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Chapter 12: operations on the coasts of the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico.
- Expedition against New Berne
-- Landing of the Army below the town, 305.
-- battle near New Berne, 306.
-- rout of the Confederates
-- flight of citizens, 307.
-- effect of the capture of New Berne, 308.
-- Christian work at New Berne
-- Mr. Colyer's schools, 309.
-- expedition against Fort Macon
-- the Nashville, 310.
-- preparations to assail Fort Macon, 311.
-- siege and bombardment of the Fort, 312.
-- Fort Macon and its vicinity in 1864, 313.
-- expedition to Albemarle Sound
-- battle of South Mills, 314.
-- operations in the rear of Norfolk
-- the coast of North Carolina in possession of National troops, 315.
-- blockade runners
-- expedition against Fort Pulaski, 316.
-- obstructions of the Savannah River, 317.
-- preparations to bombard Fort Pulaski, 318.
-- bombardment and capture of the Fort, 319.
-- expedition against Fort Clinch, and its capture, 320.
-- capture of Jacksonville, Florida, 321.
-- capture of St. Augustine, 322.
-- the Atlantic coast abandoned by the Confederates, 323.
-- expedition against New Orleans, 324.
-- National troops at Ship Island, 325.
-- proclamation of General Phelps, 326.
-- operations at Biloxi and Mississippi City, 327.
We left
General Burnside in
Albemarle Sound, after the capture of
Roanoke Island and the operations at
Elizabeth City,
Edenton, and
Plymouth,
1 preparing for other conquests on the
North Carolina coast.
For that purpose he concentrated his forces, with the fleet now in command of
Commodore Rowan (
Goldsborough having been ordered to
Hampton Roads), at Hatteras Inlet.
New Berne, the capital of
Craven County, at the confluence of the rivers
Trent and
Neuse, was his first object of attack.
2
The land and naval forces left Hatteras Inlet on the morning of the 12th of March,
and at sunset the gun-boats and transports anchored off the mouth of Slocum's Creek, about eighteen miles from New Berne, where
Burnside had determined to make a landing.
His troops numbered about fifteen thousand.
The landing was begun at seven o'clock the next morning,
under cover of the gun-boats; and so eager were the men to get ashore, that many, too impatient to wait for the boats, leaped into the water, waist deep, and waded to the land.
Then they pushed on in the direction of New Berne, in a copious rain, dragging their heavy cannon,
3 with great difficulty and fatigue, through the wet clay, into which men often sank knee deep.
The head of the column was within a mile and a half of the
Confederate works at sunset, when it halted and bivouacked.
During the night the remainder of the army came up in detachments hour after hour, meeting no resistance.
The gun-boats meanwhile had moved up the river abreast the army, the flag-ship
Delaware leading.
A shore-battery opened upon her at four o'clock in the afternoon, but was soon quieted by her reply.
The main body of the
Confederates, under the command of
General Branch, consisted of eight regiments of infantry and five hundred cavalry, with three batteries of field-artillery of six guns each.
These occupied a line of intrenchments extending more than a mile from near the river across the railway, supported by another line, on the inland flank, of rifle-pits and detached intrenchments in the form of corvettes and redans, for more than a mile, and terminating in a two-gun redoubt.
On the river-bank and covering
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their left was
Fort Thompson, four miles from New Berne, armed with thirteen heavy guns; and other works and appliances, prepared by good engineering skill, for the defense of the river-channel against the passage of gun-boats, were numerous.
4
At daylight on the morning of the 14th,
the army moved forward in three columns, under
Generals Foster,
Reno, and
Parke.
A heavy fog lay for a short time upon the land and water, but it was soon dissipated.
Foster, with the first brigade, marched up the main country road to attack
Fort Thompson and the
Confederate left.
Reno, with the second brigade, followed nearer the line of the railway, to fall upon their right; and
Parke, with the third brigade, kept such position that he might attack their front or assist the other two brigades.
Foster began battle at eight o'clock.
6 At the same time
Reno pushed on toward the
Confederate right flank, while
Parke took position on their front.
Foster was supported on his left by the boat-howitzers, manned by
Lieutenants McCook,
Hammond,
Daniels, and
Tillotson, with marines and a detachment of the
Union Coast Guard.
Before the
Confederate center was placed a 12-pounder steel cannon, under
Captain Bennett, of the
Cossack, who was assisted in its management by twenty of that ship's crew; and on the left of the insurgents was
Captain Dayton's battery, from the transport
Highlander.
Foster's brigade bore the brunt of the battle for about four hours. In response to his first gun, the assailed ran up the
Confederate flag with a shout, and opened a brisk fire which soon became most severe.
There was a hard struggle for the position where their intrenchments crossed the railway, and in this the Second Massachusetts and Tenth Connecticut were conspicuous.
General Parke gave support to
Foster until it was evident that the latter could sustain himself, when the former, with his whole brigade excepting the Eleventh Connecticut,
Colonel Mathews, went to the support of
Reno in his flank movement, which that officer was carrying on with success.
After he had fought about an hour, he ordered the Twenty-first Massachusetts,
Colonel Clark, to charge a portion of the
Confederate works.
It dashed forward at the double-quick, accompanied by
General Reno in person, and in a few moments was within the intrenchments, from which it was as speedily driven by two of
Branch's regiments.
This was followed by a charge of the Fourth Rhode Island upon a battery of five guns in its front, supported by rifle-pits.
The battery was captured, the
National flag was unfurled over it, and its occupants and supporters were driven pell-mell far away
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from their lost guns and breast-works.
The victory was made complete by the aid of the Fifth Rhode Island and Eighth and Eleventh Connecticut.
All this while,
Reno was losing heavily from the effects of another battery.
