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[794]
and that one of his best officers had been out on the picket line.
As a defensive work the fort was uninjured.
Its guns were all mounted on the land face, and they had seventeen guns mounted up the beach.
“His picket line,” he said, “was crouched under the counterscarp of a ditch, which was so high that it covered them.”
General Weitzel's report to me has since received confirmation from the report of Major-General Whiting, of the rebel service,1 who reported that “during the day the enemy landed a large land force, and at half past 4 advanced a line of skirmishers to the left flank of the sand curtain.”
That is, our men advanced up and crouched under the sand bank which formed the counterscarp of the ditch, which was high enough to protect them from the fire of the fort.
There they could lie exposed only to the fire of the navy which was enfilading them,--and we lost ten of our men by that fire from our gun-boats.
General Weitzel further stated that he thought it was impossible to assault the fort successfully, and that it would be murder to make such attack upon the fort, and gave his reasons, which were entirely satisfactory to me. But being unwilling to abandon the enterprise without trying, and seeing, from the state of the weather, that it must be an assault or nothing, I said to Colonel Comstock, who was on board with me: “Jump into a boat with General Weitzel, pull ashore and examine with him and report to me if an assault is feasible; to me it does not look so, but I am unwilling to give up.”
2
They went on shore.
The surf had begun to rise so that they got very wet in landing.
At the same time Brigadier-General Graham, reporting to me, said: “General, you have either to provide for those troops to-night on shore in some way, or get them off, because it is getting so rough that we cannot land much longer.”
General Graham had been a naval officer for many years, but was then in the service of the army commanding the naval brigade.
I reflected a moment before determining the course of action.
A storm was coming on; the surf was rolling in; the barometer had fallen a half an inch.
If we got the men on shore, it might be, and probably would be, a week before we could send any provisions to them.
A. M. Thayer and Co. 1892.
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