Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 4.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

---

[352] number of small posts were evacuated. The landing on Morris Island, the first step in that singular siege, was difficult and perilous. The landing-point was limited to the southern extremity of the island: if the enemy should finish the fortifications which he had commenced, and should place in them a good garrison, the disembarkation would become impossible. Hence it was necessary to conceal with great care all the preparations. Folly Island, bounded on the north-east by the pass of Lighthouse Inlet and on the south-west by that of Stono Inlet, is separated from the mainland by a winding arm of the sea called Folly River: the island is timbered, except in its north-east portion, which, being bare and very narrow, terminates in sandhills covered with brushwood and palmettoes. Vogdes' brigade, which occupied the island, had furrowed it with roads. This force was charged with the task of constructing ten batteries on the sandhills in the neighborhood of Lighthouse Inlet, intended to cover the projected debarkation on the opposite extremity of Morris Island. During three weeks, beginning on the 17th of June, this work was prosecuted in the night, in the greatest silence, and with all requisite precautions not to arouse the attention of the enemy. During these short summer nights the sandhills were excavated so as to shelter the cannon; the wooden platforms, the guncarriages, and the ammunition, landed in Stono Inlet, were brought to the batteries across the island. The sandhills and the brushwood masked by day the work thus accomplished; but, in order not to betray it, it was necessary to throw dry sand upon that which had been freshly turned up, and the color of which was altered by the dampness. When it was necessary to cut through a tree, instead of felling it they set it up as near as possible to the spot where it formerly stood. The better to lull the enemy, the Federals allowed him to break up under their eyes, a few hundred yards from their batteries, the hulk of a blockade-runner, the Ruby, which had grounded a short time before at the entrance of Lighthouse Inlet. In fine, they affected to labor actively at the works constructed on the south end of Folly Island. Beauregard suspected, it is true, that his adversary meditated a dash on Morris Island. As early as the 25th of June he had given warning of it to his government that was asking him for