TERRIBLE STORM AT SEA. 117 place of rendezvous, off Port Royal, was made known. In that fearful storm four transport vessels were lost,' but not a dozen persons perished. It was most remarkable how small was the aggregate amount of disaster suffered by so large a number of vessels in company, by a storm so severe that at times it was a hurricane. Some were compelled to part with freight, in order to insure salvation. The gunboat Mercury lost one of her two rifled guns, thrown overboard to lighten her; and the Isaac P. Smith was saved by parting with eight 8-inch guns in the same way. The side-wheel steamer Florida, carrying nine guns, was disabled, and put back in distress; and the Belvidere and two New York ferry-boats (Ethan Allen and Commodore Perry) were compelled to go back to Fortress Monroe, where they gave the first public notice of the storm and the dispersion of the fleet. The sad news disturbed the loyal people with alarm and distress until the small amount of disaster was known, while the Confederate newspapers were jubilant with the expressed idea that the elements were in league with them in destroying their enemies. "The stars in their courses fought against Sisera," one of them quoted, and added, "So the winds of heaven fight for the good cause of Southern independence. Let the Deborahs of the South sing a song of deliverance." That joyous song was very brief, for, whilst it was swelling in full chorus, a voice of wailing went over the Southern land, such as had not been heard since its wicked betrayers had raised their arms for the destruction of the Republic and the liberties of the people. a Nov. 8, 1861. On Sunday morning the storm began to abate, and the vessels of the expedition to reassemble around the flag-ship. When passing Charleston harbor, Commodore Dupont sent in Captain Lardner with the Seneca to direct the Susquehanna, on blockading duty there, to proceed to Port Royal; and on the following morning, at eight o'clock, the Wabash anchored off Port Royal Bar in company with twentyfive vessels, whilst many others were continually heaving in sight in the dim offing. The expedition was now on the threshold of a theater of great and important events, with many difficulties and dangers still before it. The awful perils of the sea had been passed, but there were others, no less fearful, to be encountered in the works of man before it. There were also grave dangers beneath the waters on which that armada floated, for the insurgents had, as we have observed,' removed lighthouses, beacons, buoys, and every help to navigation all along the Southern coasts. Yet a remedy for this evil was found in the person of Commander Charles H. Davis (the fleet captain, and chief of Dupont's staff), and Mr. Boutelle, of the Coast Survey, a man of 1 The lost vessels were the Governor, Peerless, Osceola, and Union. The Governor, Captain Litchfield, was a steam transport. It foundered on Sunday (Nov. 3), having on board a battalion of marines, numbering 350. All were saved by the frigate Sabine (see page 366, voluine I.), Captain Ringold, excepting a corporal and six men, who were drowned, or crushed between the vessels; nearly all the arms and half of the accouterments of the marines were saved, and about 10,000 rounds of cartridges. The Peerless was a small Lake Ontario steamer, loaded with beef cattle. Its officers and crew were saved by the gunboat Mohican, Captain Gordon. The propeller Osceola, Captain Morrell, also loaded with beef cattle, was wrecked on North Island, near Georgetown, S. C., and its people, 20 in number, were made prisoners. The Union, Captain Sawin, was a new and stanch steamer, and went ashore off Beaufort, N. C., with a large quantity of stores, which were lost. Its crew and passengers, and a few soldiers, in all 78 persons, were captured and taken into the interior. The stanch steamer Winfield Scott, with 500 men of the Fiftieth Pennsylvania regiment, barely escaped destruction. * See page 453, volume I. 118 CONFEDERATES AT PORT ROYAL ENTRANCE. great scientific skill, who had recently been engaged in making a minute examination of this coast. By these well-informed men the channel entrance to Port Royal Sound was found, and so well buoyed in the course of a few hours that the fleet might enter with perfect safety. At three o'clock in the afternoon Commodore Dupont was informed that all of his gun-boats and transports drawing less than eighteen feet water might go forward without danger. The movement commenced at once, and at twilight these vessels were all anchored in the roadstead of Port Royal. To oppose the further progress of the expedition, the Confederates had earthworks on each side of Port Royal entrance. The one on the northern side, at Bay Point, Phillip's Island, was named Fort Beauregard, and that on the southern side, near Hilton Head, Hilton Head Island, was called Fort Walker. The latter was a strong regular work, with twenty-four guns; and the former, though inferior to it in every respect, was formidable, being armed with twenty guns. Fort Walker was manned, when the expedition arrived, by six hundred and twenty men,' under General T. F. Drayton, a wealthy land-owner, whose mansion was not more than a mile distant from it, standing a few yards from the beach, and overlooking a beautiful expanse of land and water. He was a brother of Captain Percival Drayton, commander of the Pocahontas, of this expedition. On the beach at Camp