for our lucky winner?

(Courtesy of Fort Fisher State Historic Site)

The photo caught my eye immediately. Is that a clump of seashells? Or a weird formation from the moon’s surface? What the heck?

I was intrigued by an accompanying Facebook post Wednesday from North Carolina’s Fort Fisher State Historic Site, which posed this question:

Can you guess what this artifact is?

Hint 1: It came in via the blockade

Hint 2: Used by soldiers in battle

Hint 3: How many pieces are here?

We will reveal the answer tomorrow at 2pm.

I was all in after that -- and read the comments. Most of nearly a dozen readers claimed they were percussion caps for a rifle.

Bingo!

Sure enough, the Civil War site said in a Thursday update, the photo depicts about 300 tiny percussion caps, likely for an Enfield. They were packaged in a metal box about 3 inches wide and an inch deep. They went down with the blockade runner Modern Greece in 1862.

This painting is believed to depict the Modern Greece (NCpedia)

Percussion caps were critical to firing small arms during the conflict. They were made of copper and had a rim or flange. The cap would be placed at the breech, or back end of the gun. When the trigger was pulled, the hammer would strike the cap, causing a flame to ignite powder in the barrel, shooting a ball out of the muzzle.

The South, which had limitations in manufacturing, turned to other countries, notably England, for such items.

Swift blockade runners carried a mix of war materiel and goods to the port in exchange for exported cotton and other items. The ships carried items to and from Europe, largely via the Bahamas and Bermuda.

Bowie knife recovered in the early 1960s (FFSHS)

Enterprising owners took the risk of running the gauntlet of U.S. Navy ships trying to keep them away from vital ports, including Wilmington, which is about 15 miles north of the state park. But most of the runs succeeded and it was a lucrative business.

Wilmington was ideally situated for blockade-running. Located 28 miles up the Cape Fear River, it was free from enemy bombardment as long as the forts at the mouth of the river -- Fisher and Caswell -- remained in Confederate hands.

In June 1862, the Modern Greece, a screw steam freighter, was trying to reach an inlet for its final run up the Cape Fear River. The USS Cambridge and the USS Stars and Stripes opened their guns on the ship. That heavy fire forced the Modern Greece ashore and it ran aground.

The garrison at Fort Fisher and the Union ships traded gunfire, and it was soon apparent the damaged blockade runner’s career was over.

“You have Confederate troops trying to salvage, you have the Union navy trying to pull it from shore, to take the cargo and get prize money,” John Moseley, assistant site manager at Fort Fisher, told the Picket. (Union crews were offered rewards for the seizure of goods from failed runs.)

Today, numerous artifacts from the Modern Greece and other blockade runners are at Fort Fisher, and are rotated on display.

The shores off this part of North Carolina are littered with the remnants of such vessels. The Modern Greece was rediscovered in 1962 and the recovery of items soon began, with early diving by U.S. Navy frogmen.

“During the next two years, researchers from what's now our Office of Archives and History and the U.S. Navy recovered 11,500 artifacts from the Modern Greece shipwreck site,” says the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. “Work at the site led our agency to establish one of the nation’s first underwater archaeology programs.”

Among the recovered items are numerous Enfield rifles intended for Confederate units. Other artifacts were items meant for civilians.

A 2012 YouTube video on a web page about the Modern Greece features interviews with divers and others associated with the discovery of the shipwreck. “Some looked like you could almost shoot them,” one man says of the rifles, which had been covered in sand for 100 years.

The museum at Fort Fisher has shovels, tin sheets, medical supplies and tools, a Bowie knife and a jar of, yes, raisins.

Moseley says the Modern Greece wreck is about 600 yards northeast of the fort and several hundred yards offshore. Over time, the Atlantic Ocean has encroached onshore, taking away a large part of what was once the fort.

Artillery demonstration at fort several years ago (FFSHS)

Conservation work on Modern Greece artifacts continues at a state Underwater Archaeology Branch facility in nearby Kure Beach.

Assistant state archaeologist Stephen Atkinson told the Picket on Thursday that employees are working toward repackaging artifacts for transfer to a state storage facility in Raleigh for future curation and display.

“As for the wet artifacts, they still remain in our care at UAB, as we do not currently have the time/staff/funding/space to treat them all. (You’d be surprised what it would take to conserve hundreds of pick axes and hoe heads! Not to mention the muskets…),” he wrote in an email.

