The Confederate States Signal Corps frequently rendered some very
efficient service to the blockade runners after they had succeeded in
getting between the blockaders and the beach, where they were also in
danger of the shore batteries until their character became known to the
forts.
As the signal system developed, a detailed member was sent out with
each ship, and so important did this service become that signal
officers, as they were called, were occasionally applied for by owners
or captains of steamers in the Clyde or at Liverpool before sailing for
Bermuda or Nassau to engage in running the blockade.
The first attempt to communicate with the shore batteries was a
failure, and consequently the service suffered some reproach for a
while, but subsequent practice with intelligent, cool-headed men
resulted in complete success, and some valuable ships, with still
more valuable cargoes, were saved from capture or destruction by the
intervention of the signal service, when, owing to the darkness and bad
landfall, the captain and pilot were alike unable to recognize their
geographical position.
To the late Mr. Frederick W. Gregory, of Crowells, N.C., belonged
the honor of the first success as a signal operator in this service.
Identified with the corps from the beginning of the blockade, and
with the Cape Fear at Price's Creek Station, which was for a long
time in his efficient charge, he brought to this new and novel duty
an experience and efficiency equalled by few of his colleagues and
surpassed by none. It was well said of him that he was always ready
and never afraid, two elements of the almost unvarying success which
attended the ships to which he was subsequently assigned. It was
my good fortune to be intimately associated with Mr. Gregory for
nearly two years, during which we had many ups and downs together as
shipmates aboard and as companions ashore. He was one of the few young
men engaged in blockade running who successfully resisted the evil
influences and depraved associations with which we were continually
surrounded. Unselfish and honorable in all his relations with his
fellows, courageous as a lion in time of danger, he was an honor to his
State and to the cause which he so worthily represented.
The following narrative related by him gives a more explicit account of
the signal service than I could offer by description of its workings:
"Some time early in 1863, the Confederate Government purchased on the
Clyde (I think) two steamers for the purpose of running the blockade.
The first to arrive was the _Giraffe_. While in the Cape Fear, Captain
Alexander, who had charge of the signal corps at Smithville, suggested
the propriety of putting a signal officer aboard to facilitate the
entrance of ships into the port at night by the use of two lights, a
red and a white, covered with a shade in front of the globe to lift up
and down, by which we could send messages as we did with the flag on
land in the day and with the torch at night; the red light representing
the wave to the right and the white light the wave to the left. After
some consultation General Whiting ordered Captain Alexander to send
up a signal officer to join the _Giraffe_, and Robert Herring was
detailed for that purpose and sent to Wilmington, where the lights
were prepared, and he went aboard. The _Giraffe_ went out and returned
successfully, but from some cause (I never understood why) Herring
failed to attract the attention of the land force and sent no message
ashore. In the meantime the other steamer, the _Cornubia_, arrived
in port, and Captain Alexander having been ordered elsewhere, and
Lieutenant Doggett having been sent down from Richmond to take charge
of the signal corps, General Whiting ordered a signal officer for the
_Cornubia_, and I was detailed and sent to Wilmington to prepare the
lights and report on board.