Lookout, six miles from Fort Walker, were sixty-five men of Scriven's guerrillas, who acted as scouts and couriers for the commander. These forces were increased, before the battle commenced, to one thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven men.' The force on Bay Point was six hundred and forty men, commanded by Colonel R. G. M. Dunovant.3 Of these, one hundred and forty-nine, consisting of the Beaufort Volunteer Artillery, garrisoned Fort Beauregard, under the immediate command of Captain Stephen Elliott, Jr., of Beaufort. Dunovant's infantry force was stationed so as to protect the eastern portion of Phillip's Island, and the entrance to Trenchard's Inlet. T. F. DRAYTON. In addition to these land forces, there was a little squadron called the Musquito Fleet," under Commodore Josiah Tatnall, a brave old veteran of the National navy, who served with distinction in the war of 1812, but who had been seduced from his allegiance and his flag by the siren song of suprême State sovereignty. He had followed the politicians of his native 1 Two companies of Wagner's South Carolina First Regiment of Artillery, three companies of Hayward's Ninth South Carolina Volunteers, and four companies of Dunovant's Twelfth South Carolina Volunteers, under Major Jones. 2 The re-enforcements were composed of 450 infantry from Georgia, under command of Captain Berry; Captain Reed's battery of two 10-pounder howitzers and 50 men, and Colonel De Saussure's Fifteenth South Carolina Volunteers, numbering 650 men. See page 138, volume I. PREPARATIONS FOR BATTLE. 119 Georgia in the wicked ways of treason, and in the course of a few months he had fallen from his high position of an honored commander, kindly placed by his Government in a retreat of ease and comfort, at the naval station at Sackett's Harbor, on Lake Ontario, in New York, to be the chief manager of a little flotilla of eight small armed steamers that had been employed in navigating the shallow waters among the Coast Islands, and losing, by lack of success, even the respect of those whose bad cause he had consented to His achievements on the occasion we are now considering consisted of a harmless show of opposition to the fleet when it anchored in Port Royal roadstead; a successful retreat from danger when a few shots were hurled at his vessels; assisting in the flight of the Confederate land forces upon Hilton Head Island, and in the destruction of his own flotilla to prevent its capture by his late brothers in the National navy. serve. • Nov., 1861. On Tuesday, the 5th, Commander John Rogers, a passenger with Dupont, on his way to his own ship, the Flag, accompanied by General Wright, made a reconnoissance in force of the Confederate works in the Ottawa, supported by the Curlew, Seneca, and Smith. The forts on both shores opened upon them, as they desired they should, and an engage ment of about three-quarters of an hour ensued, by which the strength and character of those works were fairly tested. In the mean time, the great Wabash had passed safely over the bar, and every thing was now ready for an attack. It was delayed by an ugly wind off shore, and meanwhile the Confederates were re-enforced and their works were strengthened. Thursday, the 7th, dawned gloriously. The transports were all in sight, and in the light of the morning sun a grand spectacle was speedily presented. It had been ascertained by Rogers and Wright that Fort Walker, on Hilton Head, was by far the most powerful of the defenses, and upon it the bolts of the fleet were chiefly hurled. The order of battle "comprised a main squadron ranged, in a line ahead, and a flanking squadron, which was to be thrown off on the northern section of the harbor, to engage the enemy's flotilla (Tatnall's), and prevent them taking the rear ships of the main line when it turned to the southward, or cutting off a disabled vessel." That flotilla was then lying at a safe distance between Hilton Head and Paris, Islands. FORT WALKER, HILTON HEAD, The plan of attack was to pass up midway between Forts Walker and Beauregard (which were about two miles apart), receiving and returning the fire of both; and at the distance of two and a half miles northward of the latter, round by the west, and closing in with the former, attack it on 1 Report of Commodore Dupont to the Secretary of the Navy, November 11th, 1861. The main squadron consisted of the Wabash, Commander C. R. P. Rogers, leading; frigate Susquehanna, Captain J. L. Lardner; sloop Mohican, Commander L. W. Gordon; sloop Seminole, Commander J. P. Gillis; sloop Pawnee, Lieutenant commanding T. H. Stevens; gunboat Pembina, Lieutenant commanding J. P. Bankhead; sailing sloop Vandalia, towed by the Isaac P. Smith, Lieutenant commanding J. W. A. Nicholson. The flanking squadron consisted of the gunboats Bienville, Commander Charles Steedinan, leading; Seneca, Lieutenant commanding Daniel Ammen; Curlew, Lieutenant commanding P. G. Watmough; Penguin, Lieutenant commanding F. A. Budd; and Augusta, Commander E. G. Parrott, 120 BATTLE OF PORT ROYAL ENTRANCE. its weakest flank, and enfilade its two water faces.' The vessels were to pass abreast of the fort very slowly, in the order of battle, and each avoid becoming a fixed mark for the Confederate guns. On reaching the shoal ground making off from the extremity of Hilton Head, the line was to turn to the north by the east, and, passing to the northward, to engage Fort Walker with the port