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next morning the ships were got safely over the bar, though some of the guns of the Vincennes had to be thrown overboard to lighten her. It was afterward found out that the machinery of the ram had been damaged by the stroke she gave the Richmond, so that she was unable to ram any of the other vessels.

CHAPTER XII.

DEEDS OF THE NAVY.

THE PORT ROYAL EXPEDITION.-HILTON HEAD. THE Mosquito Fleet.-PORT ROYAL.—BEAUFORT. FRENCH COLONY OF 1562.--CAPTURE OF THE FORTS.-COTTON-BURNING.-MASSA BOBOLITION.-BIG TYBEE ISLAND.-MARTELLO TOWER. SINKING OF THE STONE FLEET AT CHARLESTON.-MASON AND SLIDELL-THE TRENT AND THE SAN JACINTO.-LIEUTENANT FAIRFAX AND MISS SLIDELL.-HONORS TO CAPTAIN WILKES.-THE BRITISH LION GROWLS AND GETS READY FOR WAR.-I'M OFF TO CHARLESTON.-MR. LINCOLN'S STORY OF THE Two DOGS.-MR, SEWARD'S JOKE.-MASON AND SLIDELL Delivered up.

AT

T the close of October, 1861, Hampton Roads presented a gay and exciting scene. Eighteen war-ships and thirtythree transports lay off Fortress Monroe, the latter with fifteen thousand soldiers on board, ready to sail on an expedition down the Southern coast. Besides these there were twenty-five vessels laden with coal, to form a depot for supplying fuel for the steamers as soon as a landing should be made. The naval part of the expedition was under the command of Commodore S. F. Dupont, while the land force was in charge of General T. W. Sherman. Many weeks had been spent in getting together this great fleet and in making it ready, yet the secret had been so well kept that no one but the commanding officers knew where it was intended to strike, and there was scarcely a Confederate port on the Atlantic or the gulf coast where it was not expected. The expedition sailed October 29, and after a stormy passage, during which four transports were lost and several disabled, most of the vessels came to anchor off Hilton Head, on the coast of South Carolina.

Hilton Head is an island forming the south side of the entrance of Port Royal Harbor, about fifty miles below Charleston. To guard this entrance, the Confederates had built there a large earthwork called Fort Walker, and on Bay Point of Philip's Island, on the opposite side of the channel, which is about two miles wide, a smaller one named Fort Beauregard. Within the harbor were eight steamers, mostly so small that they were called the "mosquito fleet," under command of Commodore Josiah Tatnall, a former officer of the United States navy, who had served bravely in the last war with Great

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Britain. The Confederate troops in the vicinity, numbering about three thousand men, were in command of General T. F. Drayton, whose brother, Captain Percival Drayton, was the commander of the Union vessel Pocahontas in this expedition.

Port Royal is one of the finest harbors on the Atlantic coast, and is the entrance from the sea to the most fertile and most thickly settled part of South Carolina. Several rivers flow into it, and numerous natural canals, between the many low islands which lie along the coast, furnish safe inland navigation between Charleston and Savannah. On the islands grows the famous seaisland cotton, far more valuable than the upland cotton, and on the low grounds of the

mainland is raised the longgrain rice, the best in this country. On Port Royal Island, about sixteen miles from the sea, is the town of Beaufort, the county seat of the district and a favorite summer resort of rich South Carolinians. More than three hundred years ago (1562) a colony of French Protestants, driven from France by the religious persecutions, came

SAMUEL F. DUPONT.

to Port Royal, and built a fort not far from Beaufort. They were soon forced to leave by danger of starvation, but the French names of Beaufort and Port Royal still keep them in memory.

The attack on the forts began about half-past nine o'clock on the morning of the 7th of November. The steam war-vessels, led by the Wabash, Commodore Dupont's flag-ship, passed slowly between the two forts, always moving so that the enemy would have no fixed mark, and firing their broadsides as they went. When a sufficient distance within, the line turned and passed outward in front of Fort Walker. In this way the fight went on, the fleet passing round and round. A few gunboats were left within the harbor to watch Tatnall's "mosquito fleet." The garrisons in the forts fought bravely, but the fire from the

ships was too severe to be borne; shot and shell rained on them so fast that it was not safe for a man to show himself, and after about four hours the forts were abandoned and their defenders ran, every one for himself, to the woods the other side of the island, whence they escaped to Savannah. The vessels were

ENTRANCE.

forts were knocked all to pieces, and most of their guns were dismounted; the loss was about a hundred killed and wounded.

In the afternoon the troops were landed, and permanent possession taken of the The flag hoisted over Fort Walker was the first ensign of the Union raised on South Carolina soil after the act of secession. The news was rePORT ROYAL ceived in all the loyal States with great joy, for it was felt that a most important advantage had been gained. The fleet, which had before been cut off from every port below Fortress Monroe, had now a splendid harbor for refuge in case of storms, and a place well fitted for sending expeditions into the enemy's country. The Confederates felt that they had suffered a great loss, which they feared

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would soon lead to the capture of Charleston and Savannah. They knew that the coast country was now at the mercy of the Unionists, and fearful that the cotton would fall into their hands they burned great quantities of it. Most of the plantations in the neighborhood were deserted, the slaves in many cases being left to shift for themselves.

The district around Beaufort had at that time a population of about forty thousand, of whom three fourths were slaves, mostly employed on the cotton and rice plantations. As soon as the Union troops had obtained a footing, they began to flock. to the camps, men, women, and children, with their little property tied up in bundles, inquir

ing for "Massa Bobolition," whom they had heard was coming to free them. Many begged earnestly to be taken on board the ships, and they seemed to think it a great hardship when they were refused. But in time they became reconciled to their lot, and made themselves very useful, going to their work singing cheerily,

"Ole massa tink it day ob doom, And we ob jubilee.'

The taking of the forts at Port Royal led to the occupation before the end of the year of Beaufort and most of the chain of coast islands along South Carolina and Georgia. One of the most important captures was that of Big Tybee Island, at the mouth of the Savannah River, shown in the map on page 154. It was defended by a martello tower of solid masonry, built there during the last war against Great Britain,* and by

*Martello towers were first built during the reign of the Emperor Charles V., in the islands of Sardinia and Corsica, as a defence against pirates. They were generally round, and were defended by one large gun on the top, so mounted that it could be fired in all directions. The British, who had seen them in Corsica, built some of them along the coast of England when Bonaparte's invasion was expected; and the one on Tybee Island was constructed like them.