Wilmington remained the last open port of the Confederacy, and thus was vital in keeping the Confederate Army supplied with arms and basic necessities. Blockade Runners regularly slipped past Union ships to bring supplies into the port. When Wilmington at last fell after the Battle of Fort Fisher, the death of the Confederacy was inevitable.

In mid-1863, the small city of Wilmington, North Carolina, found itself facing a difficult task: it had to supply Robert E. Lee's army if the South was to continue the Civil War. Guns, ammunition, clothing, and food had to be brought into the Confederacy from Europe, and Wilmington was the last open port. Knowing this, the Union amassed a formidable blockading force off storied Cape Fear. What followed was a contest unique in the annals of warfare. The blockade runners went unarmed, lest their crews be tried as pirates if captured. Neither did the Union fleet wish to sink the runners, as rich prizes were the reward for captured cargoes. The battle was thus one of wits and stealth more than blood and glory. As the Union naval presence grew stronger, the new breed of blockade runners got faster, quieter, lower to the water, and altogether more ghostly--and their crews more daring and resourceful. Today, the remains of nearly three dozen runners lie beneath the waters of the Cape Fear, their exact whereabouts known only to a few fishermen and boaters. Built for a special mission at a brief moment in time, they faded into history after the war. There had never been ships like the blockade runners, and their kind will never be seen again. Gray Phantoms of the Cape Fear tells the story of their captains, their crews, their cargoes, their opponents, and their many unbelievable escapes.

Masters of the Shoals: Tales of the Cape Fear Pilots Who Ran the Union Blockade(Trade Paperback)
by McNeil, Jim
Format:  Trade Paperback
Price:  $18.50
Published: Da Capo Press, 2003

These are the stories of daring harbor pilots who risked their lives for the Confederacy. This volume brings to life these brave pilots of Cape Fear who saved the South from gradual starvation.

Confederate Blockade Runner: The Personal Recollections of an Officer of the Confederate Navy

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.