Description:

Civil War - Union blockade report dispatched to Samuel P. Lee in Virginia in 1863, superb content.

2pp bifold signed war dated document, the eleventh duplicate copy, sent to Samuel P. Lee, Commander of the North Atlantic Blocking Squadron, reporting a recent incident with Confederate blockade runners on May 26, 1863. Cream lined paper with double blue margins inscribed overall in a careful and delicate clerical hand. In very fine condition, with expected fold marks, each page measuring 8" x 13.5".

Please find the entire report reproduced below with untouched spelling mistakes:

"{No. 11} Duplicate

Piankatank River,

May 26 th 1863

Sir

I have the honor to report to you that having learned that a boat had run the Blockade and that the goods were deposited in a building up Cobbs Creek I dispatched two Boats with 22 men to search up the goods it being ten O.clock P.M. The boats landed half mile from the mouth of the Creek and left two men to guard the Boat and kept pickets within signal distance of each other to keep up Communication and marched with the rest of the force to Geo. Simmons Store almost a mile distance. Found no goods there but discovered fresh wheel tracks and gathered information from his negroes that the goods had been brought thier that evening and carried down the woods towards Cobbs Creek. With the aid of a dark lantern we followed the wheel tracks which led directly to the door and found the goods. Sent Mr. Husband with four (4) men to the house to prevent the escape from the House and secure the prisoners if any were there and to prevent the alarm from being spread. Captured one prisoner a Mr. Ward one other escaped. Took the goods to the Boats. No violence was used on the ocasion. Many of the people of Mathew's County are desirous of having a stop put to Blockade running as it is injurious to them and they ment to inform of all who are engaged in the business all of which is respectfully submited.

Very respectfully your Old Servant,

Saml B. Gregory

Act Master Comdg

To "A.R.A. Samuel P Lee, Commanding N.A. Blockading Squdran, Newport News, VA"

Shortly after war was declared in 1861, 16 th U.S. President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) implemented a blockade of Southern port cities. Winfield Scott's "Anaconda Plan", as it was called, attempted to interrupt Southern trade by bottling up approximately 3,500 miles of coastline. The North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, charged with containing North Carolina and Virginia, witnessed a great deal of Confederate blockade running activity. This report was issued from a camp along the Piankatank River, a 24-mile long tidal river in eastern Virginia leading into the Chesapeake Bay. It was located about 40 miles north of North Atlantic Blockading Squadron headquarters in Newport News, VA and 3 miles north of Cobb's Creek, mentioned in this letter as the hiding place of contraband Confederate goods.

Acting Rear Admiral Samuel Philips Lee (1812-1897) commanded the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron between 1862 and 1864. This cousin of Confederate General Robert E. Lee (1807-1870) decided to defend the Union. After his service in North Carolina and Virginia, Lee was dispatched to the Mississippi River.

Samuel B. Gregory (19 th C.), a shoemaker from Marblehead, MA and the signee of our document, received his officer's commission in October 1861, commanding first the Western World and then the Perry. Despite difficulties with maintaining crew discipline, Gregory was by all accounts an effective leader and successfully deterred most blockade running. The May 26, 1863 incident resulted in no Union casualties, and the apprehension of Confederate goods and one prisoner. Just seven months after signing off on this report, however, Gregory lost fifteen sailors in a Confederate ambush near Murrells Inlet and Magnolia Beach, South Carolina. The emboldened Confederate blockade runners hanged one of Gregory's men, a twenty-three-year-old black sailor from Connecticut named George Brinsmaid.

Our official navy document, along with other incidents between the Union navy and Confederate blockade runners, illustrate the dangers of this region during the Civil War. Gregory's comments about how most white and black locals disapproved of blockade running and informed on Confederate privateers foreshadow the Union victory less than two years later. Ex William Burger

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