Chapter nine
WilmingtonSoon after Denning left, Marie grabbed her umbrella and headed out the old print shop to walk the two blocks to the telegraph office.
She looked around at the new Wilmington, far removed from the prewar version. The blockade had changed Wilmington from a quaint port into a frontier town lacking authority. It was now the base for Robert E. Lee’s supply line to his Army of Northern Virginia. There was no peace or rest in the place, which seemed to be always on the go. It lingered with a high-spirited mixture of speculators, scallywags, prostitutes, drunkards, gunmen, and noisy British and Southern navy officers and enlisted men with strange accents and vulgar behavior. Money and riches flowed lavishly in Wilmington, “the city of champagne and oysters”.
She turned th
