Egypt Mills
(q.v.), 22 May 1865, by Shamrock, Comdr. W. H. Macomb, USN, who maintained that the two steamers, whether "purchased or seized from their owners-were certainly rebel Government property." Egypt Mills had on board a quantity of Confederate Government cotton salvaged from the Halifax, N.C., Navy Yard during evacuation. Both were "claimed as private property by citizens of Halifax and elsewhere"-without success; Macomb sent both to Norfolk in June 1865. Egypt Mills' documentation shows she was forfeited "for breach of laws" but redocumented as Alida (consistently though unaccountably shown as a sidewheeler)
(ScStr: t. 70)