"We cleared the bar successfully, with Captain Burroughs in command,
and C.C. Morse as pilot, and had a good voyage to St. George, Bermuda,
where we unloaded our cargo of cotton and reloaded with supplies for
the Southern Army. On our return trip we made the land fifty or sixty
miles above Fort Fisher and coasted down to the inlet, our intention
being to get near the land inside the blockading fleet, which was
obliged to keep off a certain distance on account of shoal water. As
well as I remember, when within fifteen to twenty miles of Fort Fisher,
Captain Burroughs sent for me to come on the bridge, and asked if I
had my lights ready, and if I thought I could send a message ashore,
Pilot Morse in the meantime telling me that he would let me know when
we were opposite the signal station on the land, where a constant watch
was kept all night for our signal. We had not gone far when Morse told
me we were opposite the post. We were feeling our way very slowly
in the dark. I was put down on the deck, with the gangways open, my
lights facing the land and a screen behind, when I was ordered to call
the station. The officers and sailors were highly interested in the
movement and crowded around to watch the proceedings. I had called
but a few times when I was answered from the shore with a torch. I
turned to Captain Burroughs and told him I had the attention of the
land forces, and asked what message he wished to send. He replied as
follows: 'Colonel Lamb, steamer _Cornubia_. Protect me. Burroughs.' I
got the O.K. for the message from shore, and saw the corps on land call
up one station after the other, and transmit my message down to Fort
Fisher, miles ahead of us, and afterwards learned that General Whiting
was notified by telegraph of the arrival of the _Cornubia_ before she
crossed the bar that night; and when we arrived at the fort we found
Colonel Lamb down on the point with his Whitworth guns ready to protect
us if necessary. The success of this attempt gave an impetus to the
signal corps, and from that time every steamer that arrived applied to
the Government for a signal officer before leaving port."
The name of the _Cornubia_ was subsequently changed to _Lady Davis_,
in honor of the wife of President Davis at Richmond, and Captain Gale,
an officer of the old Navy who had gone over to the Confederacy, was
placed in command. "About the 20th of December, 1863," Mr. Gregory
adds, "we left Bermuda with a cargo for Wilmington in charge of Captain
Gale, with Mr. Robert Grisson as pilot and myself as signal officer.
We made land some miles above Wilmington, apparently through bad
navigation, almost as far north as Cape Lookout, and when opposite
Masonboro in coasting down we observed rockets going up directly
ahead of us. We were running at full speed, when to our consternation
rockets appeared quite near abreast of us; in fact we were apparently
surrounded by cruisers. There was a hurried consultation on the bridge.
I was at my post with my lights, waiting to be called, when the order
was given to head for the beach and drive the ship high and dry. The
blockaders were then cannonading us very heavily. When our good ship
struck the beach she ploughed up the sand for a considerable distance,
and keeled over on her side. The boats were lowered, and every man told
to look out for himself, which I assure you we lost no time in doing,
as we had scarcely left the ship before the enemy were boarding her on
the opposite side and firing briskly with small arms. They followed us
to the beach, and kept up a heavy fire from cannon and small arms for
an hour. We dodged about in the bulrushes as best we could, and made
our way toward the fort. Captain Thomas, acting chief officer, took
ashore with him two fine chronometers, and selected me to carry one for
him, but after beating around with them in the rushes for a mile or so,
we became exhausted and had to throw them away. I have no doubt they
are still lying in the rushes on the beach. We at last met a company
of soldiers who protected and escorted us to the sound. We forded the
sound and remained all night and were sent to Wilmington the next day,
overland, by mule teams. I always thought it was a shame that the _Lady
Davis_ was lost, having no doubt we could have put to sea and escaped
on the occasion referred to, although I was not informed as to the
supply of coal on board.
"Captain Gale had been very sick the day before, and was too feeble
to leave the ship, so remained on board and was captured and taken to
Fort Warren. The U.S.S. _James Adger_, commanded by Capt. James Foster
of Bloomington, Ind., had the good fortune to capture our ship, and
hauled her off as a prize.
"After reaching Wilmington and supplying myself with clothing and a
hat, I immediately went on board the steamer _Flora_ with Captain
Horner and made a successful run to Bermuda. The _Flora_ was considered
too slow and sent back to England. I then joined the _Index_, commanded
by Captain Marshall, and made several successful voyages on her, but
she too was condemned as too slow and was returned to Glasgow.
