550 BUTLER'S POWDER-BOAT. water and coal being about exhausted, the transport fleet put back to Beaufort to replenish; this, with the state of the weather, delayed the return to the place of rendezvous until the 24th. The powder-boat was exploded on the morning of the 24th, before the return of General Butler from Beaufort; but it would seem from the notice taken of it in the Southern newspapers, that the enemy were never enlight ened as to the object of the explosion until they were informed by the Northern press. "On the 25th a landing was effected without opposition, and a reconnoissance, under Brevet Brigadier General Curtis, pushed up toward the Fort. But before receiving a full report of the result of this reconnoissance, General Butler, in direct violation of the instructions given, ordered the reembarkation of the troops and the return of the expedition. "The re-embarkation was accomplished by the morning of the 27th." The powder-boat was Butler's device, he having read of the effects of the explosion of a large amount of powder in England. It was placed under the command of Commander A. C. Rhind, who, with Lieutenant S. W. Preston, Engineer A. T. E. Mullen, and Acting Master's Mate Paul Boyden, and seven men undertook the perilous task of towing it in. Having anchored it within four hundred yards of the fort, he set fire to the fuse that was to explode it, and, hastening back to the Wilderness, steamed away twelve miles to avoid the effects of the explosion. The whole fleet lay off at this safe distance. The object was to explode the magazine of the fort, and blow it and the garrison together into the air. It proved however quite a harmless affair, but the bombardment that followed was one of the most terrific ever witnessed. The fleet of Porter consisted of seventy-three vessels, carrying in all six hundred and fifty-five guns, some of them A GUNBOAT SUNK. 551 of the largest calibre. For two days it was kept up, completely silencing the fort, which Porter insists could easily have been taken by a man of any enterprise. There is one short sentence in Grant's report, which for keen sarcasm, and quiet humor cannot be surpassed. In speaking of his ignorance that Butler was to command the expedition he says, "I had rather formed the idea that General Butler was actuated by a desire to witness the effect of the explosion of the powder-boat." This ended the extraordinary military career of General Butler, for soon after he was superseded by Ord. As a co-operative movement in this expedition, General Palmer sent off a force from Plymouth, which proceeded up the Roanoke River beyond Jamestown, but not being sustained by the gunboats that were kept back by the torpedoes in the river, it effected nothing of importance. In the fore part of the month the gunboat Otsego was sunk in the river by one of these torpedoes. 65 CHAPTER XXXIX. JANUARY, 1865. EAST GUERRILLAS-PEACE RUMORS-RELIEF FOR THE DESTITUTE IN SAVANNAH- OF THE SOUTH-ANDERSONVILLE PRISON-CAPTAIN WIRZ, THE COMMAN- THE beginning of the year 1865 exhibited no active military movements in any part of the country. Guerrillas still swarmed in Kentucky, and other border Statesthe steamer Venango was burned by them, on the Mississippi, and the more desperate the cause of the Confederacy became, the more vindictive and ferocious seemed their conduct. Peace rumors were afloat, which acquired importance from the repeated visits of Francis P. Blair, Senior, to Richmond. The destitution of the people of Savannah, called forth the sympathies of the citizens of New York, and provisions and supplies, of various kinds, were furnished for their relief. But under all this apparent quietness, the most important preparations were going on. Not only was Sherman getting ready for his northern march, but Grant, indignant at the failure of the expedition against Fort Fisher, was quietly A DOUBTFUL ENTERPRISE. 553 preparing for a second and more serious attempt to capture it. His movements were all so secretly made, that the public journals got no hint of his intentions until his work was accomplished. Still, we must confess that we cannot see the wisdom of this second expedition. When Sherman reached Savannah, Grant directed him to place his army on transports and join him at City Point, in order to aid him in his projected operations against Richmond. But after the defeat of Hood by Thomas, he changed his plans, and wrote to Sherman, asking him what, under the circumstances, he thought it best to do. The latter replied, that he would, at once, come to him by sea if he desired, but that he had expected to march to Columbia, South Carolina, and thence to Raleigh, where he would report to him. Grant says: "The confidence he manifested in this letter of being able to march up and join me, pleased me, and, without waiting for a reply to my letter of the 18th, I directed him, on the 28th of December, to make preparations to start, as he proposed, without delay, to break up the railroads in North and South Carolina, and join the armies operating against Richmond as soon as he could." Now, this order was sent the day after the re-embarkation of the troops that, under the first expedition, were to assault Fort Fisher. Hence, Grant was perfectly aware of Sherman's plan to march north to Raleigh, and was so confident of its practicability that he approved of it. But he also knew that if Sherman succeeded in carrying out that plan, Fort Fisher and Wilmington would fall of themselves. No one knew better than he, that the enemy could no more hold Wilmington, with Sherman marching on Raleigh or Goldsboro', than he could Charleston, with him marching on Columbia. Before he reached even Fayetteville, these places would 554 TERRY'S EXPEDITION. be evacuated, or the garrisons hopelessly cut off; hence, to our apprehension, it would have been just as wise to have sacrificed the lives of our soldiers in an attack on Charleston, at this time, as on Wilmington. A glance at the map will make this plain, and any one will see that nothing between Sherman's line of march and the sea could be held by the rebels. The original plan of attempting to capture Fort Fisher was not Grant's, but it having failed, he determined that it should be carried out. Taking the same troops that Butler had, with the addition of only a small brigade numbering about fifteen hundred men, he placed them under General Terry, also a civilian Commander, with orders similar to those which he had given to the former, or rather to Weitzel. In neither case did he direct that an assault on the fort should be made-he left this entirely "to the discretion of the commanding officer." The expedition sailed from Fortress Monroe on the 6th of January, "arriving on the rendezvous off Beaufort on the 8th, where, owing to the difficulties of the weather, it lay until the morning of the 12th, when it got under way, and reached its destination that evening." The next morning, the disembarkation of the troops commenced, and by three o'clock was completed without loss. The next day a reconnoissance was made to within five hundred yards of the fort, "and a small advance work taken possession of, and turned into a defensive line against any attempt that might be made from the fort." The third day, Sunday, was fixed upon for the assault, but, in the meantime, the fleet had kept up a terrible fire upon the fort. It attacked in three columns. The first, led by the Brooklyn, numbered one hundred and sixteen guns; the second, by the Minnesota, one hundred and seventy-six guns; while the third, composed of gunboats, numbered |