So he called up his reserve regiment (the Fifty-first Pennsylvania,
Colonel Hartrauft), and ordered it to charge the work.
It was done gallantly, and the Fifty-first New York, Twenty-first Massachusetts, and Ninth New Jersey participated in the achievement and the triumph.
Foster, meanwhile, hearing the shouts on the left when the order to charge was given, had directed his brigade to advance along the whole line.
Pressed at all points, on front and flank, the
Confederates abandoned every thing and fled, pursued by
Foster to the verge of the
Trent.
The fugitives were more fleet than he, and, burning the railway and turnpike bridges behind them that spanned the
Trent (the first by sending a raft of flaming turpentine and cotton against it), they escaped.
So ended the
battle of New Berne.
7
The National squadron, in the mean time, had co-operated with the army in the attack on
Fort Thompson, and in driving the
Confederates from the other batteries on the shore.
When these were
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Operations near New Berne. |
evacuated, the gun-boats passed the obstructions and went up to the city.
The Confederate troops had fired it in seven places, and then hurried to
Tuscarora, about ten miles from New Berne, where they halted.
Large numbers of the terrified citizens had abandoned their homes and fled to the interior.
No less than seven railway trains, crowded to overflowing with men, women, and children, left New Berne for Goldsboroa on the day of the battle.
“The town of
New Berne,” says
Pollard, “originally contained twelve hundred people; when occupied by the enemy, it contained one hundred people, male and female, of the old population.”
Pollard did not count the large number of colored loyalists who remained as “people.”
General Foster's brigade was taken over the
Trent and to the city wharves by some of
Rowan's boats, and took military possession of New Berne.
General Burnside made the fine old mansion of the Stanley family,
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in the suburbs of the town, his Headquarters, and there, on the following day, he issued an order, appointing
General Foster military governor of the city,, and directing the places of public worship to be opened on Sunday, the 16th, at a suitable hour, in order that the chaplains of the different regiments might holds divine service in them; the bells to be rung as usual.
On the same day
Burnside issued an order, congratulating his troops on account of the “brilliant and
hard-won victory,” and directed each regiment engaged in it to place the name of
New Berne on its banner.
In his report, he spoke in the highest terms of the courage and fidelity of his troops, and gave to the
general-in-chief (
McClellan) the credit of planning the expedition.
8
In this battle the Nationals lost about one hundred in killed and four hundred and ninety-eight in wounded.
Among the former were
Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Merritt, of the Twenty-third Massachusetts, and other gallant officer s and men. The loss of the
Confederates wa s much less in killed and wounded, but two hundred of them were made prisoners.
9 The spoils of victory were many and important,;
10 and the possession of the town of
New Berne, by which the Wilmington and Weldon Railway, the great line of travel between the
North and the
South, was exposed, gave to the
National cause in that region an almost in calculable advantage.
Its moral effect was prodigious, and greatly disheartened the enemies of the
Government, who saw in it “a subject of keen mortification to the
South.”
11
In the midst of the horrors of war at New Berne, and almost before the smoke of battle was dissipated, the
Christian spirit of the friends of the
Government was made conspicuous in acts of benevolence by the generous deeds of
Vincent Colyer, a well-known citizen of New York, and the originator of the Christian commission of the army, whose holy ministrations, nearly co-extensive with those of the United States Sanitary commission, in the camp, the field, and the hospital, throughout almost the entire period of the war, will be considered hereafter.
Mr. Colyer was with
Burnside's
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expedition for the two-fold purpose of distributing to the sick and wounded the generous contributions of patriotic and charitable citizens, and to exercise a fostering care of the poor and ignorant colored people, from whose limbs the hand of the loyal victor had just unloosed the shackles of hopeless slavery.
Mr. Colyer began his blessed work on
Roanoke Island in February, and now, at the middle of March, he was made busy in the same high vocation at New Berne.
When his labors in the hospitals were finished, he was placed in charge of the helpless of that town of every kind, by an order issued by
Burnside,
which read thus: “
Mr. Vincent Colyer is hereby appointed Superintendent of the Poor, and will be obeyed and respected accordingly.”
12 Mr. Colyer took for his headquarters a respectable dwelling in the town, and at once began the exercise of the most commendable form of benevolence, in finding remunerative employment for the healthy destitute.
13 He opened evening schools for the education of the colored people, in which over eight hundred of the most eager; pupils were nightly seen, some of
General Foster's
New England soldiers acting as teachers.
But this promising, benevolent work was suddenly stopped by
Edward Stanley, who had been appointed
by the
President military governor of
North Carolina, and whose policy was that of a large class of
Unionists in border slave-labor States, namely, to preserve slavery, and, if possible, the
Union.
The closing of the schools was the first administrative act of the new governor, in conformity with the barbarous laws of
North Carolina, which made it, he said, “a criminal offense to teach the blacks to read.”
He also returned fugitive slaves to their masters; and the hopes of that down-trodden race in that region, which were so delightfully given in promises, were suddenly extinguished.
14
Having taken possession of New Berne,
Burnside proceeded at once to further carry out the instructions of
General McClellan by leading a force
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against
Fort Macon, that commanded the important harbor of
Beaufort, North Carolina, and
Bogue Sound.
15 That fort, with others, it will be remembered, was seized by
Governor Ellis, early in 1861,
16 before the so-called secession of the
State.
Its possession by the
Government would secure the use of another fine harbor on the
Atlantic coast to the
National vessels engaged in the blockading and other service, an object of great importance.
It stands upon a long spit or ridge of sand, cast up by the waves, called Bogue Island, and separated from the main by
Bogue Sound, which is navigable for small vessels.
