a gang of sailors to
work rubbing away with polish on the flukes of the great anchors, merely
to give them work. But while this sort of occupation may drive dull care
away from the heart of Jack, his officers are not so easily entertained;
and the dull routine of blockading duty at an unfrequented port is most
wearisome to adventurous spirits. Particularly was this the case with
Lieut. Cushing, and he was constantly upon the lookout for some perilous
adventure. One day late in November, information was brought to him that
the enemy had established large salt-works at Jacksonville, thirty-five
miles up the river. Even thus early in the war, the vigorous blockade
was beginning to tell upon the supplies of the Confederates; and one of
the articles of which the Southern armies were in the greatest need was
salt. The distress caused by the lack of it was great. Many of the
soldiers were in the habit of sprinkling gunpowder upon their food to
give it a flavor approaching that of salt. In olden days, particularly
in the British navy about the end of the eighteenth century, it was the
custom for the captains to issue to their crews, before going into
battle, large cups of grog with gunpowder stirred in. It was believed
that this mixture made the men fight more desperately. But this theory
of the doughty sea-dogs of past generations no longer finds any support,
and doubtless the soldiers of the Confederacy felt they could fight
better upon salt than on their enforced seasoning of gunpowder. At
Manassas Junction, when the Confederate army by a rapid movement
captured a large provision train, the rush of the soldiers for two or
three cars laden with salt was so great that a strong guard had to be
stationed to beat back pilferers, and secure a proper division of the
much-prized seasoning.

The officers of the Union navy were well informed of this scarcity of
salt throughout the South, and accordingly made it a point to destroy
all salt-works along the coast. The officers of the Gulf squadron were
constantly employed in raiding establishments of this character, of
which there were numbers along the coast of Louisiana, Alabama, and
Mississippi. Cushing, on hearing of the existence of salt-works in the
district over which he stood guard, determined to destroy them. But to
do this was a matter of no small peril. Jacksonville was thirty-five
miles up a small stream, in the heart of a country teeming with
Confederate troops and their gue