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message was delivered to the only white man found, who sat in the. post-office and seemed quite dazed.
At
General Drayton's headquarters was found a chart of the coast, and, in red-pencil marks, a very valuable addition, no less than the position of all the earth-works within his command, the number of guns being shown by the number of red marks in each locality.
All of the batteries indicated from
North Edisto south to
Tybee were found to be abandoned; the guns, however, had been removed, with the exception of some inferior pieces.
Wherever the gunboats penetrated, into harbors or rivers, huge columns of white smoke were seen on all sides from the burning cotton, far out of our reach, had it been the special object of our visit to secure it. Thus the enemy inflicted upon the inhabitants injuries they
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Pope's House, Hilton head, used by the union army as a signal-station.
From a war-time sketch. |
would otherwise have escaped, even had it been within the power of the crews of the gun-boats to inflict them.
On the 10th, on board the
Seneca, the flag-officer paid a visit to
Beaufort and endeavored, by proclamation printed and distributed, to assure peaceable inhabitants of his protection.
A planter whose house was on
Paris Island, plainly in view from the anchorage at
Port Royal, remained without molestation for weeks, and was then constrained to leave only under threats of dire penalties from his Confederate friends.
After abandoning his works on
Hilton Head, the enemy did not succeed in getting off the island, at
Seabrook Landing, only six miles from the fort, until 2 A. M. of the 8th.
On the
Bay Point side, owing to a much longer march and the indifferent means of crossing a small stream, it was not until the following afternoon that the force reached an adjacent island or the mainland.
1 Every man of them, whether in the one fort or the other, was doubtless greatly impressed with the power of gun-boats when brought face to face with those batteries which only a few hours before they had regarded as quite capable of sinking or driving off any force that would be brought against them.
The
battle of Port Royal, occurring a little less than seven months after the fall of
Fort Sumter, was of surpassing value in its moral and political effect, both at home and abroad.
It gave us one of the finest harbors on the
Atlantic sea-board, affording an admirable base for future operations; and, by the establishment of coaling stations, shops, and supply depots, made it possible to maintain an effective blockade within the entrances of the whole coast from
Charleston to
Cape Florida, except at
Fernandina.
Although