“So we make sure they are well taken care of in their tanks for now. We have not visited the wreck itself for some time but once the pandemic restrictions are lifted we plan to do a comprehensive condition assessment of all known blockade runners.”

Curved timber found decades ago on North Carolina beach may have belonged to a Civil War blockade runner

(NC Office of State Archaeology)

Forty years ago, someone walking North Carolina’s Kure Beach found a curved piece of timber pocked with holes and containing a piece of iron. 

Eventually, the finder tired of keeping it at home. A friend on Friday donated the “old piece of wood” -- which may have an exciting past -- to the state. 

Experts are speculating it may have been used to fashion the hull of a Civil War blockade runner. There is no way to know for sure; it's possible the timber dates to the 20th century.

Assistant state archaeologist Stephen Atkinson, who wrote about the donation in a Facebook post, tells the Picket the timber could be from a small coastal fishing and trading schooner. Such vessels were used to run the Union blockade on Southern ports.

Swift blockade runners carried a mix of war materiel and goods to the port in exchange for exported cotton and other items.

The ships carried items to and from Europe, largely via the Bahamas and Bermuda.

Enterprising owners took the risk of running the gauntlet of U.S. Navy ships trying to keep them away from vital ports, including Wilmington, which is about 15 miles north of Kure Beach. But most of the runs succeeded and it was a lucrative business.

Wilmington was ideally situated for blockade-running. Located 28 miles up the Cape Fear River, it was free from enemy bombardment as long as the forts at the mouth of the river remained in Confederate hands.

In his post, first reported by the Charlotte Observer, Atkinson detailed an initial analysis of the timber.

(NC Office of State Archaeology)

“While it may seem like just an old piece of wood, these frames can be a wealth of information by assessing a few key features. Its width, length, and curvature suggest that we have nearly the whole profile of the vessel, and the transverse holes near its base indicate where it had been fastened to a floor timber…

“The sporadic and numerous trunnel holes show that the vessel may have been planked and replanked numerous times, suggesting a long working life. Finally, the wild and tight grain appears to be live oak, which lends to the resiliency of the timber throughout time, regardless of the huge knot in it, and also could indicate local construction. All of this fits the bill of a coastal trading schooner, used in North Carolina for a lengthy span of time for activities from fishing to running blockades in the Civil War.”

(NC Office of State Archaeology)

Assistant state archaeologist Nathan Henry told the Picket such schooners were called “corn crackers” and were used to haul farm produce to Wilmington.

“During the Civil War, small schooners were occasionally used for coasting voyages to the Bahamas to acquire salt for sale in the blockaded states," Henry said. "There are numerous accounts in the ORN of schooners being caught, or nearly caught in route by the blockaders. Invariably when the Navy visited the smaller towns adjacent the inlets, small schooners were discovered.”  (ORN is an abbreviation for "Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion.")

Interestingly, few blockade runners were owned by Southern entrepreneurs.

The trade “was monopolized by English and Scottish merchants who had ships and capital to invest in this hazardous but lucrative trade,” according to NCPedia.com. “British firms dispatched both luxury items and war matériel to the West Indies in regular merchant ships for transfer to blockade-runners, which would arrive in port loaded with cotton.”

In mid-1863, the Confederacy ordered captains to carry 50 percent in war goods, such as uniforms, rifles, artillery and munitions.

The Cape Fear Shipwreck District contains the remains of 21 Civil War-era ships, 15 of which were steam-powered blockade runners, according to the state. Among the wrecks is the Agnes E. Fry, site of dives and research in recent years.

Wreck of the Agnes E. Fry (NCDNCR)

The other five wrecks are four Union military vessels and one Confederate ship.

“Nowhere in the world is there a comparable concentration of vessel remains,” says the Office of State Archaeology.

(NC Office of State Archaeology)

“The majority of the blockade runners were lost when they were stranded along the beach or on inlet shoals and sank in shallow waters. Upon wrecking, a vessel became the focus of furious attempts to save it and its cargo,” according to the Office of State Archaeology.

“The Federals had the decided advantage in efforts to recover the total vessel since they could approach from the sea with tugboats. The Confederates concentrated on a wreck's cargo, which was not only more important to their specific needs but could be unloaded with ease onto the beaches which they controlled.”

Officials say the remains of these vessels help tell the story of the transition from sail to steam and from wood to iron.

