The principal difficulty we had to contend with was that the Northerners
had possession of a large fortification called Pulaski, which, being
situated at the entrance of the river, commanded the passage up to the
town.
To pass this place in the night seemed easy work enough, as it would be
hard for the sentry to make a vessel out disguised as we were; but to
avoid the shoals and sand-banks at the river's mouth, in a pitch-dark
night, seemed to me, after carefully studying the chart, to be a most
difficult matter. This, however, was the pilot's business; all we
captains had to do was to avoid dangers from the guns of ships and
forts; or, if we could not avoid them, to stand being fired at.
The pilot we had engaged was full of confidence; so much so, that he
refused to have any payment for his services until he had taken us in
and out safely. I may as well mention that there were few if any
blockading vessels off Savannah river, the Northerners having perfect
confidence, I presume, in Fort Pulaski and the shoals which surrounded
the entrance of the river being sufficient to prevent any attempt at
blockade-running succeeding.
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