Letter from Major Smith Stansbury to Colonel Josiah Gorgas, September 2, 1863

Letter from Major Smith Stansbury to Colonel Josiah Gorgas, September 2, 1863

Major Smith Stansbury of the Confederate Ordnance Bureau worked alongside Major Norman Walker in Bermuda. Together, they helped to coordinate the blockade running efforts of the Confederate Ordnance Bureau, which was headed by Colonel Josiah Gorgas. The "Eugenie" and the "R.E. Lee" were both Confederate blockade runners; their careers were spent shuttling materials from Bermuda to Wilmington. The 600 barrels of gunpowder that they were bringing to port would have been invaluable to the Confederate armies, which, late in 1863, were reorganizing after disastrous losses at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. By this point in the war, Wilmington was the last port in the Atlantic that was unhindered by capture or impassable blockade, making Wilmington invaluable to the Confederacy.

Major Smith Stansbury

Major Smith Stansbury to Colonel Josiah Gorgas, September 1, 1863, in Confederate Blockade Running Through Bermuda, 1861 - 1865: Letters and Cargo Manifests, ed. Frank E. Vandiver (Austin: The University of Texas Press, 1947), 91.

1863 -09 -01

York, Robert A.

Document

St. George, Bermuda.

Wilmington, North Carolina (Fort Fisher).

Correspondence

St. George’s Ba.
September 1st, 1863–
Colonel J. Gorgas
Col: Your telegram of 21st Ulto. To Fort Fisher was received; in hand, just in time for the “Eugenie.”
A copy was enclosed to Capt. Fry, and handed to me–
I sent by “R.E. Lee” 300 Barrels Gunpowder, By “Eugenie” 300 Barrels Gunpowder.
We have left about 1400 Barrels which will be shipped by the first opportunity.
Smith Stansbury, Major
Per Geo. G Gibson