(January 2021: I asked Stephen Atkinson, assistant state archaeologist, for an update. His reply: “Seeing as the timber was/is in stable condition and an isolated/out-of-context donation, no further research is being pursued at this time as our office has since shifted to other emerging finds and donations.”)

• Blockade runner dioramas rich with detail

Sonar provides details of blockade runner, shows cargo may remain in N.C. wreck

(N.C. Natural and Cultural Resources)

Archaeologists exploring and making sonar images of a wrecked Confederate blockade runner said cargo spaces may still contain items carried on its doomed final voyage.

Bill Ray Morris, North Carolina deputy state archaeologist, told the Picket on Tuesday that sonar detected preserved sections of cargo holds in excess of 5 feet – roughly half of the original depth.

“This bodes extremely well for the preservation of a fair amount of the vessel’s cargo as we know from an eyewitness account that she was not salvaged for goods during the war,” Morris wrote in an email.

On Monday, officials announced “unprecedented detail” from the Agnes E. Fry captured via a digital, sector-scanning sonar. The press release included a sonar mosaic image (above) that showed the broken iron hull, smoke stack sections, I-beam frames, outer hull plating and more.

The Agnes E. Fry made several successful runs for the Confederacy before it ran aground south of Wilmington in the closing months of the war.

The state, working with divers from the Charlotte Fire Department and Nautilus Marine Group, wants to create a 3D display of the wreck site.

“The specific details visible on the computer screen in the field on our last trip, (but not, unfortunately, in the mosaic), included the hinge detail on boiler fire doors, clearly defined fire tubes within the tube plate on a partial broken boiler, a pair of collision bulkheads and what could well be the deck clamp/shelf arrangement,” Morris said.

The shipwreck was discovered Feb. 27 during a search for the ships lost during the Union campaign to blockade the port of Wilmington during the Civil War.

The mosaic, part of a project funded by the National Park Service, will allow archaeologists to create a research plan for further investigations of the blockade runner.

Morris said among the items recovered from the shipwreck are a possible homemade knife handle and a coal sample. The Scottish-made Agnes E. Fry ran aground on Dec. 27, 1864, as the crew tried to elude Federal vessels.

3D sonar imaging will help confirm identity of Rebel blockade runner off N.C.

(Courtesy N.C. Office of State Archaeology)

A 3D sonar imaging device will aid divers next week as they continue to explore what’s believed to be the largely intact remains of the Civil War blockade runner Agnes E. Fry.

The North Carolina Office of State Archaeology on Monday said the Charlotte Fire Department offered the use of the technology for the investigation just off Oak Island, south of Wilmington.

Deputy state archaeologist Bill Ray Morris, in a statement, said the remains of the iron-hulled steamer match up with the Scotland-made Agnes E. Fry, one of three blockade runners that sank in the area.

“Fry was 236 feet long, and the vessel remains we have are 225 feet in length. The other runners, Georgianna McCaw and Spunkie are both considerably shorter and a much earlier design than Fry,” said Morris. “The boiler type, as well as the hull design of the wreck, are both indicative of a more modern vessel than either McCaw or Spunkie. The difference in the lengths has to do with the damage to the bow and stern.”

The wreck was first studied in late February with side-scan sonar images during remote sensing operations. Both engines and the paddlewheel shaft are missing, matching salvage records. Divers noted the missing pieces during a March 22 dive.

"Every piece of evidence we have examined to date, from sonar images to primary documentation, points directly to this shipwreck being Agnes E. Fry," said Gordon Watts of the Institute for International Maritime Research. "We look forward to working with the Charlotte team to confirm our suspicions." 

The Llama resembled the Agnes E. Fry (NCOSA)

Fire officials in Charlotte arranged for Nautilus Marine Group International, the company that provides sonar systems to its dive team, to bring the latest version of a sector-scanning imaging sonar to confirm the vessel’s identity

"This instrument will allow us to make a complete, multi-dimensional map of the site in a matter of days," Morris said in the statement. "Unlike usual methods, imaging sonar does not require good visibility and is considerably faster than on-site mapping. Visibility underwater on the site is so murky that it rarely exceeds 18 inches."

The Agnes E. Fry made several successful runs for the Confederacy before it ran aground near Wilmington in the closing months of the war.

