The grand expedition of General Banks, which had been the subject of so much speculation in the United States, and of which their newspapers had long before duly informed the Confederate cruiser, seemed to offer the most favourable opportunity possible for such an enterprise. The expedition would, of course, be accompanied by one or more armed vessels, but the principal portion of it would be composed of troop-ships, crowded with the enemy's soldiers; and should the Alabama but prove victorious in the fight, these transports would be a prize of more practical importance than all the grain and all the oil ever carried in a merchantman's hold.
It was a daring adventure certainly. To steer, with a solitary light-armed sloop, close upon a coast, blockaded from north to south, by hundreds of armed vessels, in deliberate quest of a squadron, not improbably four or five times stronger than herself, was an act of almost reckless hardihood, fully in keeping with the rest of the Alabama's career. The event indeed proved the full danger of the adventure; whilst, at the same time, nothing could have more clearly showed how utterly groundless were the dastardly imputations upon the courage and prowess of her crew, poured out daily from the foul-mouthed organs of the Northern press. There could be no question of the fighting qualities, or disposition, of the Confederate cruiser, after such a test as this.
For five days the Alabama kept steadily on her course for Galveston, where she expected to find the fleet of which she was in search. At length, on Sunday, the 11th January--her "lucky day"--the moment so anxiously looked for came.
Our position at noon--writes Captain Semmes--put us just within thirty miles of Galveston, and I stood on, intending either just to sight the shipping at a great distance, without being seen myself, or else to anchor just out of sight until the moon should rise the following night, which would be about half-past eleven, and then run in, and attack, as I hoped, "Banks' expedition." Owing, however, to a little carelessness in the look-out at "masthead," we were permitted to approach the ships anchored off the bar in such plain sight, before they were announced, that we were discovered, although we tacked immediately and stood off, in the hopes of eluding the vigilance of the enemy.