battery nearer than when first on the same course. These evolutions were to be repeated. The captains of the vessels were called on board the Wabash, and fully instructed in the manner of proceeding; and this plan of pursuing a series of elliptical movements was strictly followed in the engagement that ensued. • Nov. 7, 1861. So as The signal to get under way was given at eight o'clock in the morning, and the action commenced at about half-past nine, by a gun at Fort Walker, which was instantly followed by one at Fort Beauregard. The Wabash immediately responded, and was followed by the Susquehanna. After the first prescribed turn, the signal for closer action was given, at a quarter past ten, the Wabash passing Fort Walker at a distance, when abreast, of eight hundred yards. In the designated order the fight went on. At half-past eleven the flag of Fort Walker was shot away, and the heavy guns of the Wabash and Susquehanna had discomforted the enemy,' Dupont reported, and the shells from the smaller vessels were falling so thickly upon them at the enfilading point,' that their fire became sensibly weaker and weaker, until their guns ceased altogether to reply. At a quarter past one P. M., the Ottawa signalled that the fort was abandoned. PARIS TI TATNALL'S FLOTILLA ΤΟΝ GUNBOATS POPE FORT WALKER HEA BEAUFORT RI ST HELENA PLAN OF BATTLE AT PORT ROYAL ENTRANCE. side. The place had become utterly untenable, yet it was a perilous thing 1 Dupont's Report. 2 Commander John Rogers, in a letter to a friend, said: “During the action I looked carefully at the fort with a powerful spy-glass. Shell fell in it, not twenty-eight in a minute, but as fast as a horse's feet beat the ground in a gallop. The resistance was heroic; but what could flesh and blood do against such a fire? ...... "The Wabash was a destroying angel, hugging the shore, calling the soundings with cold indifference, slowing the engine so as only to give steerage-way, signalling to the vessels their various evolutions, and at the same time raining shells, as with target practice, too fast to count." RETREAT FROM BAY POINT. 121 to leave it. An open space of a mile, directly in range of the National guns, lay between the fort and a thick wood to which they must go for shelter. Across this they ran, each man for himself, divested of every thing that might make him a laggard. Each of the wounded was placed in a blanket and borne away by four men, but the dead were left. The garrison, with their commander, ran six miles across the island, to Seabrook, where they embarked for Savannah. So too at Fort Beauregard the retreat had been hasty. General Drayton had vainly endeavored to send over re-enforcements to the little garrison there, that fought bravely and well. Seeing danger Helen's, then to Port Royal PLAN OF FORT BEAUREGARD. main, with all possible haste, for the Charleston and Savannah Railway. The loss on board the fleet during the action was very slight. Dupont reported it at thirty-one, of whom eight were killed. The Confederate officers reported their loss in both forts at fifty, of whom ten were killed in Fort Walker, but none in Fort Beauregard. On the evening succeeding the battle, a procession of seventeen boats, from the Wabash, conducted the remains of the dead to their burial-place on Hilton Head, near Pope's man The fair fame of Captain (afterwards General) Elliott as a humane man and honorable soldier received an anerasable blemish by an act at this time perfectly consistent with the fiendish spirit of the conspirators, but not at all so with what common report says was his own. He left the Confederate flag flying, and its halliards so connected with a percussion-cap apparatus, that when the victors should enter the fort and attempt to pull down the ensign of treason, a mine of gunpowder beneath would be exploded. Fortunately, the arrangement was so defective that no life was lost by a partial explosion that occurred. 2 The following is a copy of Elliott's note to Dupont: "Bay Point, Nov. 7th, 1861. “We are compelled to leave two wounded men. Treat them kindly, according to the poet's saying-'Haud ignara mali miseris succurrere disco. We abandon our untenable position that we may do the cause of the Confederate States better service elsewhere. Respectfully, "STEPHEN ELLIOTT, JR." The Latin quotation in the above is a line from Virgil's Ænead, in which Dido, remembering her own misfortunes, pities the errors of Eneas. It says, distresses of others." I am indebted to the Rev. John Woart (who was chaplain at the U. S. General Hospital at Hilton Head when I visited that post in April, 1866) for a copy of Elliott's note, taken from the original by Captain Law, of the New Hampshire, then in that harbor. The humane injunction of Elliott was in a spirit directly opposed to his act in the matter of the infernal machine. "Not unacquainted with misfortune, I have learned to succor the superiors. He doubtless acted under the orders of his Captain Elliott became a brigadier-general, and commanded Fort Sumter during a greater portion of the siege of that fortress. He was blown up by the explosion of the mine at Petersburg, when one of his arms was broken. He died at Aiken, South Carolina, in March, 1866. The vessels engaged were all more or less injured by the Confederate cannon. The Wabash was struck thirty-four times. Its mainmast was injured beyond hope of repair, its rigging was cut, and it was made to leak badly. |