At the head of the deeper part of Beaufort harbor, and at the terminus of the railway from New Berne, is
Morehead City, thirty-six miles from the former; and on the northern side of the harbor is
Beaufort, the capital of
Carteret County, and an old and pleasant town, which was a. popular place of resort for the North Carolinians in the summer.
Into that harbor blockade-runners had for some time been carrying supplies for the
Confederates.
17
General Burnside intrusted the expedition against
Fort Macon to the command of
General Parke, at the same time sending
General Reno to make further demonstrations in the rear of
Norfolk.
Parke's forces were transferred by water to Slocum's Creek, from which point they marched across the country and invested
Morehead City, nine days after the fall of New Berne.
The latter place was evacuated.
On the 25th, a detachment, composed of the Fourth Rhode Island and Eighth Connecticut, took possession of
Beaufort without opposition, for there was no military force there.
In the mean time a flag had been sent to
Fort Macon with a demand for its surrender.
It was refused, the commander,
Colonel Moses T. White (nephew of
Jefferson Davis), declaring that he would not yield until he had eaten his last biscuit and slain his last horse.
Vigorous preparations were at once made to capture it, and on the 11th of April
General Parke made a reconnoissance in force on Bogue Spit, drove in the
Confederate pickets, and selected good points for the planting of siege-guns.
At that time regular siege operations commenced, and the garrison was confined within the limits of the fort, closely watched, for it was expected that in their supposed desperate
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strait they might make a sudden and fierce sortie, but there was only some picket skirmishing occasionally.
Ordnance and ordnance stores were rafted over from a wooded point near
Carolina City by
General Parke, and batteries were constructed behind sand dunes on Bogue Spit.
Gun-boats
were co-operating with them, and the garrison, composed of about five hundred North Carolinians, was cut off from all communication by sea and land.
19
Three siege batteries were erected on Bogue Spit behind sand-hills, the sides and front being formed by sand-bags.
The most distant, under
Lieutenant Flagler, of the New York Third Artillery, was in the borders of a marsh, about fourteen hundred yards from the fort, and mounted four teninch
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mortars.
The second was about two hundred yards in front of it, under
Captain Morris, of the First Regular Artillery, and mounted three long 30-pound Parrott guns; and the third was one hundred yards still nearer the fort, composed of four 8-inch mortars, and commanded by
Lieutenant Prouty, of the Third New York Artillery.
When these batteries were completed, the gun-boats
Daylight (flag-ship);
State of Georgia,
Commander Armstrong; and
Chippewa,
Lieutenant Bryson, and the barque
Gemsbok,
Lieutenant Cavendish, took position for battle outside the Spit, within range of the fort.
Burnside came down from New Berne, and passed over to the batteries; and at six o'clock, on the morning of the 25th of April,
Flagler opened fire with his 10-inch mortars, directed by
Lieutenant Andrews of the Signal Corps, and his accomplished young assistant,
Lieutenant Wait.
20 The other batteries followed, and in the course of ten minutes the fort replied with a shot from
Captain Manney's 24-pounder battery on the terreplein.
The heavy columbiads and 32-pounders
en barbette joined in the cannonade, and at eight o'clock the fort, belching fire and smoke like an active volcano, was sending a shot every minute.
The
National batteries were responding with equal vigor, and the war vessels were doing good service, maneuvering in an elliptical course, like
Dupont's at
Port Royal Entrance, and throwing heavy shot and shell upon the fortress.
But the roughness of the sea, caused by a southwest wind, compelled them to withdraw after fighting an hour and a quarter.
The land batteries kept at work until four o'clock in the afternoon, when a white flag, displayed on
Fort Macon, caused their firing to cease.
Captain Guion, of the garrison, came out with a proposition from
Colonel White to surrender; and before ten o'clock the next morning
the fort was in the possession of the
National forces, with about five hundred prisoners of war.
21 Burnside was present, and had the pleasure of seeing the ensign of the
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Republic, and the new colors of the Fifth Rhode Island battalion, which had just been presented to it by the women of
Providence, unfurled over the fort.
22
The writer visited and sketched
Fort Macon in December, 1864, while accompanying the expedition under
General Butler against
Fort Fisher.
The transports bearing his troops, and the
Ben Deford, his Headquarters ship, had been furnished with water and fuel for only ten days. Having waited three days at the place of rendezvous, twenty-five miles at sea, off
Fort Fisher, for the arrival of the war-vessels that were to co-operate with the soldiers, it was necessary to run up the coast seventy miles to
Beaufort for a new supply of fuel and water.
This gave the writer a wished for opportunity to visit Beaufort Harbor and its surroundings.
We entered it during one of the heaviest gales known on that coast for thirty years, and were detained there four days, during which time we visited the old town of
Beaufort, the more modern
Morehead City,
Carolina City, the
Bogue Banks or Spit, and
Fort Macon.
The latter is at the eastern point of the Spit, upon an elevation above the common level, composed of a huge mound of sand thrown up for the purpose.
The fort was built of brick and stone,
and named in honor of
Nathaniel Macon, a distinguished statesman of
North Carolina.
Built for defense against a foreign foe, its principal strength in
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masonry and guns was toward the sea, and it perfectly commanded the narrow ship channel at the entrance to the harbor.
We found
Fort Macon very much in the condition in which
Burnside observed it when he entered it, excepting the absence of fragments of shot and shell and cannon and carriages, made by the
National missiles.
On its wall, landward (seen in shadow in the engraving), that bore the brunt of the bombardment, were the broad wounds made by shot and shell; and here and there the remains of furrows made by them were seen on the parades, the ramparts, and the glacis.
