WITH THE BLOCKADE RUNNERS.
[Some experiences of Capt. Joseph F. Torrent, now ninety years of age, as contributed by Capt. H. C. Wells, Commander of LaFayette-McLaws Camp, U. C. V., of Scarsboro, Ga.] al
Capt, Joseph F. Torrent was born in Baltimore, Md., July 17, 1834, but his parents moved to Charleston, S. C., when he was a small child, and there he grew to manhood. His father was a ship's rigger, so the son grew up in the shipping business. In 1860, Captain Torrent was a member of the Vigilant Fire Company, an independent volunteer company of the city of Charleston, which, after the election of Lincoln as President, was merged into a military company, the Vigilant Rifles. Samuel Y. Tupper was elected captain, and he tendered the services of his company to the governor of South Carolina on the 19th day of November, 1860, the first company to tender its services in the defense of the South. The governor accepted the tender, but held them in abeyance for arms. The company uniformed itself and was armed by the citizens with shotguns. In the meantime, Frazier, Trenholm & Co., a cotton firm of Charleston, which had a branch office in Liverpool, England, came to the assistance of the company. They rushed their chief clerk, Mr. Willis, off to Liverpool, where he purchased a complete outfit of arms for the company and shipped them to Charleston via New York. The shipment reached New York and was transferred to the steamer Nashville, a regular Charleston and New York liner, which landed the shipment in Charleston in February, 1861. This was the last trip this steamer made, as it was not allowed
to depart again. The company, being fully armed, was ordered to Morris Island for picket duty on the water front, and assisted in erecting Battery Wagner. It was the guns of this battery that stopped and prevented the Star of the West from reénforcing Fort Sumter with men and provisions, then causing Maj, Robert Anderson to surrender Fort Sumter to the Confederate authorities. The Star of the West could and should have been captured.
After this incident the Federal government began to assemble their ships to demolish the Confederate defenses and to blockade the port of Charleston, and it became quite difficult for the Confederates to supply men or provisions to the coast defenses, as a ship could not go out on the front. The only chance was to supply them by the in side routes, and this had to be done in the night and on high tides. Captain Torrent, being a steamboat man and acquainted with the various channels in the vicinity, was detailed and put in command of a small boat to provision the different Confederate outposts of the army, and thus he won his title of captain.
By 1862 cotton had become a scarce commodity in the outside world. The Confederacy had the cotton and was very much in need of other things that the cotton would get; so Capt. Thomas Lockwood fitted up a small boat, the Elizabeth, and secured the consent of the Confederate government to engage in blockade running. He had to take half cargo in and out of government property free of freight. In making up a crew, he selected Captain Torrent as his first officer. The boat was soon manned and loaded with cotton, then on a dark night they headed for the bar, without lights, and the trip was made all right;in fact, they made several successful trips during the year. In 1863 they were still in the same business, but the outlet over Charleston bar had become so completely obstructed with ships, Federal and Russian, that it was almost impossible to get through them, ''so we headed for Wilmington, N. C.,'' said Captain Torrent, in telling of his experiences in running the blockade. Arriving off the bar there, we halted for observation, and found our chances quite as bad as at Charleston. We decided to hang off shore and wait for a dark night. Finally we started in, but we were detected, and, from the signal lights flashing all around, we thought our time had come. Captain Lockwood was a good navigator and a daring officer. He headed for shore at full speed and ran ona sand bar about a half mile from mainland, out of reach of their guns, some twelve or fifteen miles south of the mouth of Cape Fear River. We had on board twelve thousand dollars in gold for the government, of which the crew was ignorant, so we lowered our boats and took the crew, with some provisions, ashore, and the captain directed them to