how seriously did the federal government take this? they took it very seriously and realized from the beginning of the war they would need to devote a lot of resource do is the block aid. the union navy at the beginning of the war was i don't know 40 or 50 vessels at most. it was very small. it had to expand tremendously. so through the middle of 1861 through early 1861 the federal navy was buying up every ship it could find. not just building lots of new war ships but purchasing every civilian ship they could put a gun on and using it on the block. and the thinking was we don't need to block the coast. we just need lots of ships. not lots of war ships because they are not going to go into combat a lot and that is probably right. so the union navy expanded during the course of the war from maybe 40 or 50 ships on

active service to i think, over 600. and the vast majority were on the block aid around southern ports. the block aid became much more effective as the war went on because the union navy expanded so much at the very beginning of the war. the first ship appeared was a uss south korea -- south carolina -- and it was just one ship. it blocked galveston and the entire coast. more came after that and it expanded. by 1864 there were a dozen union war ships just awful galveston. they took it seriously and devoted a lot of resources into enforcing the block. the odds were still in their favor even by the end of the war. they were getting through most of the time.

the outs got a lot longer as the war went on. block aid running could be hazardous. they were almost all privately owned vessels. there were a few exceptions of ships owned by the government but most were privately owned. they were not armed. and generally they would not put up a fight if caught. they would run like crazy throwing the cotton overboard and cargo overboard and burning everything in the furnace to try to outrun the vessel that was after them. but once they were cornered they would usually surrender. so it was not physically dangerous in the same way it would be serving on a confederate war ship but there were dangers none the less.

loss of block aid runners were wrecked because they travelled at night and in poor weather conditions. and they tried to get out where buoys and lights were removed. it was common for the runners to be wrecked especially coming into the a confederate court. and there were deaths sometimes like sailors being drowned or lost. so there were dangerouss in that regard. the federalist were in a tight spot because they were out to stop the runners to capture them, but most of the crews of the runners were either citizens of neutral countries, british typically, who were either citizens of neutral countries or had papers saying they were sit

citizen citizens of such. what they would do with the ships is the captured runner would have a prize crew aboard. they would take the vessel to the nearest federal prize port which would be new orleans or key west in this case. and the navy would file papers to the captured vessel condemned as it was called. they would present the evidence we have for the ship running the block aid in contravention of u.s. law. if the owners of the ship had a representative, which they generally didn't that person could go to court as well and present evidence they were not running the block.

and a number were condemned and put back out and within three or four months they would be running the same one with new owners but it was the same ship. right up to the end of the war in texas the last runner end entered the port of galveston here. it was the runner lark. it came into galveston on the night of may 23-24 of 1865. that is a month after lincoln was assassinated. texas and the trans-mississippi

department had not surrendered. the confederate was still part of the war. as late as the last week of may of 1865 reid runners into the port port. it was a rough ending to the running because on the morning of the 24th they tied up a central warf that was right here where we are now. tied up at central warf and they were doing all of the things they normally did to get the ship ready to be unloaded and tying it up and putting game planks down and stuff like that and a confederate courier on horseback came pounding out

along the pier yelling get your ship cast off. get your ship out into the stream, get your ship out into the harbor away from the dock and before they could do that a gang of 200 confederate soldiers away from the garrison and post were fed up and swarmed the ship and broke up the holds looking for liquor/alcohol. when they found that they started drinking. by this time a large group of citizens had arrived and were watching all of this. and pretty soon the looting became general. and you had women and children and civilian and soldiers all going through the cargo of this runner who had arrived and taking anything they could use, anything they thought they might be able to sell. just taking everything they

could get their hands on. and finally the captain managed to get enough people off the ship he could cast off and he got going again and picked up the crew of another runner when was wrecked the night before over on a peninsula. on the night of may 24th he headed back out into the gulf of mexico of into havana and that was the last runner to clear a confederate port. it happened right here. this is not a part of civil war history people are familiar with but i think they should be. it is easy to focus on the grand battles of the war. but this is a part that people need to know about. this is a part that effected civilians and people back home. what happened in galveston,

texas was typical of what happened across the south particularly in sea ports block blocked during the war. there was a federal presence offshore and regular bombarding in down. there was excitement when a runner would arrive. but there was lots of hardship and they did without a great deal. it is something that people need to know about. it is another aspect of the war that is maybe not as heroic or dramatic. it is hard to glorify but it represents live as lived by a lot of people 150 years ago. >> for more information on booktv's visit to galveston. ...

with personal and professional interest i'm tremendously pleased to sit down today with david morris to have a conversation about his new book the evil