After passing half an hour pleasantly with
Captain King, the commandant, and other officers of the garrison, and making the sketch on the preceding page, we departed for the
Ben Deford in the tug that took us from it and on the following day left the harbor for the waters in front of
Fort Fisher.
While
Parke and
Lockwood were operating at Beaufort Harbor, troops under
General Reno were quietly taking possession of important places on the waters of
Albemarle Sound, and threatening
Norfolk in the rear.
The movement was partly for the purpose of assisting
Parke in his siege of
Fort Macon, and partly to gain some substantial advantages on the
Sounds.
Reno's force consisted of the Twenty-first Massachusetts, Fifty-first Pennsylvania, the Sixth New Hampshire, and a part of the Ninth and Eighty-ninth New York.
They advanced in transports up the
Pasquotank to within three miles of
Elizabeth City, and, landing cautiously in the night,
a part of them under
Colonel Hawkins were pushed forward to surprise and intercept a body of Confederates known to be about leaving that place for
Norfolk.
Hawkins took with him portions of the Ninth and Eighty-ninth New York, and Sixth New Hampshire; and a few hours later he was followed by
General Reno and the remainder of the troops.
Hawkins was misled by a treacherous or incompetent guide, and, marching ten miles out of his way, lost so much time that in retracing his steps he came in behind
General Reno.
Meanwhile the
Confederates had been apprised of the movement, and when the Nationals were within a mile and a, half.
of
South Mills, near Camden Court-house, they were assailed with grape and canister shot from the foe, who were in a good position with artillery, having a dense forest in their rear for a protection and cover, and swamps on their flanks.
The attack was bravely met.
Reno's superior numbers soon flanked the
Confederates, and the latter hastily withdrew.
A gun-boat under
Captain Flusser had, in the mean time, driven the foe out of the woods along the river-banks.
Hawkins's Zouaves had made a gallant charge, but were repulsed, and in this the chief loss to the Nationals occurred.
They had fifteen killed, ninety-six wounded, and two made prisoners.
The loss of the
Confederates is not known.
They left thirty killed and wounded on the field.
This engagement is called the
battle of South Mills.
The defeat of the Third Georgia regiment in the fight produced much consternation in
Norfolk.
General Reno allowed his wearied troops to rest on the battle-field about six hours, when they returned to the boats.
For want of transportation, he was compelled to leave some of his killed and wounded behind.
Winton, at the head of the
Chowan;
Plymouth, at the mouth of the
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Roanoke; and
Washington, at the head of the
Pamlico River, were all quietly occupied by the
National forces.
24 This occupation so widely dispersed
Burnside's troops, which at no time numbered more than sixteen thousand, that he could no longer make aggressive movements.
The Government had no troops to spare to re-enforce him; and matters remained comparatively quiet in his department until the middle of July, when he was hastily summoned to
Fortress Monroe with all the forces he could collect; for the Army of the Potomac, on the
Virginia Peninsula, under
General McClellan, was then apparently in great danger.
General Burnside promptly obeyed the summons, leaving
General Foster in command of the department.
During the four months of his campaign in that region,
Burnside had exhibited those traits of character that marked him as an energetic, sagacious, and judicious commander, and led to his appointment to more important posts of duty.
For the remainder of the year, the coasts of
North Carolina were in the, possession of the
National troops.
Its ports were closed, either by actual occupation or by blockading vessels, and its commerce ceased entirely, excepting such as was carried on by British blockade-runners.
These, in spite of the greatest vigilance of the blockading squadrons cruising off its entrances, constantly entered the
Cape Fear River, with military supplies and necessaries for the
Confederates, until the fall of
Fort Fisher, at the beginning of 1865.
These blockade-runners were steamships, built expressly
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for the purpose, and were remarkable for strength and speed.
They drew but little water, and had raking smoke-stacks.
Every part of them was painted a gray color, so that they could not be seen even in a very light fog. Their achievements in supplying the
Confederates with arms, ammunition, and the necessaries and luxuries of life, will be considered hereafter.
While
Burnside and
Rowan were operating
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A blockade-runner. |
on the coast of
North Carolina,
Sherman and
Dupont were engaged in movements on the coasts of
South Carolina and
Georgia, having for their first object the capture of
Fort Pulaski, and ultimately other important points and posts between the
Savannah River and
St. Augustine in
Florida.
We have seen that at the close of 1861 the
National authority was supreme along the coast from
Wassaw Sound, below the
Savannah River, to the
North Edisto, well up toward
Charleston.
25 National troops were stationed as far down as
Daufuskie Island; and so early as the close of December,
General Sherman had directed
General Quincy A. Gillmore, his
Chief Engineer, to reconnoiter
Fort Pulaski and report upon the feasibility of a bombardment of it.,
Gillmore's reply was, that it might be reduced by batteries of rifled guns and mortars placed on Big Tybee Island, southeast of
Cockspur Island, on which the fort stood, and across the narrower channel of the
Savannah; and that aid might be given from a battery on
Venus Point of Jones's Island, two miles from Cockspur, in the opposite direction.
While waiting orders from
Washington on the subject, the Forty-sixth New York,
Colonel Rosa, was sent to occupy Big Tybee.
At about this time
explorations were made by the Nationals for the purpose of finding some channel by which gun-boats might get in the rear of
Fort Pulaski.
Lieutenant J. H. Wilson, of the
Topographical Engineers, had received information from negro pilots that convinced him that such channel might be found, connecting
Calibogue Sound with the
Savannah River.
General Sherman directed him to explore in search of it. Taking with him, at about the first of January, 1862; seventy
Rhode Island soldiers, in two boats managed by negro crews and pilots, he thridded the intricate passages between the low, oozy islands and mud-banks in that region (always under cover of night, for the
Confederates had watchful pickets at every approach to the fort), and found a way into the
Savannah River above the fort, partly through an artificial channel called Wall's Cut, which had for several years connected
Wright's and
New Rivers.
