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34 Blockaded april–May 1864 When old John Boston died, the savannah Republican editor, James sneed, succeeded him, both as collector of customs and head of the confederate states Depository . To keep the books sneed hired charles hardee, who counted among his uncles both savannah cotton merchant noble hardee and General William J. hardee. Before the war charles worked for his uncle, noble, then founded his own cotton brokerage with his brother-in-law, so he was familiar with routine business practices. When sneed realized how valuable hardee could be, he made him deputy collector of the port and assistant depositary for confederate states funds. it was a heavy responsibility: receiving and disbursing all government monies for the savannah area, including funds for the station, ship construction, and the squadron. hardee handled millions of dollars and found he had walked into a position with an absolutely hopeless accounting system. he changed it, inaugurating “an entirely new system based upon the principles i had been taught to practice all of my business life.” hardee had briefly held an army commission, commanding conscript camp Dunwody, supplying some of the Georgia’s crew. But he landed a War Department position supervising all the cotton sent out of savannah. The government claimed half the cargo space on all outgoing blockade runners, and hardee was responsible for seeing that the government got its share of cotton aboard every schooner that left port. on occasion he asked the squadron to provide “whatever assistance possible” to aid the little blockade-runners’ escape.1 But there was little the navy could do to help. a feint against the blockade meant risking the vessels, 306 / chapter 34 strain on machinery and hulls, the expenditure of fuel, and additional paperwork accounting for it. so the little schooners were on their own. Blockade running in savannah was now almost exclusively the work of these small sailing craft that could navigate the backwaters. colonel anderson invested in one of these, the Irene and Jessie. his one share cost a thousand dollars. Krenson & hawkes built her, and they, isaac cohen, and e. e. hertz were her principal owners. Master William Dixon sailed her. The Sand Fly was another Krenson & hawkes–built schooner, slipping in and out of savannah under Master M. a. sullivan. Blockade-running pilotTom fleetwood owned a quarter share of the schooner John R. Medis, captained by J. W. King, who owned a quarter share himself. These little schooners were usually successful in running the blockade, and their crews came back from Bermuda or havana “with their pockets full of good money.” hertz, a downtown merchant, invested heavily in the blockade-running business . he owned shares not only in the Irene and Jessie, but also was principal shareholder in the Rebecca Hertz, named for his wife. Deputy collector hardee recalled her as “schooner-rigged, built at savannah by savannah workmen, and owned by savannah Waterside men.” hardee remembered this little schooner in particular because she was one of the few who never came back, disappearing with all hands on one of her early voyages.2 sailors in the squadron used the little blockade runners as their postal service. Their letters went out to nassau or havana or Bermuda on a little schooner, then came back in on another schooner bound for a port close to kinfolks along the Gulf coast of florida or alabama.3 Wassaw sound had been the primary avenue of entry and escape for these small sail. But the yankees were far more watchful since the Atlanta episode. now monitors were there more often than not, and the iron monsters were probing up Wilmington river, tossing the occasional shell onto Wilmington and Whitemarsh islands , keeping everybody in a dither anticipating an invasion. so, more and more often the blockade runners slipped in and out the savannah river’s mouth, running the main ship channel past fort Pulaski. Below Wassaw, ossabaw sound made savannah accessible to small craft via the vernon and Burnside rivers behind skidaway island, then up skidaway river past the isle of hope to Wilmington river. But skidaway narrows was so tight that many of the little blockade runners preferred to chance it past fort Pulaski.4 People scarcely thought of the heady days of the Bermuda and Fingal, and those long-ago hopes of booming business. The little schooners could barely keep local business alive. commodore hunter needed more pilots. he asked John Moore at augusta for likely candidates. Given the pay (and the country...

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