A walk in Bermuda: Bumping into the 'rogues' of Confederate blockade running

Blockade runner at St. George's (Wikipedia, public domain)

My wife, eldest son and I winged our way Saturday to Bermuda for a quick (25-hour) getaway. We lucked out on the weather and saw much of the gorgeous British territory by ferry, bus, taxi and on foot.

After marveling at the rocky north shore of St. George’s Island, we left the azure waters and gentle breeze and sauntered down to the village of the same name. While walking the charming streets (Duke of York Street, to be precise) at midday Sunday, I stumbled into the American Civil War.

A sign on the stucco wall of the site, now the Bermuda National Trust Museum at the Globe Hotel, calls the building the “Confederate Headquarters during the American Civil War." Apparently, commercial agent Maj. Norman Walker used the second floor of the 300-year-old building to coordinate “the flow of guns; ammunition and other war supplies through the Union blockade.”

The museum was closed, but I pledged to do a little reading when I got home last night.

Picket photo

“Rogues & Runners: Bermuda and the American Civil War” is the star attraction among several exhibits. An accompanying book talks about how the Confederacy turned to Bermuda, Cuba and the Bahamas as vital stops for blockade running. Those harbors “teemed with ships full of arms and supplies for the South and others loaded with cotton on their way back to Europe as payment.”

Blockade runners were employed to fight the North’s “Anaconda Plan” of choking off Southern ports. There was a lot of profiteering and many items early in the war were meant for civilians willing to pay high prices.

But, according to a U.S. National Marine Sanctuaries article, “To prevent blockade-running companies and captains from loading their ships with high-value commodities for better profit, the Confederacy operated government-owned runners, and, in 1864, the Confederate Congress passed a law banning luxury goods on the steamers to focus the incoming cargoes on what was needed to win the war.”

Great Britain controlled Bermuda and the Bahamas and encouraged blockade running. According to a teacher resource guide produced by the museum, although Bermuda was neutral, most of its residents favored the South.

“The upper floor of the Globe Hotel was used by Confederate Commercial Agent John Tory Bourne and Confederate Shipping Agent Major Norman Walker as the office from which they coordinated the flow of desperately needed guns, ammunition, uniforms and other war materiel through the Union blockade, established to starve the southern Confederacy,” reads the guide. “It was a turbulent yet profitable period in St. George’s history and the Globe was at the heart of it.”

Former Globe Hotel now houses museum (Picket photo)

Goods that were brought from Europe and meant for the South were transferred from larger vessels to the faster blockade runners in Bermuda.

The guide continues: “The opportunities for Bermudians to profit from blockade running were boundless. Ships needed coal and provisions. Crews required lodging, food and entertainment between runs. Cargoes had to be unloaded, stored and reloaded, while crews and cargoes had to be ferried to ships lying at anchor. Bermudian pilots guided the ships through the reefs; those with skills as mates, carpenters, firemen and ordinary seamen signed on as crew. The Civil War proved to be the road to riches.”

The U.S. government during the Civil War tried to pressure Bermuda to quash such trade. Occasionally, navy ships tried to capture the fast and daring blockade runners, which used the territory as a stopping point in journeys from England to Wilmington, N.C, and Charleston, S.C.

Bow of Mary Celestia (NOAA photo)

Among the blockade runners that sank off the southern Bermuda shore was the 1864 steamer Mary Celestia, which has been explored by archaeologists and is the subject of a film documentary. A case of fine wine was discovered a few years ago among the well-preserved contraband. The vessel -- and wine -- never made it to Wilmington.

The venue in St. George’s apparently used to be called the Confederate Museum -- and the name change and exhibit title brought out some online critics, including those who blamed the conflict on the North and used terms such as “invasion.” One wrote that the Yankees were the real rogues.

Mary Celestia perfume bottle

One commenter said he didn’t think the trust was being disrespectful to the memory of those who fought in the war: “I think to be fair that the title ‘Rogues and Runners’ is more a jibe at us islanders and those who were not directly involved in the war in gun running etc. Many of the Captains of the runners were English naval officers for example on extended leave who made huge sums of money from this enterprise – together with those of ‘us’ islanders who were in it just for the money were the real ‘rogues’ in all of this.”

On a side note, there’s an exhibit in St. George’s Tucker House about Joseph Rainey, a free black man from South Carolina. Rainey, who later became a U.S. congressman, escaped Confederate service and went with his wife to Bermuda, which had abolished slavery in 1834. The couple lived there for four years before returning to the United States.