Rhett Butler-Romantic Blockade Runner

Rhett Butler is the legendary character and heart throb of the Civil War novel Gone With the Wind.  During the war, dashing and handsome Butler takes up the occupation of a blockader runner captain.  Because of
the book's and character's status in American lore,  when many people today think of the men of blockade runners, they usually think of Butler first.  There has provoked a discussion around the Hampton Roads Naval Museum of the accuracy of this statement. What do you think? I provided Two You Tube clip from the 1939 Gone With the Wind.  The first is the "practical" Rhett Butler and the second is the "romantic" Rhett Butler.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3OLFmfWBWI
Practical Butler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-i7VTPKc5M
Romantic Butler

USS Fort Donelson (ex-Robert E. Lee)

This is an 1864 picture of USS Fort Donelson in Norfolk shortly after being repaired. This sleek looking warship was formerly the Scottish-built blockade runner Robert E. Lee. As a blockade runner, the vessel gave the U.S. Navy fits as she was able to evade blockaders and leave them in her wake. Her luck ran out on November 9, 1863 when the blockaders USS Iron Age and James Adger caught and captured her. 

Robert E. Lee/Fort Donelson is an excellent example of a Civil War blockade runner.  Some of the best designed ships of the war were the blockade runners.  Sleek in design, they had to achieve high speed while being able to carry a large amount of cotton (if going outbound) or ordnance and clothing (if coming inbound).  Scottish and English shipbuilders were more than happy to accommodate Confederate and British outfits with ships that fit these needs.  The result was some of the fastest ships in the world. 

The U.S. Navy did work off the theory that the best way to capture a blockade runner was with another blockade runner, particularly one as well designed as Robert E. Lee. Thus, Robert E. Lee was refitted, reflagged, and recommissioned Fort Donelson (after the 1862 battle on the Cumberland River). She served with the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron and participated in the second Fort Fisher campaign.

Confederate States Navy Department Seal-Official and Unofficial

Above is the the official seal of the Confederate States Navy, showing a  three masted sailing ship.  It is eriely similar to the current seal of the Department of the Navy.  However, in many ways, the image below should have been the logo.

This Southern belle version of "Columbia" holding the First National Flag, while sitting on bales of cotton and staring out a merchant ship sums up the main objective of the Confederate States Navy: get cotton overseas. The image appeared on "cotton bonds" that Confederate agents sold overseas. Sellers of the bonds pledged cotton with interest in order to raise needed hard currency to buy ships and weapons. By all accounts the program was extremely successful in convincing European investors to bank on the South. Stephen Wise in Lifeline of the Confederacy wrote that the agents raised $7 million in cash on $45 million worth of pledged cotton. The bond holders, however, lost millions as much of the promised cotton was never delivered and the U.S. Government refused to pay debts on the Confederacy after the war.