zores to the Antilles. On the 5th of
December she took a prize off the northern coast of San Domingo.
Relying on the information with which he was freely furnished,
Semmes expected to find the expedition off Galveston about the
middle of January. In the dead of night, "after the midwatch was
set and all was quiet," he meant, in the words of his executive
officer,(1) slowly to approach the transports, "steam among them
with both batteries in action, pouring in a continuous discharge
of shell, and sink them as we went." Fortunately Semmes's information,
though profuse and precise, was not quite accurate, for it brought
him off Galveston on the 13th of January: the wrong port, a month
too late. What might have happened is shown by the ease with which
he then destroyed the _Hatteras_.

To guard against these dangers, it had been the wish of the
government, and was a part of the original plan, that the transports
sailing from New York should be formed in a single fleet and proceed,
under strong convoy, to its destination. However, it soon became
evident that as the rate of sailing of a fleet is governed by that
of its slowest ship, the expedition, thus organized, would be forced
to crawl along the coast at a speed hardly greater than five miles
an hour. This would not only have exposed three ships out of five,
and five regiments out of six, for at least twice the necessary
time to the perils of the sea, increased by having to follow an
inshore track at this inclement season; it would not only have
introduced chances of detention and risks of collision and of
separation, but the peril from the _Alabama_ would have been
augmented in far greater degree than the security afforded by any
naval force the government could just then spare. Therefore, the
slow ships were loaded and sent off first and the faster ones kept
back to the last; then, each making the best of its way to Ship
Island, nearly all came in together. Thus, when the _North Star_,
bearing the flag of the commanding general and sailing from New
York on the 4th of December, arrived in the early morning of the
13th at Ship Island, nearly the whole fleet lay at anchor or in
the offing; and as soon as a hasty inspection could be completed
and fresh orders given, the expedition got under way for New Orleans.
The larger vessels, however, like the _Atlantic, Baltic_, and
_Ericsson_ being unable to cross the bar, lay at anchor at Ship
Island until they could be li