316

EXPEDITION AGAINST FORT PULASKI.

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 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.' 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 purJan., 1862. pose of finding some channel by which gun-boats might get in the rear of Fort Pulaski. Lieutenant J. II. 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.

1 See page 125.

He

OBSTRUCTIONS IN SAVANNAH RIVER.

317

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,' and the gun-boats were commanded by Rogers. Another mixed force, under General H. G. Wright and Fleet

captain 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.

others escaped.

a Jan. 29, 1862.

Tatnall was driven back with two of his vessels, but the

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 new earthworks was Fort Lee, built under the direction of Robert E. Lee, after his recall from Western Virginia, in the autumn of 1861.

CHEVAUX-DE-FRISE.

Soon after the heavy reconnoissance 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, and with a little battery on Bird Island, opposite

1 These troops consisted of the Forty-eighth New York; two compantes of New York volunteer engineers, end two companies of Rhode Island volunteer artillery with twenty heavy guns.

* Wright's troops consisted of the Fourth New Hampshire, Colonel Whipple; Sixth Connecticut, Colonel Chatfield; and Ninety-seventh Pennsylvania, Colonel Guess.

This is from a sketch made by the author from the deck of a steam-tug, just at sunset in April, 1866. These were only the remains of the formidable obstructions, those from the main channel having been removed. The scene is near Fort Jackson. On the right are seen earth works on a small island, and on the left the shore of the main land, while in the distance is the City of Savannah.

A causeway was built across the island, chiefly by the Forty-eighth New York, over which heavy mortars

318

BOMBARDMENT OF FORT PULASKI.

(Battery Hamilton), effectually closed the Savannah River in the rear of Fort Pulaski. That fortress, as we have already observed,' 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

QUINCY A. GILLMORE.

readiness to open fire on the fort. On that day the commanding General

six guns, were in

were dragged. The islands near the mouth of the Savannah are formed of mud, of jelly consistency, from four to twelve feet in depth, and resting on half liquid clay. The surface is covered with a light turf of matted grassroots. Over this the causeway was built, of poles covered with loose planks; and upon this road mortars weighing more than eight tons were dragged, and placed in battery on heavy plank platforms. This labor was all performed at night.

1 See page 179, volume I.

2 "No one," said Gillmore in his report, "can form any but a faint conception of the Herculean labor by which mortars of eight and a half tons weight, and columbiads but a trifle lighter, were moved in the dead of night over a narrow causeway bordered by swamps on each side, and liable at any moment to be overturned, and buried in the mud beyond reach."

These were batteries Stanton and Grant, three 10-inch mortars each; Lyon and Lincoln, three columbiads each; Burnside, one heavy mortar; Sherman, three heavy mortars; Halleck, two heavy mortars; Scott, four columbiads; Sigel, five 30-pounder Parrott, and one 48-pounder James; McClellan, two 84-pounders and two 64-pounders James; Totten, four 10-inch siege mortars. Totten and McClellan were only 1,650 yards from the fort; Stanton was 8,400 yards distant. Each battery had a service magazine for two days' supply of ammunition, and a depot powder magazine of 3,000 barrels capacity was constructed near the Martello tower, printed on page 125, which was the landing-place for all supplies on Tybee.

CAPTURE OF FORT PULASKI.

319

issued minute orders for the working of the batteries, which was to commence at daybreak the next morning.'

.March 31, 1862.

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 pierc

BREACH IN FORT PULASKI.2

April 11.

ing the magazine and exposing it to explosion. 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

1 See the report of General Gillmore, dated April 30, 1862.

2 This is a view of the angle of the fort where the great breach was made. It was copied by permission, from a drawing that accompanied General Gillmore's report, published by D. Vanostrand, New York. It was sketched on the morning after the battle. When the writer visited Fort Pulaski, in April, 1866, this breach was repaired, but the casemates within it were still in ruins.

3 Gillmore's breaching batteries had been ordered to assail the eastern half of the pancoupe, covering the south and southeast faces, so as to take in reverse, through the opening formed by them, the powder magazine. These batteries were established at the mean distance of 1,700 yards from the scarp walls of the fort.

320

1862.

EXPEDITION AGAINST FORT CLINCH.

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. 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.

b1862. 4

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 transportsbearing 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, 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 gun-boats, 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

1862.

1 Report of General Hunter, April 18; of General Benham, April 12, and of General Gillmore, April 30,

2 So named in honor of Brigadier-General Clinch, who was active in the war of 1812. He was the father-inlaw of General Robert Anderson.