The article was published in Polish. Below is an English translation of its opening. Wersja polska
On 26 August 1864, the raider CSS Tallahassee returned to Wilmington, North Carolina. On a short cruise she had captured or destroyed 33 vessels, spreading panic along the east coast of the United States. Encouraged by this success, Confederate Navy Secretary Stephen Mallory decided to follow it up by sending a new cruiser into those waters.
In the summer of the fourth year of the Civil War, the Confederate navy lacked ships for the commerce raiding that had so far brought it so many spectacular successes. In June 1864 Georgia had been sold and Alabama lost in battle, while Rappahannock lay at Calais, detained by the French authorities. Only Florida was still operating against Union lines of communication. As it became ever harder to obtain suitable ships from European yards, Mallory turned his attention to blockade runners, including the fast twin-screw steamers Atalanta and Edith. The first entered CS Navy service as Tallahassee, the second as Chickamauga.
