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[331]
in animated conversation.
From Price, Webster learned that a large amount of goods had been purchased by several wealthy gentlemen of Baltimore, who had adopted a very novel manner of transporting them into rebeldom, without danger from Federal pickets or gunboats.
Their plan was to ship the goods upon a vessel bound for Europe and ostensibly the goods were intended for the same destination.
In addition to this a small boat was purchased, which was to be taken in tow by the steamer.
By an arrangement with the captain the vessel was to stand in as close as possible to the mouth of York river, when the small boat was to be brought alongside, then the goods were to be transferred to it, and the owners were to pull up the river to Yorktown, effect a safe landing, and the rest would be an easy task.
Webster complimented his companion on the shrewdness displayed in this suggestion, and that evening he wrote to me, conveying full particulars of the proposed blockade-running.
It is needless to say that this little plan, shrewd as it was, failed of execution.
Men were at once placed upon the track of these merchants, and a more surprised coterie never existed than were these gentlemen, when their goods, carefully labeled for a foreign port, were seized by the government, and their conveyance to the South effectually stopped.
An examination of the goods fully confirmed the correctness of Webster's information, and this venture, at
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