The article betrays a real ignorance of the Civil War, and of blockade running.
While the dolls may have been English made, any blockade running boat would have stored quinine or morphine supplies openly—because, if the Federals captured the blockade runner, the contents (dolls and all) would be sent north or destroyed anyway.
If these dolls were used for smuggling needed drugs, they were used by people smuggling drugs from the north. Smugglers would often go by train or boat to a place such as Memphis, TN, far from any seaport, and the dolls would be carried through the lines by civilians.
This supposition is bolstered by the fact that the donor, Confederate General Patton Anderson’s family, was from the Memphis area. And another correction—while Anderson commanded a division in the Confederate “Army of Tennessee”, he did NOT command that army, nor was there any “Tennessee Army of the Confederacy.”