"I had a thrilling adventure on this ship on a homeward voyage, when,
for the first time in all my experience, we made land opposite Bald
Head Light on Frying Pan Shoals. As we were coming around to New Inlet
we fell in with a Federal cruiser, so close when we discovered her that
we could easily discern the maneuvers of the men on deck. She seemed
to have anchors weighed, and was moving about and could easily have
captured us, and we were at a loss to understand why she did not fire
into us. Some of our people decided that she wished to secure us as
a prize without injury, as she steamed alongside of us for miles and
all at once put her helm hard down and went close under our stern and
attempted to go between us and the shoals. I remember the remark of
our pilot, Tom Grissom, to Captain Marshall: 'If she follows us on that
course I will wreck her before we reach the inlet.'
"The cruiser had only steamed half a mile or so, when she suddenly
passed from view, and in a few moments a rocket went up near where
we last saw her, which was repeated at short intervals. After a few
minutes, rockets could be seen going up from the whole squadron and
there was evidently a great commotion among them on account of our
pursuer, who seemed suddenly to have got into serious trouble. We
passed through the inlet without further molestation, as the entire
fleet had centered their attention upon the unfortunate cruiser which
had suddenly gone down. When morning dawned, it revealed the Federal
cruiser hard and fast on the reef, with the other vessels of the
squadron working manfully to relieve her. Colonel Lamb went down to the
extreme point with his Whitworth guns and opened fire on her. A month
or so afterwards, while in Bermuda, I saw a spirited sketch of the
whole affair in _Frank Leslie's Illustrated News_, giving an account of
the wreck, and of an investigation of the conduct of the officers in
charge. I think the vessel was the gun-boat _Petrel_.
"After the _Index_ was sent back to Glasgow, Captain Marshall took
charge of the steamer _Rouen_ and I joined her as signal officer. We
loaded our cargo and started for Wilmington, and on the third day
out sighted a steamer about one o'clock p.m. This ship proved to be
the U.S.S. _Keystone State_, which captured us after a hot chase of
six hours. We were all transferred to the _Margaret and Jessie_, a
former blockade runner which had been captured and utilized as a
cruiser. We were taken to New York and confined in the Tombs Prison.
Subsequently, all the officers and crew were discharged except four
of us, and we were transferred to the Ludlow Street Jail for further
investigation. After six weeks' imprisonment we succeeded in effecting
our escape through the medium of English gold, after which we went
down to East River and found an old barque loaded with staves and hay
for St. Thomas. Each one of us gave the captain $25 in gold with the
understanding that he would sail by St. George, Bermuda, and land us
there. We reached this place after several weeks to find it devastated
by yellow fever. Many personal friends died of this scourge, among
whom was our lamented purser of the _Index_, Mr. Robert Williams,
a well-known native of Wilmington, much beloved for his superior
personal qualities.
"I then made one voyage in the _Owl_, which became famous under the
command of Capt. John Newland Maffitt. After this I joined the new
steel steamer _Susan Beirne_, commanded by Captain Martin, of which my
old friend and shipmate James Sprunt was purser. After a very hazardous
voyage in this ship, during which we weathered a fearful gale, and
although we came very near foundering, we returned to Nassau to learn
from Captain Maffitt of the steamer _Owl_, which had just arrived, that
the last port of the Confederacy had been closed, and that the war was
practically over.
"A small party of almost reckless Confederates, composed of our chief
engineer, Mr. Lockhart; our second engineer, Mr. Carroll; our purser,
Mr. James Sprunt, and the purser of another steamer in port, Maj.
William Green, bought the steam launch belonging to our ship, a boat
about forty feet in length and six feet breadth of beam, and made a
perilous voyage by way of Green Turtle Cay to Cape Canaveral, Fla.,
where they landed in the surf after a two weeks' voyage, and proceeding
on foot 175 miles to Ocala, Fla., succeeded in evading the Federal
pickets and sentries at various points along the route and at last
reached Wilmington, having occupied about two months on the way.
"I chose an easier and more agreeable route and proceeded via New York
to visit some relatives in Indiana and returned later to North Carolina
to find peace restored to our unhappy and desolated country."