On The Blockade Read online

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  THE BLUE AND THE GRAY--AFLOAT

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  TAKEN BY THE ENEMY WITHIN THE ENEMY'S LINES ON THE BLOCKADE STAND BY THE UNION FIGHTING FOR THE RIGHT A VICTORIOUS UNION

  THE BLUE AND THE GRAY--ON LAND

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  BROTHER AGAINST BROTHER IN THE SADDLE A LIEUTENANT AT EIGHTEEN ON THE STAFF AT THE FRONT AN UNDIVIDED UNION

  Any Volume Sold Separately

  Lee and Shepard Publishers BOSTON

  Mulgrum and the engineer.]

  The

  BLUE AND THE GRAY

  Series

 

  By Oliver Optic

  ON THE BLOCKADE

  _The Blue and the Gray Series_

  ON THE BLOCKADE

  by OLIVER OPTIC

  Author of"The Army and Navy Series" "Young America Abroad""The Great Western Series" "The Woodville Stories""The Starry Flag Series" "The Boat-Club Stories""The Onward and Upward Series" "The Yacht-Club Series""The Lake Shore Series" "The Riverdale Series""The Boat-Builder Series" "Taken by the Enemy" "Within the Enemy's Lines" etc.

  BOSTON

  LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers

  Copyright, 1890, by Lee and Shepard _All rights reserved._

  On the Blockade.

  To my Son-in-Law,

  SOL SMITH RUSSELL,

  of the United States of America, though Residing in Minneapolis, Minnesota,

  who is always"On the Blockade" against Melancholy, "The Blues," and all similar maladies,

  This Volume is affectionately dedicated.

  PREFACE

  "ON THE BLOCKADE" is the third of "The Blue and the Gray Series." Likethe first and second volumes, its incidents are dated back to the Warof the Rebellion, and located in the midst of its most stirring sceneson the Southern coast, where the naval operations of the United Statescontributed their full share to the final result.

  The writer begs to remind his readers again that he has not felt calledupon to invest his story with the dignity of history, or in all casesto mingle fiction with actual historic occurrences. He believes that allthe scenes of the story are not only possible, but probable, and thatjust such events as he has narrated really and frequently occurred inthe days of the Rebellion.

  The historian is forbidden to make his work more palatable or moreinteresting by the intermixture of fiction with fact, while thestory-writer, though required to be reasonably consistent with thespirit and the truth of history, may wander from veritable details, anduse his imagination in the creation of incidents upon which the grandresult is reached. It would not be allowable to make the Rebellion asuccess, if the writer so desired, even on the pages of romance; and itwould not be fair or just to ignore the bravery, the self-sacrifice, andthe heroic endurance of the Southern people in a cause they believed tobe holy and patriotic, as almost universally admitted at the presenttime, any more than it would be to lose sight of the magnificent spirit,the heroism, the courage, and the persistence, of the Northern people inaccomplishing what they believed then, and still believe, was a holy andpatriotic duty in the preservation of the Union.

  Incidents not inconsistent with the final result, or with the spiritof the people on either side in the great conflict are of comparativelylittle consequence. That General Lee or General Grant turned this orthat corner in reaching Appomattox may be important, but the grandhistorical tableau is the Christian hero, noble in the midst of defeat,disaster, and ruin, formally rendering his sword to the impassible butmagnanimous conqueror as the crowning event of a long and bloody war.The details are historically important, though overshadowed by themighty result of the great conflict.

  Many of the personages of the preceding volumes have been introduced inthe present one, and the central figure remains the same. The writer iswilling to admit that his hero is an ideal character, though his loftytone and patriotic spirit were fully paralleled by veritable individualsduring the war; and he is not prepared to apologize for the abundantsuccess which attended the career of Christy Passford. Those who reallystruggled as earnestly and faithfully deserved his good fortune, thoughthey did not always obtain it.

  Dorchester, Mass., April 24, 1890.