Daniel Ammen, Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 7.2, The Atlantic Coast
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

This colony maintained itself for months, eventually reaching more than one thousand in number, although those that desired were taken to Port Royal by the gunboats when going. Corn that had been housed and sweet potatoes that had been buried, and an occasional supply of beef from cattle that they would look up on the island, were quite sufficient to supply their simple wants throughout the winter, and the branches of trees and palmetto leaves placed over poles served them for shelter in true Arcadian simplicity.

Returning to Port Royal, the Pawnee visited the southwest end of the island, where an abandoned earthwork of two redoubts was found. These had been armed with eight guns.

A great deal was said by the enemy and by his putative friends in Great Britain of the sinking of a ‘stone fleet’ on December 20, 1861, in what was termed the main ship channel to Charleston Harbor, and, a month later, in Sullivan Island Channel. It was assumed that these vessels would ‘destroy the harbor.’ The official reports of the enemy, obstructing channels by sinking vessels before that time wherever it suited his purposes, made the complaint ridiculous.

It was at most a temporary embarrassment to blockade-runners that had a sufficient draught to require an actual channel; nearly all of them could pass over any part of the bar near high water, except ‘Drunken Dick’ shoal, which lies within a half mile of Sullivan's Island. As the sea here breaks at all times, it might be regarded rather as a guide than a danger. The range lights, one on Sumter and the other on St. Michael's Church, gave a fair guide into the harbor, even when not running on the range.