Union Navy blockade

By March 1864 health was still an ever-present concern, but only then could Waller see the Union Navy that stood between him and much-needed supplies. Camped near Smithfield, North Carolina, he wrote to his sister, I fear if we stay here long we will have plenty of sickness. There is small pox here now in the fall they have yellow fever and cholera. i9 But he added ominously, I could see the billows on the ocean rising like mountains looking as white as cotton away in the distance the masts of ships were visable [sic], supposed to be the [Union] blockading fleet. 20... 

---