He
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reported accordingly, when
Captain John Rogers made another reconnoissance at night, and so satisfied himself that gun-boats could navigate the way, that he offered to command an expedition that might attempt it.
Sherman and
Dupont at once organized one for the purpose.
The land troops were placed in charge of
General Viele,
26 and the gun-boats were commanded by
Rogers.
Another mixed force, under
General H. G. Wright27 and Fleetcaptain
Davis, was sent to pass up to the
Savannah River, in rear of
Fort Pulaski, by way of
Wassaw Sound,
Wilmington River, and
St. Augustine Creek.
The latter expedition found obstructions in
St. Augustine Creek; but the gunboats were able to co-operate with those of
Rogers in an attack
on the little flotilla of five gun-boats of
Commodore Tatnall, which attempted to escape down the river from inevitable blockade.
Tatnall was driven back with two of his vessels, but the others escaped.
The expedition, having accomplished its object of observation, returned to
Hilton Head, and the citizens of
Savannah believed that designs against that city and
Fort Pulaski were abandoned.
Yet the
Confederates multiplied the obstructions in the river in the form of piles, sunken vessels, and regular
chevaux-de-frise; and upon the oozy islands and the main land on the right bank of the river they built heavy earthworks, and greatly enlarged and strengthened
Fort Jackson, about four miles below the city.
Among the most formidable of the
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Chevaux-De-frise. |
new earthworks was
Fort Lee, built under the direction of
Robert E. Lee, after his recall from
Western Virginia, in the autumn of 1861.
Soon after the heavy reconnaissance of
Rogers and
Wright, the Nationals made a lodgment on Jones's Island, and proceeded, under the immediate direction of
General Viele, to erect an earthwork on
Venus Point, which was named Battery Vulcan.
This was completed on the 11th of February, after very great labor,
29 and with a little battery on
Bird Island, opposite
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（Battery Hamilton), effectually closed the
Savannah River in the rear of
Fort Pulaski.
That fortress, as we have already observed,
30 was a strong one on
Cockspur Island, which is wholly a marsh.
Its walls, twenty-five feet in height above high water, presented five faces, and were casemated on all sides, and mounted one tier of guns in embrasures and one
en barbette.
The absolute blockade of
Fort Pulaski may be dated from the 22d of February.
Preparations were then made on
Tybee Island to bombard it. Nearly all of the work had to be done in the night, and it was of the same laborious nature as that performed on Jones's Island.
It took about two hundred and fifty men to move a single heavy gun, with a sling-cart, over the quaking mud
jelly of which
Tybee Island is composed; and it was often with the greatest difficulty that it was kept from going down twelve feet to the bottom of the morass, when, as sometimes it happened, it slipped from the causeway or a platform.
31 Patiently the work was carried on under the supervision of
General Gillmore, who was in chief command, and on the 9th of April eleven batteries, containing an aggregate of thirty-six guns, were in
readiness to open fire on the fort.
32 On that day the
commanding General
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issued minute orders for the working of the batteries, which was to corn mence at daybreak the next morning.
33
General David Hunter, who had just succeeded
General Sherman in the command of the Department, arrived at
Tybee on the evening of the 8th, accompanied by
General Benham as district commander.
At sunrise on the morning of the 10th,
Hunter sent
Lieutenant J. H. Wilson to the fort, with a summons to the commander of the garrison (
Colonel Charles H. Olmstead, of the First Georgia Volunteers) to surrender.
It was refused, the commander saying, “I am here to defend this fort, not to surrender it,” and at a quarter past eight o'clock the batteries opened upon it. They did not cease firing until night, when five of the guns of the fortress were silenced, and the responses of the others were becoming feeble.
All night long, four of
Gillmore's guns fired at intervals of fifteen or twenty minutes; and at sunrise the next morning
the batteries commenced afresh, and with the greatest vigor.
It was soon evident that the fort, at the point on which the missiles from the three breaching batteries (Sigel, Scott, and
McClellan) fell, was crumbling.
A yawning breach was visible; and yet the fort kept up the fight gallantly until two o'clock in the afternoon, when preparations were made to storm it. Then a white flag displayed from its walls caused the firing to cease, and the siege to end in its surrender.
Ten of its guns were dismounted; and so destructive of masonry had been the Parrott projectiles (some of which went through the six or seven feet of brick walls) that there was imminent
danger of their piercing the magazine and exposing it to explosion.
35 The
Nationals, who were under the immediate command of
General Viele, had only one killed. The Confederates had one killed and several wounded.
It was a very hard fought but almost bloodless battle.
The spoils of victory were the fort, forty-seven
[
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heavy guns, a large supply of fixed ammunition, forty thousand pounds of gunpowder, and a large quantity of commissary stores.
Three hundred men were made prisoners.
36 By this victory, won on the first anniversary of the fall of
Fort Sumter,
the port of
Savannah was sealed against blockade-runners.
The capture of
Fort Jackson above, and of the city, would have been of little advantage to the Nationals then, for the forces necessary to hold them were needed in more important work farther down the coast.
While
Gillmore and
Viele were besieging
Fort Pulaski,
Commodore Dupont and
General Wright were making easy conquests on the coast of
Florida.
Dupont left
Port Royal on the 28th of February,
in the
Wabash, with twenty armed vessels, and six transports bearing land forces, and on the 1st of March arrived in
St. Andrew's Sound, north of
Cumberland and
St. Andrew's Islands.
Leaving the
Wabash,
Dupont raised his flag on the smaller war vessel
Mohican, and, at ten o'clock on the 2d, the fleet anchored in
Cumberland Sound, between
Cumberland Island and the
Georgia main.
