(CIVIL WAR--NAVY.) Gregory, Samuel B. Report on contraband tracked from a blockade runner and seized at a barn. Autograph Letter Signed as acting commander of the USS Western World to Acting Rear Admiral Samuel Phillips Lee; retained duplicate in Gregory's hand. 2 pages, 13 1/2 x 8 inches, on one folding sheet; minimal wear. Piankatank River, VA, 26 May 1863
Gregory reports that a blockade runner had made its way up nearby Cobb's Creek, that a force of 22 men was sent inland to a store where the goods were supposed to be held, and that they "found no goods there but discovered fresh wheel tracks and gathered information from his negroes that the goods had been brought there that evening and carried down the woods toward Cobb's Creek." The landing party found the goods in a barn, arrested a suspect in the adjoining house, and brought all goods back to the federal ship. Gregory adds that "no violence was used on the ocasion."
