"It is true, Admiral LEE, is good enough to telegraph an appendix to this report from Beaufort, in which he says that "the blockade is close and vigilant," but it is impossible, he avows, on dark nights to prevent its violation 'by vessels built for the purpose.'
"This would be unanswerable, but for the fact that we have had as good an opportunity to build 'vessels for the purpose' of catching these contraband merchantmen, as those who have devoted themselves to the precarious business of violating the blockade.
"If the fleet at Admiral LEE's disposal is insufficient in numbers, equipment, or in class of vessel employed, he ought to have been supplemented before this.
"The place (Wilmington) must be shut up--and shut up at once--no matter what the cost. If it takes half the fleet or more to do the work, we repeat it must be done. Every rebel official document shows that the conspirators depend upon keeping up their trade with Europe, as much as they depend on either of their great armies."
What the Times didn't know was that plans for capturing Wilmington were already underway in earnest and Welles had offered its command to none other than Rear Admiral Farragut. And, as far as special ships designed to capture blockade-runners, the Union navy was availing itself of the use of captured blockade-runners converted into Union gunboats to do just this. The Advance later became one such Union warship.
--Old B-Runner
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