Its destination was
Fort Clinch,
37 on the
northern extremity of
Amelia Island, a strong regular work, and prepared by great labor for making a vigorous defense.
Outside of it, along the shores, were heavy batteries, well sheltered and concealed behind sand-hills on their front, while on the southern extremity of
Cumberland Island was a battery of four guns.
These, with the heavy armament of
Fort Clinch, perfectly commanded the waters in the vicinity.
Dupont had expected vigorous resistance at
Fort Clinch, and he was incredulous when told by a fugitive slave, picked up on the waters, that the troops had abandoned it, and were fleeing from
Amelia Island.
The rumor was confirmed, and
Dupont immediately sent forward
Commander Drayton, of the
Pawnee, with several gunboats, to save the public property there and prevent outrages.
He then returned to the
Wabash, and, going outside, went down to the main entrance to Fernandina harbor.
There he was detained until the next morning.
Meanwhile
Drayton had sent
Lieutenant White, of the
Ottawa, to hoist the
National flag over
Fort Clinch.
This
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The Union Generals. |
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was the first of the old National forts which was “repossessed” by the
Government.
The Confederates fled from the village of
Fernandina,
38 near the fort, and also from the village of
St. Mary's, a short.
distance up the
St. Mary's River.
These were at once occupied by National forces.
Fort Clinch was garrisoned by a few of
General Wright's troops, and
Commander C. R. P. Rogers, with some launches, captured the Confederate steamer
Darlington, lying in the adjacent waters.
The insurgent force was utterly broken up. “We captured
Port Royal,”
Dupont wrote to the
Secretary of the Navy,
“but
Fernandina and
Fort Clinch have been given to us.”
News reached
Dupont that the
Confederates were abandoning every post along the
Florida coast, and he took measures to occupy them or hold them in durance.
Commander Gordon was sent with three gun-boats to
Brunswick, the terminus of the
Brunswick and
Pensacola railway.
He took possession of it on the 9th of March.
The next day he held the batteries on the islands of
St. Simon and
Jekyl, and on the 13th he proceeded with the
Potomska and
Pocahontas through the inland passage from
St. Simon's Sound to
Darien, on the
Altamaha River, in Georgia.
This place, like
Brunswick, was deserted, and nearly all of the inhabitants on
St. Simon's and neighboring islands had fled to the main.
In the mean time
Dupont sent a small flotilla, under a judicious officer,
Lieutenant Thomas Holdup Stevens, consisting of the gun-boats
Ottawa,
Seneca,
Pembina, and
Huron, with the transports
I. P. Smith and
Ellen, to enter the
St. John's River, twenty-five miles farther down the coast, and push on to
Jacksonville, and even to
Pilatka, if possible.
Stevens approached
Jacksonville on the evening of the 11th of March,
and saw large fires in that direction; and on the following day he appeared before the town, which was abandoned by the
Confederate soldiers.
39 The fires had been kindled by order of
General Trapier, the insurgent commander of that district, who directed the houses, stores, mills, and other property of persons suspected of being in favor of the
Union, to be burnt.
Under that order, eight immense saw-mills and a vast amount of valuable lumber were burned by guerrillas.
On the appearance of
Stevens's flotilla, the corporate authorities of the town, with
S. L. Burritt at their head, went on board his vessel (the
Ottawa) and formally surrendered the place.
The Fourth New Hampshire,
Colonel Whipple, landed and took possession, and it was hailed with joy by the
Union people who remained there.
Two days before
Jacksonville was surrendered to
Stevens,
Fort Marion and the ancient city of
St. Augustine, still farther down the coast,
40 were surrendered to
Commander C. R. P. Rogers, who had crossed
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the bar in the
Wabash. With a flag of truce, and accompanied by
Mr. Dennis, of the Coast Survey, he landed, and was soon met by the
Mayor of the town, who conducted him to the City Hall, where he was received by the Common Council.
He was informed that two
Florida companies, who had garrisoned the fort, had left the place on the previous evening, and that the city had no means for resistance, if there was a disposition to fight.
On assuring the authorities of the kind intentions of his Government toward all peaceful citizens, they formally resigned
St. Augustine into his hands.
Fort Marion, a decayed castle of heavy walls, built by the
Spaniards early in the last century (and which was seized by the insurgents early in 1861
41), with its dependencies, passed into the hands of the Nationals.
On the top of the broad walls of the fort, huts and tents were soon erected.
The capture of
St. Augustine was followed by a visit of National gunboats to Musquito Inlet, fifty miles farther down the
Florida coast, into which it was reported light-draft vessels were carrying English arms and other supplies for the
Confederates, which had been transhipped from the
British port of
Nassau.
The boats were the
Penguin,
Lieutenant Budd, who commanded the expedition, and the
Henry Andrew,
Acting-master Mather.
On their arrival, a small boat expedition, composed of forty-three men, under
Budd and
Mather, was organized for a visit to Musquito Lagoon.
While returning, the two commanders, who were in one boat, landed at an abandoned earthwork and dense grove of live oaks.
There they were fired upon by the concealed foe.
Budd and
Mather, and three of the five men composing the boat's crew, were killed, and the remaining two were wounded and made prisoners.
The other boats were fired upon when they came up, and their passengers suffered much; but under the cover of night they escaped.
In this expedition the Nationals lost five killed and eleven wounded. Had it been entirely successful, all
Florida might have been brought under the control of the
National forces for a time, for there was panic everywhere in that region after the fall of
Fort Pulaski.
Pensacola was soon afterward evacuated
by the
Confederate General,
T. N. Jones, who burnt every thing that he could at the navy yard, at the hospital, and in
Forts McRee and
Barrancas, and retreated toward the interior.
