AUGUST 15, 1863:
Lieutenant John Wilkinson, C.S.N., skipper of
the blockade runner Lee, departs from
Wilmington, North Carolina, praising the bravery of his female passengers:
“My observation of the
conduct of the fair sex, under trying and novel circumstances, has convinced me
that they face inevitable dangers more bravely and with more composure than
men. I have frequently seen a frail, delicate woman standing erect and unflinching
upon the deck, as the shells were whistling and bursting over us, while her
lawful protector would be cowering ‘under the lee’ of a cotton bale.”
