During the Civil War the Union imposed a naval blockade that stretched from East Texas to Virginia and included major rivers such as the Mississippi. The purpose was to prevent southern planters from selling their cotton to foreign buyers which would prevent the North from obtaining it. There were brave men who managed to get their cotton to market in Mexico or Cuba, somehow. Rhett Butler in the movie Gone with the Wind was one such. My great grandfather, Zachariah Kimball, Jr. of Big Bend in Avoyelles was another. Born with a bad leg, this was the only way he could participate. Somehow he got his cotton from his plantation at Big Bend to market. Does anyone know of similar stories that might explain how this was accomplished? There is a well documented story of the widow Aukland of Angola Plantation receiving permission from Admiral Porter in 1864, to have her cotton shipped from St. Francisville, down the Mississippi to New Orleans and from there to Liverpool where it was sold for $960,000. This smells of a payoff to Admiral Porter. Additional stories will be welcomed.