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armed and fully garrisoned by veterans, under
Colonel Lawrence M. Keitt.
This carried, Battery Gregg, on
Cummings's Point, must fall as a consequence, when the
National guns might be brought to bear heavily on
Fort Sumter, and possibly hurl their shot and shell into the city of
Charleston.
To this work
Gillmore now addressed himself.
The first movement of the new commander was to cause the erection of strong batteries on the northern end of
Folly Island, to cover the passage of his troops over Light-House inlet.
These, were begun under the direction of
General Vogdes, on the 15th of June,
and were prosecuted with vigor under a heavy fire, frequently, from the
Confederate guns on
Morris Island.
The
Nationals were completely masked by the thick pine forest, and their foe could only guess their position and what they were about, for they were as silent as mutes.
Their works were completed at the beginning of July, and were superior of their kind.
They were made of sand and marsh sod. The batteries were embrasured and revetted, with magazines and bomb and splinter-proofs; and at the end of twenty days after the works were begun,
Gillmore had forty-eight heavy guns in position within range of the
Confederate pickets, with two hundred rounds of ammunition for each.
When all was in
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Bomb and splinter-proof.1 |
readiness,
Gillmore proceeded to distract the attention of the
Confederates, and mask his real design, by sending
General A. H. Terry, with nearly four thousand troops, up the
Stono River, to make a demonstration against
James's Island, while
Colonel Higginson, with some negro troops, went up the
Edisto to cut the Charleston and Savannah railway, so as to prevent troops from being sent from the latter to the former place.
Higgins went in the gun-boat
John Adams, with two transports, but in his attempt
to reach the railway he was repulsed, and returned with two hundred “contrabands,”
2 who gladly followed him.
Terry's movement was successful, for it drew the attention of the
Confederates to
James's Island.
and caused them to send re-enforcements thither from
Morris Island.
Thirty hours after
Terry's departure,
General George C. Strong silently