But, as events proved, the Nationals could not have held
Florida at that time.
Because of their weakness in numbers, their conquests resulted, apparently, in more harm than good to the
Union cause.
At first, the hopes
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they inspired in the breasts of the
Union people developed quite a wide-spread loyalty.
A Union convention was called to assemble at
Jacksonville on the 10th of April, to organize a loyal State Government, when, to the dismay of those engaged in the matter,
General Wright prepared to withdraw his forces, two days before the time when the convention was to meet.
General Trapier would of course return, so the leaders were compelled to fly for their lives with the
National troops, instead of attempting to re-establish a loyal government.
In consequence of a sense of insecurity caused by this event, very little Union feeling was manifested in
Florida during the remainder of the war.
Dupont returned to
Port Royal on the 27th of March, leaving a small force at different points to watch the posts recovered.
He found
Skiddaway and
Greene Islands abandoned by the
Confederates, and the important
Wassaw and
Ossabaw Sounds and the
Vernon and
Wilmington Rivers entirely open to the occupation of National forces.
So early as the 11th of February,
General Sherman, with the Forty-seventh New York, had taken quiet possession of
Edisto Island, from which all the white inhabitants had fled, burning their cotton on their departure.
By this movement the
National flag was carried more than half way to
Charleston from
Beaufort.
And so it was, that on the first anniversary of the attack on
Fort Sumter, the entire
Atlantic and Gulf coast, from
Cape Hatteras to
Perdido Bay, excepting, the harbor of
Charleston and its immediate surroundings, had been abandoned by the insurgents, and the
National power was supreme.
To
Dupont and the new
Commander of the Department of the South (
General Hunter)
Charleston was now a coveted prize, and they made preparations to attempt its capture.
That movement we will consider hereafter.
Turning again to
Hampton Roads, we see
General Butler and some troops going out upon another expedition, with his purpose a profound secret, but which proved to be one of the most important movements of the first year and a half of the war. It was the expedition against New Orleans.
We have seen
42 that so early as September, 1861,
General Butler was commissioned by the
Secretary of War to go to
New England and “raise, arm, and uniform a volunteer force for the war,” to be composed of six regiments.
Unavoidable collision with the efforts of State authorities to raise men ensued, and at one time it seemed as if
Butler's mission would be fruitless.
To give him more efficiency, the six
New England States were constituted a Military Department, and
Major-General Butler was made its commander while engaged in recruiting his division.
He worked to that end with untiring energy, in the face of opposition; and it was not long before his six thousand troops and more were ready for the field.
The Government had then turned its attention to the posts on the
Gulf of Mexico and its tributary waters, and the seizure of
Mobile and New Orleans, and the occupation of
Texas, formed parts of its capital plan of operations in that region.
Butler was called upon to suggest the best rendezvous for an expedition against
Mobile.
He named
Ship Island, off the coast of
Mississippi,
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between
Mobile Bay and
Lake Borgne (a low sand-bar, lying just above low water, and averaging seven miles in length and three-fourths of a mile in width), as the most eligible point for operations against any part of the
Gulf Coast.
Thither some of his troops were sent, in the fine steamship
Constitution, under
General J. W. Phelps, whom
Butler well knew, and honored as a commander at
Fortress Monroe and vicinity.
The
Constitution returned, and two thousand more of the six thousand men embarked, when an electrograph said to
Butler, in
Boston, “
Don't sail.
Disembark.”
The Government was then trembling because of the seeming imminence of war with
Great Britain, on account of the seizure of
Mason and
Slidell.
They were in
Fort Warren, and the
British Government had demanded their surrender.
This made the authorities at
Washington pause in their aggressive policy, to wait for the development of events in that connection.
But the tremor was only spasmodic, and soon ceased.
The work against treason was renewed with increased vigor.
Edwin M. Stanton, who was in
Mr. Buchanan's Cabinet during the closing days of his administration
43--a man possessed of great physical and mental energy, comprehensiveness of intellectual grasp, and great tenacity of will, had superseded
Mr. Cameron as
Secretary of War,
and a conference between him and
General Butler resulted in a decision to make vigorous efforts to capture New Orleans, and hold the
lower Mississippi.
When that decision was referred to
General McClellan, the latter thought such an expedition was not feasible, for it would take fifty thousand men to give it a chance of success, and where were they to come from?
He was unwilling to spare a single man of his more than two hundred thousand men then lying at
ease around
Washington City.
His question was promptly answered.
New England was all aglow with enthusiasm, and its sons were eagerly flocking to the standard of
General Butler, who asked for only fifteen thousand of it. On for the expedition.
Already more than twelve thousand were ready for the field, under his leadership.
Two thousand were at
Ship Island; more than two thousand were on ship-board in
Hampton Roads; and over eight thousand were ready for embarkation at
Boston.
President Lincoln gave the project his sanction.
The
Department of the Gulf was created, and
General Butler was placed in command of it. On the 23d of February
he received minute orders from
General McClellan to co-operate with the navy, first in the capture of New Orleans and its approaches, and then in the reduction of
Mobile,
Galveston, and
Baton Rouge, with the ultimate view of occupying
Texas.
To his New
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England troops were added three regiments, then at
Baltimore, and orders were given for two others at
Key West and one at
Fort Pickens to join the expedition.
On paper, the whole force was about eighteen thousand, but when they were all mustered on
Ship Island they amounted to only thirteen thousand seven hundred.
Of these, five hundred and eighty were artillerymen and two hundred and seventy-five were cavalry.
On the day after receiving his instructions,
General Butler left
Washington and hastened to
Fortress Monroe.
