THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED
would give our men tobacco, meat, bread, in fact anything he could get from the ship's stores. The Yankees saw this and reported it to Webster, their commander, who had the poor Irishman put in irons, transferred to the gunboats for courtmartial, charging the poor fellow with running the ship aground that we might escape. I have always believed and do still believe that Webster made the charge against the first mate of the "Crescent City" for the sole purpose of hiding his abject cowardice in agreeing to surrender the ship to unarmed men. We never learned what became of the mate. The other incident was the escape of Colonel Woolfolk from the ship. By some means, Colonel Woolfolk, a brave, honorable, and true Confederate officer, had permission to have a stateroom on the ship. Aboard the "Crescent City" was an old colored woman who had belonged to the Woolfolk family in South Carolina. She was the stewardess of the ship. She recognized Colonel Woolfolk, her young
82
