North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial
“The Official Website of the North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission”
Born
in Glasgow, Scotland in 1846, well-known Wilmingtonian businessman,
author and philanthropist James Sprunt was a young seventeen year-old
who took to sea aboard blockade runners during the War. A successful
cotton merchant after the war, he also held the position of British vice
consul, German consul, Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of
Navigation and Pilotage, and served as President of: the Seamen’s
Friend Society, State Literary and Historical Association of North
Carolina, and North Carolina Folk Lore Society – and was a Trustee of
the University of North Carolina. His most famous work is entitled
“Chronicles of the Cape Fear, published in 1914. When asked on one
occasion what suggestion from his experience in life he would offer the
young, he replied, “Unswerving integrity, sobriety, perseverance,
out-of-door exercise, and faith in the goodness of God.”
A Young Purser Hoisting the Rebel Colors:
“He
came to manhood in a troubled time. The War Between the States had
begun. The Federal Government proclaimed a blockade of Southern ports.
The natural advantages of Wilmington made it an ideal port for blockade
runners, as there were two entrances to the river and as the slope of
the beach for miles is very gradual to deep water. Therefore, a light
draft steamer, hard pressed by the enemy, could run along the outer edge
of the breakers without great risk of grounding, whereas the pursuer,
being usually of deeper draft, was obliged to keep farther off shore.
In
the third year of the War at age seventeen, he took passage on a
blockade runner to Bermuda with the promise of a position on the North
Heath, a vessel then building on the Clyde. When she arrived at Bermuda,
Captain [Thomas] Burroughs, her commander, who had successfully run the
blockade twelve times….[on the] Cornubia, appointed him purser of the
North Heath.
But
shortly after sailing from St. George, Bermuda, bound for Wilmington,
they ran into a hurricane and for two days and nights were in imminent
danger of their lives. For an entire night she wallowed like a log in a
trough of mountainous waves….the water had risen in her hold until
every one of the fourteen furnaces was extinguished. Eventually the
captain…got the ship under control and she was put about and headed back
to Bermuda for repairs. A little later….[Sprunt] was appointed purser
of the steamer Lilian [under Captain John Newland Maffitt], and on this
vessel he passed through all the dangers and exciting experiences of a
daring blockade runner.
[The
USS Shenandoah] log of Saturday, July 30, 1864, off Cape Lookout says:
“At 3:45PM sighted a steamer [Lilian] burning black smoke to the
eastward; made all sail in chase. At 5:45PM he showed rebel colors…[and]
began to fire at him with the 30 and 150 pounder rifle Parrott….at 8PM
stopped firing, gave up the chase, stopped engines.”
Of
this Dr. Sprunt wrote half a century afterwards: “….it was I who
hoisted those “rebel” colors on that eventful day fifty-five years ago:
and thereby hangs the tale.” Then follows the blood-stirring story of
the Lilian, loaded to the hatch combings with gunpowder for Lee’s army;
of her hundred-mile chase and bombardment by the Shenandoah, of the
“fearful accuracy” of the cruiser’s gunnery….the young purser’s
sensations as the hurtling shells passed only a few feet from his
head…..the bursting of one of her boilers, reducing her to a desperate
condition, of her wonderful escape after nightfall….and on the following
morning, though badly crippled, passed through the Federal fleet off
Fort Fisher under furious fire from the whole [Northern] squadron and
steamed into Wilmington with her cargo of powder.
On
the third outward voyage the Lilian was chased and bombarded for five
hours by five Federal cruisers, disabled by a shot below the water line
and captured, and James Sprunt, sharing the fate of his associates,
became a prisoner of war (August 24, 1864) and was confined for some
time in a casemate of Fort Macon.
In
company with Pilot “Jim Billy” Craig, afterwards well-known as the
Reverend J.W. Craig, an honored minister of the Methodist Church, he
escaped from prison and they made their way to Halifax, Nova Scotia. His
last service afloat in the War was as purser of the Confederate steamer
Susan Beirne, of which Eugene Maffitt [son of Captain John Newland
Maffitt] was chief officer, and he continued on this blockade runner
until the fall of Fort Fisher.”
(Source: James Sprunt, A Tribute from the City of Wilmington, Edwards & Broughton, 1925, pp. 12-18)
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