the first two years; and it was almost more than human nature
could stand to keep forever on the extreme alert, day after dreary
day, through the deadly boredom of a long blockade. Like caged
eagles the crews passed many a weary week of dull monotony without
the chance of swooping on a chase. "Smoke ho!" would be called
from the main-topgallant cross-tree. "Where away?" would be called
back from the deck. "Up the river, Sir!"--and there it would stay,
the very mark of hope deferred. Occasionally a cotton ship would
make a dash, with lights out on a dark night, or through a dense
fog, when her smoke might sometimes be conned from the tops.
Occasionally, too, a foreigner would try to run in, and not seldom
succeed, because only the fastest vessels tried to run the blockade
after the first few months. But the general experience was one of
utter boredom rarely relieved by a stroke of good luck.

The South could not break the blockade. But the North could tighten
it, and did so repeatedly, not only at sea but by establishing
strong strategic centers of its own along the Southern coast. We
have seen already how Hatteras Island was taken in '61, five weeks
after Bull Run. Within another three weeks Ship Island was also taken,
to the great disadvantage of the Gulf ports and the corresponding
advantage of the Federal fleet blockading them; for Ship Island
commanded the coastwise channels between Mobile and New Orleans,
the two great scenes of Farragut's success. Then, on the seventh
of November, the day that Grant began his triumphant career by
dealing the Confederates a shrewd strategic blow at Belmont in
Missouri, South Carolina suffered a worse defeat at Port Royal
(where she lost Forts Beauregard and Walker) than North Carolina
had suffered at Hatteras Island. Admiral S. F. Du Pont managed
the naval part of the Port Royal expedition with consummate skill,
especially the fine fleet action off Hilton Head against the Southern
ships and forts. He was ably seconded by General Thomas West Sherman,
commanding the troops.

North Carolina's turn soon came again, when she lost Roanoke Island
(and with it the command of Albemarle Sound) on February 8, 1862;
and when she also had Pamlico Sound shut against her by a joint
expedition that struck down her defenses as far inland as Newbern
on the fourteenth of March. Then came the turn of Georgia, where
Fort Pulaski, the outpost of Savannah, fell to the Federals on
the eleventh of April