Wilkinson, John (Amersham Hospital England UK)

Confederate Blockade Runner: the Personal Recollections of an Officer of the Confederate Navy Wilkinson, John (Amersham Hospital England UK)

Adventures evading Lincoln's strangle hold on the Southern states During the American Civil Wart the Union blockade operated to ensure that few trade goods or war materials entered the Confederacy by way of its Atlantic or Gulf Coast ports. The 'runners' themselves were mostly newly built, high speed vessels, with a small cargo capacity, which raced between the Confederacy and neutral ports in the West Indies and Cuba. One thousand five hundred blockade-runners were destroyed, but still 5 out of 6 runners made it through the Union fleet to safety and the delivery of their essential cargoes. This book was written by a serving officer of the Confederate States Navy. He experienced naval battle, the loss of his ship, capture, release and many hairsbreadth escapes as he continued his precarious and perilous vocation until the end of the Civil War.