itary supplies.

2. The South raised (in 1860) 4,700,000 bales of cotton, almost all of
which was sold to England and the North, and if this cotton should be
sent abroad, the South could easily buy with it all the guns, ships, and
goods she needed.

3. England was dependent on the South for raw cotton, and would sell for
it everything the South wanted in exchange.

The blockade, therefore, was to cut off the trade and supplies of the
South, and so weaken her. But as England, a great commercial nation,
wanted her cotton, it was certain that unless the blockade were rigorous
and close, cotton would be smuggled out and supplies sent in.

%456. Blockade Runners%.--This is just what did happen. The blockade
in the course of a year was made close, by ships stationed off the
ports, sounds, and harbors. In some places the hulks of old whalers were
loaded with stone and sunk in the channels, and to get in or out became
more difficult. As a result the price of cotton fell to eight cents a
pound in the South (because there was nobody to buy it) and rose to
fifty cents a pound in England (because so little was to be had). Then
"running the blockade" became a regular business. Goods of all sorts
were brought from England to Nassau in the West Indies, where they would
be put on board of vessels built to run the blockade. These blockade
runners were long, low steam vessels which drew only a few feet of water
and had great speed. Their hulls were but a few feet out of water and
were painted a dull gray. Their smokestacks could be lowered to the
deck, and they burned anthracite coal, which made no smoke. They would
leave Nassau at such a time as would enable them to be off Wilmington,
N.C., or some other Southern port, on a moonless night with a high tide,
and then, making a dash, would run through the blockading vessels. Once
in port, they would take a cargo of cotton, and would run out on a dark
night or during a storm. During the war, 1504 vessels of all kinds were
captured or destroyed.[1]

[Footnote 1: Read T. E. Taylor's _Running the Blockade, _pp. 16-32,
44-54.]

%457. The Commerce Destroyers.%--While the North was thus busy
destroying the trade of the South, the South was busy destroying the
enormous trade of the North. When the war opened, our merchant ships
were to be seen in every port of the world, and against these were sent
a class of armed vessels known as "commerce destroyers," whose business
it was to cruise alon