To
Mr. Lincoln he said, “Good-bye,
Mr. President; we shall take New Orleans or you'll never see me again ;” and with the assurance of
Secretary Stanton, that “The man who takes New Orleans is made a lieutenant-general,”
44 Butler embarked at
Hampton Roads,
accompanied by his wife, his staff, and fourteen hundred troops, in the fine steamship
Mississippi. Fearful perils were encountered on the
North Carolina coast, and vexatious delay at
Port Royal;
45 and it was thirty days after he left the capes of
Virginia before he debarked at
Ship Island.
There was no house upon that desolate sand-bar, and some charred boards were all the materials that could be had for the erection of a shanty for the accommodation of
Mrs. Butler.
The furniture for it was taken from a captured vessel.
When the war broke out, there was an unfinished fort on
Ship Island, to which, as we have observed,
Floyd, the traitorous
Secretary of War, had ordered heavy guns.
46 The insurgents of that region took possession of it in considerable force
and, during their occupation of it for about two months, they made it strong and available for defense.
They constructed eleven bomb-proof casemates, a magazine and barracks, mounted twenty heavy Dahlgren guns, and named it Fort Twiggs.
When rumors of a heavy naval force approaching reached the garrison, they abandoned the fort,
burnt their barracks, and, with their cannon, fled to the main.
On the following day, a small force was landed from the
National gun-boat
Massachusetts, and took possession of the place.
They strengthened the fort by building two more casemates, adding
Dahlgren and rifled cannon, and piling around its outer walls tiers of sand-bags, six feet in depth.
Then they gave it the name of their vessel, and called it Fort Massachusetts.
47 The
Constitution arrived there with
General Phelps and his troops
48 on the 3d of December, and on the following day
he issued a proclamation to the loyal inhabitants of the south-western States, setting forth his views as to the political status of those
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States and the slave-system within their borders.
It pointedly condemned that system, and declared that it was incompatible with a free government, incapable of forming an element of true nationality, and necessarily dangerous to the
Republic, when assuming, as it then did, a political character.
He pictured to them the blessings to be derived from the abolition of slavery,
and declared that his motto and that of his troops coming among them was, Free labor and working-men's rights.
This proclamation astonished
Phelps's troops, provoked the pro-slavery officers under his command, and highly excited the people to whom it was addressed, who heard it, and who used it effectually in “firing the
Southern heart” against the “abolition Government” at
Washington.
It was too far in advance of public opinion and feeling at that time, and
General Butler, whose views were coincident with the tenor of the proclamation, considering it premature, and therefore injudicious, said, in transmitting his brigadier's report of operations at
Ship Island, that he had not authorized the issuing of any proclamation, “and most certainly not such an one.”
So
General Phelps and those of his way of thinking were compelled to wait a year or two before they saw a public movement toward the abolition of slavery.
All winter
Phelps and his troops remained on the dreary little island, unable, on account of great and small guns in the hands of the neighboring insurgents, to gain a footing on the adjacent shore, and waiting in painful anxiety, at the last, for the arrival of General.
Butler and the remainder of his command, who, at one time it was feared, had gone to the bottom of the sea. Their advent produced joy, for the troops well knew that the stagnation of the camp would soon give place to the bustle of preparations for the field.
That expectation was heightened when, a few hours after he landed,
Butler was seen in conference with
Captains Farragut and
Bailey, of the navy, who were there, in which his
Chief of Staff,
Major George C. Strong, and his
Chief Engineer,
Lieutenant Godfrey Weitzel (both graduates of
West Point) participated.
The latter had been engaged in the completion of the forts below New Orleans, and was well acquainted with all the region around the
lower Mississippi.
At that conference, a plan of operation against the forts below New
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Orleans and the city itself was adopted, and was substantially carried out a few weeks later.
While preparations for that movement were in progress, some minor expeditions were set on foot.
One against
Biloxi, a summer watering-place on the
Mississippi Main, was incited by the conduct of some Confederates who violated the sanctity of a flag of truce, under circumstances of peculiar wickedness.
A little girl, three years of age, the daughter of a physician and noted rebel of New Orleans, was cast upon the shore at
Ship Island after a storm, in which it was supposed her father had perished.
She was kindly cared for by
Mrs. Butler; and, as the child knew the name of her grandfather in New Orleans, the
General determined to send her there.
Fo<*> that purpose
Major George C. Strong,
General Butler's chief of staff, too<*> her, in a sloop, under a flag of truce, to
Biloxi, with money to pay he<*> expenses to New Orleans.
There she was left to be sent on. The sloo<*> grounded on her return in the evening, and, while in that condition, an attempt was made to capture her by men who had been witnesses of
Major Strong's holy errand.
By stratagem he kept the rebels at bay until a gun-boat came to his rescue.
On the following day, an avenging expedition, commanded by
Major Strong, proceeded to
Biloxi.
It was composed of two gun-boats (
Jackson and
New London), and a transport with the Ninth Connecticut,
Colonel Cahill, and
Everett's battery on board.
Fortunately for the Biloxians, they were quiet.
Their place was captured without opposition, and the
Mayor was compelled to make a humble apology in writing for the perfidy of his fellow-citizens in the matter of the flag of truce.
Leaving
Biloxi,
Major Strong went westward to
Pass Christian.
While his vessels lay at anchor there that night, they were attacked by three Confederate gun-boats, that stole out of
Lake Borgne.
The assailants were repulsed.
Major Strong then landed his troops, and, making a forced march, surprised and captured a Confederate camp three miles distant. The soldiers had fled.
The camp was destroyed, and the public stores in the town on the beach were seized and carried away.
Major Strong also captured Mississippi City.
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Tail-piece — ruins of the steamer Nashville. |
